Building Australia’s National Reserve System for 30 × 30: A Critique of New Biodiversity Datasets and Prioritization Frameworks, and Suggested Improvements to Achieve Effective Outcomes

In 2022, Australia became a signatory to the Convention on Biological Diversity’s Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, which included commitments to contribute to restoration of 30% of all degraded ecosystems (Target 2) and the achievement of at least 30% protection and conservation of land and seas by 2030 (Target 3). As part of its response towards delivering on Target 3, the Australian Government released its ‘National Roadmap for Protecting and Conserving 30% of Australia’s Land by 2030’ in 2024, which has underpinned subsequent policy and program development. As part of these initiatives, the Australian Government published a technical report in early 2026 prepared by Environment Information Australia to identify priority locations for the protection and conservation of biodiversity, including opportunities to enhance the representativeness of Australia’s protected areas. Here, we review the policy context for these prioritizations and assess how well the spatial prioritization framework, objectives, data, and outputs respond to these policy needs. We outline several fundamental concerns with the approach, including that the prioritization framework was not designed around measurable planning objectives; instead, “components” to be scored are identified, but no targets or outcomes are set against which the maps could be tested; and that it deviates from the science-based approach which has been used to identify priorities for addition to the National Reserve System since the mid-1990s. We also raise concerns about the data used within the spatial prioritization, and the implications for achieving 30 × 30 outcomes in the most effective way possible if the prioritization approach from this technical assessment continues to be applied in its current form. Given that the assessment is informing decisions about where to invest in ecosystem protection, enhancement and restoration, we conclude with some recommendations to help guide a revised version of the technical assessment and associated mapping outputs as soon as possible.