ClientEarth at COP

Using the law to turn biodiversity commitments into action

The Conference of the Parties (COP) to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity takes place every two years. This year's COP17, hosted in the Armenian capital of Yerevan, comes less than four years out from the critical 2030 deadline for achieving the world's 30x30 biodiversity goals.

What is 30x30?

30 by 30 is one of the flagship targets of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF), adopted by governments at COP15 in 2022. The framework sets a global strategy for conserving and sustainably drawing on the world’s biological diversity, to restore habitats, reduce pollution, and protect wildlife.

A key commitment is to designate 30% of the world's land and waters as protected areas by 2030.

We’ve joined over 100 other organisations and experts in signing a global call on governments to scale up and strengthen ocean protection and conservation to help reach the 30x30 target.

But the agreements made at previous COPs are only meaningful if they are enacted and enforced.

The law is one of the most powerful tools we have to confront the climate crisis to hold polluters accountable, defend communities, and protect ecosystems. We need to see the framework translated into binding national laws to ensure that countries’ international commitments are fulfilled.

That's why we're attending COP17. As countries review progress toward KMGBF, we want to show how legal action and policy reform can bridge the gap between ambition and implementation.

Nature protected through the law

Across the world, communities are already using the law to advance biodiversity protection. ClientEarth is using the law to implement the 30x30 target, fight pollution, and ensure that protected nature is protected in practice. Ahead of COP17, we're sharing examples of how legal tools are helping to turn nature commitments into action, and lessons that others can adapt and replicate in their own work.

Working with forest communities in Africa

West and Central Africa are home to some of the world's richest forest ecosystems. We work with local partners and community groups across countries including Ghana, Gabon and the Republic of Congo to strengthen forest governance, support community-led conservation and improve laws governing forests and land use. We work particularly with Indigenous Peoples and local communities to ensure they are at the heart of decisions about how forests are managed and protected.

Learn about the Gabon forest communities using the law to protect their land.

Ensuring real marine protection in Europe

As part of our work to ensure enforcement of marine laws across Europe, we recently achieved a landmark win for marine protection in the Netherlands. In May 2026, the District Court of The Hague ruled against any further destructive bottom trawling in protected areas. Dutch bottom trawlers are no longer allowed to fish without a permit and environmental assessment in the Dutch Dogger Bank protected area, the largest in the Netherlands, also known as ‘the nursery of the North Sea’.

This is the first known ruling in Europe where a court has confirmed that governments have a responsibility to properly regulate the impact of bottom trawling on marine protected areas. While this decision is currently being appealed by the Dutch government, it sets an enormously important precedent that will help set the direction of travel across Europe when it comes to management of marine protected areas. Only a few weeks later, in France, the Administrative Court of Rouen confirmed insufficient protection for the Natura 2000 site of Bancs des Flandres.

Learn more about our landmark win for marine protection in the Netherlands.

Protecting migratory birds in China

Since 2023, we’ve been working with prosecutors, conservation partners and government institutions in China to strengthen legal responses to the use of mist nets, which kill hundreds of thousands of migratory birds a year. A key challenge is that mist nets are often used to protect aquaculture and agriculture crops from being eaten by birds. Nets with very fine mesh easily kill birds, as they cannot see the mesh. While the majority of bird deaths, in this case, could be prevented by regulating the use of a thicker, more visible mesh, there has historically been no clear standard for a legal, safe-to-us net.

We addressed this issue at a 2023 event on wetlands protection, where we spoke with China's public-interest prosecutors to identify practical legal solutions. Following our discussions, authorities launched law enforcement actions across multiple provinces and worked with online marketplaces to ban the sale of mist nets.

After this initial progress, China’s prosecutors continued to follow up on actions across China to tackle the mist nets. Efforts have included encouraging stronger regulatory oversight, exploring the use of satellite technology to monitor mist nets, supporting development of safter bird deterrents for farmers and fishers, and exploring compensation mechanisms for crop losses caused by migratory birds. In March 2025, a deputy to China's National People’s Congress submitted a proposal to regulate the use of mist nets in aquaculture, including establishing national standards for mist nets.

This work demonstrates how legal action can address the root causes of biodiversity loss, in bringing together law enforcement, regulatory reform and stakeholder engagement to deliver practical biodiversity conservation outcomes.

Defending fundamental human rights in Spain

For years, residents of As Conchas in Galicia endured severe water pollution linked to intensive livestock farming. Nitrate pollution and recurring toxic cyanobacterial blooms degraded water quality, harmed freshwater biodiversity and ecosystem health, and contaminated local water sources, affecting both nature and residents’ quality of life. Supported by ClientEarth, Friends of the Earth Spain and the Spanish Federation of Consumers and Users, the community challenged the authorities’ failure to enforce existing environmental laws and protect residents’ rights to health, a healthy environment, access to information and effective judicial protection.

In July 2025, the High Court of Justice of Galicia ruled in favour of the residents, finding that public authorities had failed to take adequate action to address the pollution. The judgment became final in February 2026 after Spain’s Supreme Court dismissed appeals against the ruling.

However, despite the court victory, pollution problems persisted and key restoration measures had not been implemented. In September 2026, residents returned to court seeking compulsory enforcement of judgment and the measures ordered to restore the affected ecosystem and protect local communities.

Learn more about our landmark win in Spain.

Learn more about our impact and discover recommendations for replicating our work.

COP17 briefing: Legal wins for people and nature

Meet the team attending COP17

We are at COP17 to meet decision-makers, experts and civil society organisations and help move the conversation from commitment to implementation across the world.