developer.cbd.int
Open biodiversity data

The developer hub for CBD APIs

Documentation and reference material for building on the Convention's data — starting with the Clearing-House API across CHM, ABSCH, BCH and ORT.

Clearing-House docs Quickstart
GET api.cbd.int/api/v2013/index
shell 
# Search published Clearing-House records
curl -G "https://api.cbd.int/api/v2013/index" \
  --data-urlencode "q=schema_s:resource" \
  -H "Accept: application/json"

# → 200 OK · JSON list of matching records

One API, four platforms

The Clearing-House API serves records from each of the Convention's information-sharing platforms through a common schema model.

CHM Clearing-House Mechanism Information-sharing records under the Convention — national targets, NBSAPs, contacts and resources. View reference ABSCH Access & Benefit-Sharing Clearing-House Permits, checkpoints and national records under the Nagoya Protocol. View reference BCH Biosafety Clearing-House Decisions, risk assessments and LMO registries under the Cartagena Protocol. View reference ORT Online Reporting Tool Structured national report data submitted by Parties through the reporting tool. View reference
More CBD APIs — meetings, notifications, documents — coming soon
Getting started

Three steps to your first record

Plain HTTPS and JSON — usable from any language, no SDK needed.

Browse the record schemas
Every record in the Clearing-House follows a published schema. Start with the schema reference to see what's available across CHM, ABSCH, BCH and ORT.
Make your first request
Published records are readable without an API key. Query the search index with a simple GET request and filter by schema, government or realm.
Authenticate for more
Draft records and national workflows require a CBD account. The docs cover tokens, roles and the publishing lifecycle.
shell 
# Search published Clearing-House records
curl -G "https://api.cbd.int/api/v2013/index" \
  --data-urlencode "q=schema_s:resource" \
  -H "Accept: application/json"

# → 200 OK · JSON list of matching records
Support & contact
Write to the Secretariat Questions about API access, data coverage or national records — the team replies within a few business days. secretariat@cbd.int SCBD on GitHub Open-source tooling and issue trackers for the Clearing-House platforms. github.com/scbd Service desk Account problems, publishing workflows and focal-point support for Parties. MEA-CBD-it@un.org
API status
Checking services…

Checks run in your browser using fetch(..., {mode:"no-cors"}) with a 5s timeout, so they only detect whether a connection could be established — not HTTP status codes.