New paper highlights need to measure progress towards Nature Positive

An important paper, Nature Positive: halting and reversing biodiversity loss toward restoring Earth system stability (Locke H, Rockström J, Plowright RK, Laffoley D, Little Bear L, Peres CA, Wei F, Karanth KK, Zemke L, Seetal R and Hauer FR, 2026, Front Sci 4:1609998), has been published by the journal Frontiers in Science. 

Locke et al’s article presents compelling, unequivocal evidence that conserving and restoring biodiversity is not optional, but essential to sustaining human wellbeing, economic prosperity and social equity. It also emphasizes the need to measure progress towards the Nature Positive goal and the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. 

In a response to Harvey Locke’s article, Marco Lambertini, Convener of the Nature Positive Initiative, has shared his perspective on the need for global tools to drive the transition to a nature positive future, in the commentary article Sustainability policies’ secret sauce: rigorous but practical measurements, also published on 9 April by Frontiers.

“Building a nature-positive future is about both ambition and implementation – and how we measure progress. Despite growing commitments, many companies still struggle to track their real impact on biodiversity and develop adequate nature positive strategies. Scientific guidance and policy instruments on sustainability have too often failed to strike the right balance between rigour and practical usability. The result has been slow adoption and uneven implementation by governments and in the private sector,” said Lambertini. 

Two key tools to address the need for a standardized framework to measure biodiversity are now in the pipeline:

• The State of Nature Metrics: a framework of credible, practical, globally aligned metrics for organizations to measure the state of nature and help secure nature-positive outcomes; currently being finalized following an extensive set of consultations, then being made available for use through embedding in various frameworks and standards.
• The Nature Measurement Protocol: decision-useful nature-related data collection and measurement methodologies, for use in particular by the private sector and financial institutions; currently in development.

“The need is clear: with a common, science-based but also practical protocol of standardized and universal metrics and methodologies, we can catalyze and embrace the transition we so urgently need,” said Lambertini.