Context
The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework calls for effective conservation of terrestrial, inland-water, coastal and marine areas. Inland waters need a clear, spatially consistent basis for measuring progress.
Confluvio’s role
Confluvio developed and tested an improved method for measuring progress towards the 30x30 target for inland waters, going beyond a simple overlay of protected areas and inland water. The work was carried out for The Nature Conservancy in 2023 at global and country scale.
Methods and data
The project reviewed global inland-water datasets and classified inland waters for representation in protected and conserved areas, using Protected Planet’s WDPA and WD-OECM. It also produced an initial Global Lakes and Wetlands Database version 2 (GLWD v2).
Results
The work delivered an assessment of the best available global inland-water datasets, with specifications and rationale; recommendations for classifying inland waters for 30x30 reporting; and an initial GLWD v2 with 63 grids at 15 arc-seconds, per-class and combined wetland extent and a dominant-class layer. It was published as Lehner et al. (2025), Earth System Science Data.