This month, Nature Reviews Biodiversity marks its first anniversary. Our editorial team has spent the past year introducing our journal to the community, by way of the articles that we publish and through personal interactions at conferences and institution visits. We have been thrilled by the positive reception of the journal; nothing makes us happier than to hear that readers find our articles engaging, informative and attractive, and that authors enjoy the hands-on editing support that we provide.

We take a broad view of ‘biodiversity’ and aim to publish a wide spectrum of content across ecology, evolution and conservation (including both basic and applied topics). Although it is difficult to show range within the small volume we publish, and not every researcher working in this field will have seen something in their area yet, content in our first volume covers palaeontology, palaeoecology, macro-evolution and phylogenetics, biogeography, invasive species, restoration and conservation.

While continuing to publish content on fundamental ecology and evolution topics, we also commission articles that tie in directly to the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF). We strive to help the scientific community to make progress on addressing the biodiversity crisis (as stated in our first editorial). To showcase our contributions to this scholarship in the past year, we have initiated a Collection of our content that relates to the KMGBF targets. For example, Kowarik et al. identify challenges and opportunities for developing biodiverse cities (Target 12), Buenafe et al. assess climate-smart approaches to identifying protected areas (Target 8), and Brancalion et al. outline why and how biodiversity outcomes should be prioritized in forest restoration (Target 2). Articles have also focused on the sharing of knowledge and benefits, which are essential to effective, equitable conservation. Van Oosterhout et al. explore the role and application of genome editing technologies in biodiversity conservation (Target 21), and Altermatt et al. examine how aquatic environmental DNA can help to achieve the KMGBF targets (Target 13). We hope that the content in this collection stimulates new research directions, summarizes evidence for effective conservation actions and illuminates pathways toward solutions. The Collection will be updated on an ongoing basis — we recommend bookmarking it to stay up to date on our content in these areas!

“We hope that the content in this collection stimulates new research directions, summarizes evidence for effective conservation actions and illuminates pathways toward solutions”

Of course, global policies other than the KMGBF have important bearing on biodiversity. In this issue, a Comment from He et al. discusses how conservation of freshwater fishes under the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals can be improved, and a World View by Lubchenco discusses the importance of the new High Seas Treaty and how it is poised to improve protection for marine biodiversity outside of countries’ jurisdictions.

Over this year, we have used our ‘front half’ (our shorter article types rather than Reviews and Perspectives) to highlight community voices. We introduced Journal Clubs, short articles in which an early career researcher discusses an article that was influential to them and their research area. We warmly invite more submissions of this article type, particularly from women — who, so far, have been less likely to pitch their ideas to us.

None of these successes this year would have been possible without our passionate authors and constructive peer reviewers, nor without the art, editorial and publishing teams that support content behind the scenes. Bringing the journal to life this year has been an exciting challenge, and we are looking forward to year two.