The TSC Mechanism has a clear political mandate for gender-responsive implementation but they need technical support and tools to do it mandate

a lesson learned is that without gender-disaggregated data and the meaningful participation of women in generating it, biodiversity monitoring will keep missing the people whose knowledge and labor sustain conservation on the ground and the policies built on that incomplete picture will remain less robust than they need to be

it has been more difficult to get funds to implement actions related to gender equality due to the actual funding and political environment

the lesson learned is that in order to ensure IUCN’s contribution to the implementation of the CBD Gender Plan of Action (2022–2030) is done by its programmatic and initiatives, a policy with mandate and alignment to the GPA has to be in place

- Drop in finance (especially ODA)
- Some countries refusing to move forward on gender issues in multilateral fora, and even coming back on agreed language.

There are significant information gaps regarding the structure and functioning of high-Andean wetlands, the benefits they provide, and the scope of the impacts that their degradation could generate — limiting the ability of relevant actors to recognize and prioritize their protection.

Regulatory gaps / environmental assessment shortcomings: Persistent regulatory gaps and shortcomings in environmental assessment processes, particularly regarding cumulative impacts and impacts at the watershed (basin) scale, limit the ability to adequately evaluate and prevent the effects of extractive projects on high-Andean wetlands.

Difficulties linked to the violation of the right to participation, particularly of Indigenous communities inhabiting high-Andean wetlands, in decision-making processes. This includes the inadequate application of consultation mechanisms and of free, prior and informed consent (FPIC).

Limited resources are available for the protection and monitoring of high-Andean wetland ecosystems, constraining the ability to track their condition and respond to emerging threats.

Growing extractive pressure on territories: A context of growing pressure on high-Andean territories due to the expansion of projects linked to minerals considered strategic for the energy transition — particularly lithium mining in the Andean region — is intensifying threats to these ecosystems and the communities that depend on them.

Global participation spans widely separated time zones and relies largely on voluntary availability, which can affect attendance and the depth of engagement. Advance circulation of focused questions, asynchronous drafting in shared documents, intersessional work and small task-specific groups help sustain substantive participation between meetings.

Translating science into law: the group is distinguishing core definitions and principles from indicators, methodologies and thresholds that may be better developed in later provisions, annexes or guidance and operationalising a concept rooted in soil science and policy.

Soil-governance specific challenge: soil governance is fragmented across scales and within legql qnd policy frameworks, avoiding duplication requires an exhaustive comparison with the relevant international and regional instruments to identify gaps and complementarity.

Given the reliance on voluntary expert time, prioritization, focused intersessional assignments, and staged consultations are required. While these measures are essential, they often lead to slower progress toward achieving our objectives and an uneven distribution of workload, with a small core of contributors carrying a disproportionate share of drafting and review.

The absence of budget for in-person meetings, limiting the depth of deliberation achievable in virtual formats.

Consensus-based decision-making safeguards legitimacy and expert buy-in but extends timelines when views diverge. This is particularly pronounced at the science-policy-law interface. Structured options, recorded areas of convergence and clearly assigned follow-up work help maintain progress without prematurely closing important questions.