National reporting and the next Global Biodiversity Outlook

The Conference of the Parties

1. Recognizes the need to align the national reporting process with the framework for evaluating implementation of the Convention and progress towards the 2010 target;

2. Underscores the need to reduce overall reporting burdens on Parties, taking into account reporting obligations under other Conventions, and other relevant processes;

3. Decides that the fourth and subsequent national reports should be outcome‑oriented and focus on the national status and trends of biodiversity, national actions and outcomes with respect to the achievement of the 2010 target and the goals of the Strategic Plan of the Convention, and progress in implementation of national biodiversity strategies and action plans;

4. Decides that Parties shall submit their fourth national reports by 30 March 2009;

5. Invites Parties that anticipate that they may encounter difficulty in completing their reports according to the date set by the Conference of the Parties to advise the Secretariat in advance;

6. Recommends that regional and/or subregional workshops could facilitate the preparation and where necessary the updating of national biodiversity strategies and action plans and national reports, and the exchange of experiences on implementation of national biodiversity strategies and action plans and on assessment of obstacles for the implementation of the Convention to achieve the objectives of paragraph 3 above ;

7. Invites the Global Environment Facility and other bilateral and multilateral financial instruments as appropriate, to provide financial support to eligible Parties for the preparation of their fourth national reports, in a timely fashion and preferably no later than 1 January 2007;

8. Further invites the Global Environment Facility to explore and establish easier and expeditious mechanisms for the provision of funds to eligible countries for preparing their future national reports;

9. Invites Parties, on a voluntary basis, to provide information, additional to that submitted in national reports, which could be useful for the in-depth review of the thematic programmes foreseen in the multi-year programme of work of the Conference of the Parties up to 2010, according to the schedule in the annex to the present decision;

10. Decides to establish an on-line facility to support national reporting, through the clearing-house mechanism, for use by Parties on a voluntary basis as a planning tool;

11. Decides that the third edition of the Global Biodiversity Outlook shall be prepared for publication at the tenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties in 2010;

12. Agrees to base its review of the implementation of the Convention at its tenth meeting primarily on the basis of the third and fourth national reports as well as on the analysis in the third edition of the Global Biodiversity Outlook and other relevant reports;

13. Welcomes the initiative of the five biodiversity-related conventions, through the Liaison Group of the Biodiversity-related Conventions, to:

(a) Keep each other informed of proposed developments in national reporting under each of the conventions, with a view to aligning approaches where possible;

(b) Develop a Web portal with links to reports and guidelines of each of the conventions, similar to the Collaborative Portal on Forests;

(c) Develop common reporting modules for specific themes, where possible, and appropriate;

14. Takes note of the recommendations from the Workshop Towards the Harmonization of National Reporting to Biodiversity-related Treaties, organized by the World Conservation Monitoring Centre of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP-WCMC) and held in September 2004 (UNEP/CBD/WG‑RI/1/INF/6), and encourages the Liaison Group of the Biodiversity-related Conventions, in liaison with UNEP-WCMC and the Collaborative Partnership on Forests, to give further consideration to issues of harmonization of reporting among the biodiversity-related conventions, and to develop proposals thereon;

15. Encourages Parties to harmonize the gathering and management of data for the biodiversity-related conventions at the national level, where appropriate;

16. Urges Parties that have not submitted their third national report to do so expeditiously;

17. Welcomes the draft guidelines for the fourth national report (UNEP/CBD/COP/8/24, annex) as a significant improvement over the guidelines for the third national report and requests the Executive Secretary to further improve the guidelines in line with the guidance provided by the Ad Hoc Open-ended Working Group on Review of Implementation of the Convention in annex II to its recommendation I/9, taking into account also the views expressed at the eighth meeting of the Conference of the Parties and written submissions from Parties received by the end of June 2006, and to make the finalized guidelines available to Parties by the end of July 2006;

18. Further requests the Executive Secretary to:

(a) Review the process, outcome and impact of the second edition of the Global Biodiversity Outlook as well as lessons learned from its preparation, and develop proposals on the scope and format of the third edition of the Global Biodiversity Outlook and the organization of preparatory work, by making appropriate use of the third and fourth national reports, global indicators for the 2010 target and other relevant global and regional assessment initiatives, for the consideration of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice and/or the Working Group on Review of Implementation, as appropriate, prior to the ninth meeting of the Conference of the Parties;

(b) Prepare an updated synthesis of information contained in the third national reports, and a strategic analysis that identifies barriers to implementation and options for overcoming those barriers, and make these available through the clearing-house mechanism;

(c) Make available a sample fourth national report for use by Parties on a voluntary basis;

(d) Enhance the facilitation of support to Parties, and promote capacity building for the preparation of national reports, in cooperation with relevant international organizations, such as the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Environment Programme and the World Bank, and drawing upon national expertise, consistent with decision VIII/8;

(e) Organize regional training workshops with a view to promote best practices and exchange of experience in the preparation of fourth national reports in conjunction with relevant meetings of the Conference of the Parties.

Annex

SCHEDULE FOR VOLUNTARY PROVISION OF COMPLEMENTARY INFORMATION ON THEMATIC PROGRAMMES 1 /

1 Additional complementary reports on cross-cutting issues may be considered.

2 The dry and sub-humid lands programme of work will be reviewed at the eighth meeting of the Conference of the Parties.