An operational methodology to identify Critical Ecosystem Areas to help nations achieve the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework

The Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) will become the most important multilateral agreement to guide biodiversity conservation actions globally over the coming decades. An ecosystem goal and various targets for maintaining integrity, restoring degraded ecosystems, and achieving representation in conservation areas feature throughout the GBF. Here, we provide an operational framework that combines disparate information on ecosystem type, extent, integrity, protection levels, and risk of collapse to support identifying irreplaceable “Critical Ecosystem Areas” (CEAs), to help implement these ecosystem targets. The framework classifies each component ecosystem based on its integrity, importance in ensuring no ecosystem collapse, and relative value in achieving ecosystem-specific representation targets. These CEAs are immediate conservation opportunities given that they achieve multiple ecosystem GBF goals and targets, and we showcase its application using Myanmar's forested ecosystems as a case study.