Ensuring sustainability and equity within the global wild meat sector is key to achieving the Kunming‐Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework targets

Governments around the world have committed to ensuring that biodiversity is sustainably used and managed as part of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KM-GBF) adopted to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2050. However, achieving sustainable wildlife management in circumstances when wild animals are consumed as food is an intractable challenge that straddles conservation, health, livelihoods, culture, governance and equity.

This special feature brings together studies from across the world that aim to progress our understanding of the contemporary prevalence and drivers of the use of wild animal meat, and potential pathways to sustainability. This editorial synthesises the insights from these studies as to how the KM-GBF targets on sustainable use of wildlife might be achieved.

Future research efforts must inform management practices, including the monitoring and evaluation of wildlife use and management effectiveness, advancing just interventions that improve sustainability, creating effective mechanisms to ensure equitable access and benefit sharing, and creating the enabling environment for inclusive participation in decision-making, management and governance.