Protected areas
A. Review of implementation of the programme of work on protected areas
The Conference of the Parties,
Welcoming the progress made by Parties in implementing the
programme of work on protected areas at national, regional and
subregional levels including using mechanisms of effective consultation
and participation with all partners and noting that further
efforts are needed to achieve the 2010 and 2012 biodiversity target for
terrestrial and marine protected areas, respectively, and other targets
set in the programme of work on protected areas,
Welcoming with appreciation the organization of regional
workshops in some regions by the Executive Secretary in collaboration
with The Nature Conservancy, WWF, Conservation International, BirdLife
International, Wildlife Conservation Society, IUCN-World Commission on
Protected Areas (WCPA), the European Commission, the German Federal
Agency for Nature Conservation, the Governments of Germany, Canada,
France, India, South Africa and Gabon and taking note that such workshops
need to be held in all the regions and that they provide an important
platform for the participating countries to exchange information on the
status of implementation of the programme of work on protected areas, to
discuss challenges and constraints to implementation and practical ways
and means to address these challenges for enhancing the implementation of
the programme of work on protected areas,
Welcoming with appreciation the efforts by the United Nations Environment Programme - World Conservation
Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) and IUCN to:
(a) Develop new transparent mechanisms including verification and review
to improve the quality of data in the World Database on Protected Areas;
(b) Develop additional datasets associated with the World Database on
Protected Areas on protected-area management effectiveness, local
livelihoods, and relevance for carbon storage, among others,
Welcoming the efforts of the LifeWeb Initiative promoted by the
Government of Germany and other countries, and noting the opportunities
Parties and other organizations have to participate in this initiative,
Recognizing the need to promote full and effective participation
of indigenous and local communities in the implementation of the
programme of work on protected areas at all levels; also noting the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples,
1. Recognizes that the limited availability of information
continues to be a major shortcoming for the purpose of review exercises;
2. Recalls paragraph 4 of its decision VIII/24, in which it urged
Parties, other Governments and multilateral funding bodies to provide the
necessary financial support to developing countries, in particular the
least developed and small island developing States, as well as countries
with economies in transition, taking into account Article 20 and Article
8(m) of the Convention, to enable them to build capacity and implement
the programme of work on protected areas and undertake the reporting
required, including national reports under the Convention on Biological
Diversity, to enable the review of implementation of the programme of
work on protected areas in line with goal 2.2 of the programme of work on
protected areas;
3. Urges Parties, not later than 2009, to finalize as a matter of
urgency the ecological-gap analysis independently or with technical and
financial assistance of donors and partners, as appropriate, to achieve
the 2010 and 2012 targets where this has not been done, as a matter of
urgency as well as other targets of the programme of work on protected
areas;
4. Invites Parties to:
(a) Promote the application of appropriate tools and policy measures
including, as appropriate, integrated spatial planning in order to better
integrate protected areas into broader land and seascapes and relevant
sectors and plans, including aiming at poverty eradication;
(b) Give special attention to improving, in collaboration with partners
and donors, the management-effectiveness of protected areas by enhancing
human technical and financial resources, inter alia, through
capacity-building measures, particularly for developing countries, small
island developing States and countries with economies in transition,
including for monitoring and evaluation of biodiversity at site- and
system-level; and
(c) Give special attention to the implementation of programme element 2 of
the programme of work on protected areas;
5. Encourages Parties to:
(a) Transmit to the Executive Secretary, as appropriate, information on
those sites identified on the basis of the gap analysis and the overall
national biodiversity strategies that they may wish to designate as
protected areas, with the purpose of facilitating access to the
information by Parties and organizations interested in supporting these
efforts; with a view to mobilize enhanced financial support for these
efforts;
(b) Establish, as appropriate, multisectoral advisory committees which may
consist of representatives from, inter alia, relevant government
agencies and departments, indigenous and local communities, land and
resource managers, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), the private
sector, experts, academia and research institutions in support of the
implementation of the programme of work on protected areas at national
and subnational levels by providing advice on how to:
(i) Better coordinate and communicate among various organizations and
agencies involved with protected areas;
(ii)Help develop national targets and action plans for implementing the
programme of work on protected areas in both terrestrial and marine
environments, in the context of national biodiversity strategies and
action plans and in accordance with national legislation;
(iii)Increase public awareness and develop a communication strategy for
the programme of work on protected areas for both terrestrial and marine
protected areas;
(iv)Monitor implementation and support reporting on progress in
implementing the programme of work on protected areas;
(v) Support coordinated implementation of the programme of work on
protected areas with other programmes under the Convention on Biological
Diversity and other biodiversity-related conventions;
(vi)Support technical capacity-building and fund programmes to improve
efficiency and effectiveness in the implementation of the programme of
work on protected areas;
(vii)Identify policy and legislative barriers and knowledge gaps, and
improve enabling conditions for implementation, including the development
of innovative financial mechanisms, guidance, tools and implementation
strategies;
(c) Develop and facilitate the exchange and use of appropriate tools
adapted, where appropriate and necessary, to local conditions including
traditional natural resource management practices of indigenous and local
communities and translate them into required languages, as appropriate,
and identify the need for additional tools, including for assessing the
status of biodiversity in protected areas;
6. Invites Parties to:
(a) Improve and, where necessary, diversify and strengthen protected-area
governance types, leading to or in accordance with appropriate national
legislation including recognizing and taking into account, where
appropriate, indigenous, local and other community-based organizations;
(b) Recognize the contribution of, where appropriate, co-managed protected
areas, private protected areas and indigenous and local community
conserved areas within the national protected area system through
acknowledgement in national legislation or other effective means;
(c) Promote the development and importance of ecological networks* for both
terrestrial and marine areas, at national, regional and subregional
levels, where appropriate;
(d) Establish effective processes for the full and effective
participation of indigenous and local communities, in full respect of
their rights and recognition of their responsibilities, in the governance
of protected areas, consistent with national law and applicable
international obligations;
(e) Further develop and implement measures for the equitable sharing of
both costs and benefits arising from the establishment and management of
protected areas and make protected areas an important component of local
and global sustainable development consistent with national legislations
and applicable international obligations;
(f) Support the establishment or strengthening of regional or subregional
forums that contribute to the effective implementation of the programme
of work on protected areas at the regional and subregional level inter alia for undertaking cooperation in the establishment, in
accordance with national legislation, of transboundary protected areas
and as appropriate ecological networks*, in both terrestrial and marine
environments; exchanging regional lessons on implementation of the
programme of work on protected areas; coordinating the implementation of
regional capacity-building plans; establishing regional networks of
marine- and terrestrial-protected area specialists for various thematic
areas of the programme of work on protected areas; and convening regional
donor roundtables in collaboration with various donors and multilateral
agencies;
7. Urges Parties to facilitate and improve transfer of
technologies to developing countries in order to enhance management
effectiveness of protected areas;
8. Invites the World Conservation Monitoring Centre of the United
Nations Environment Programme, the IUCN World Commission on Protected
Areas and the other members of the World Database on Protected Areas
(WDPA) Consortium, to further develop tools to assist in the monitoring
of progress in implementing the programme of work on protected areas and
to maintain and improve the United Nations list component of the World
Database on Protected Areas;
9. Reaffirms paragraph 31 of decision VII/28, which recognizes the
value of a single international classification system for protected areas
and the benefit of providing information that is comparable across
countries and regions and therefore welcomes the ongoing efforts
of the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas to refine the IUCN system
of categories and encourages Parties, other Governments and
relevant organizations to assign protected-area management categories to
their protected areas, providing information consistent with the refined
IUCN categories for reporting purposes;
10. Requests the Executive Secretary in consultation with Parties and
with support from UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre, IUCN, among
others, to develop as part of national reporting on biodiversity a
streamlined reporting process through standardized information
gathering;
11. Encourages Parties to develop national or regional
data networks in order to facilitate the exchange of, and access to,
information on national or regional progress in implementation of the
programme of work on protected areas, including providing information to
the World Database on Protected Areas, where appropriate;
12. Also encourages Parties, other Governments, relevant
intergovernmental organizations, and indigenous and local communities,
with the support of national and international non-governmental
organizations, research and academic institutions and agencies, to
enhance activities and resources, towards organizing and forming regional
technical support networks as appropriate, to assist countries in
implementing the programme of work on protected areas by:
(a) Making available tools for example through innovative systems such as
elearning programmes;
(b) Facilitating the sharing of public information and knowledge;
(c) Supporting and/or coordinating subregional workshops;
(d) Convening regional/subregional technical training on key themes of
the programme of work on protected areas;
(e) Enhancing partnerships and exchange programmes between agencies and
protected areas of various countries; and
(f) Strengthening national and regional training institutions;
13. Invites the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas and
other relevant organizations to support strengthening of national and
regional capacity training institutions through the development of an
open curriculum framework in order to strengthen the capacity of
professionals in the implementation of the programme of work on protected
areas;
14. Encourages Parties to consider the use of the UNEP/IUCN
TEMATEA Issue-Based Module on Protected Areas in national implementation
of different relevant agreements with regard to protected areas;
15. Requests the Executive Secretary, subject to the availability
of funding, to convene regional and subregional capacity-building and
progress-review workshops in all regions on key themes of the programme
of work on protected areas, and invites Parties to ensure appropriate
representation in the workshops, and, accordingly, urges Parties, and invites other Governments,
organizations and donors to provide adequate financial and technical
support to the Executive Secretary for these regional and subregional
workshops;
16. Requests the Executive Secretary, subject to the availability
of funding, to further develop and make available through the
clearinghouse mechanism a range of implementation tools for the programme
of work on protected areas aimed at different audiences and translated
into all United Nations languages;
17. Also requests the Executive Secretary, subject to the
availability of funding, in collaboration with other partners, to
facilitate the development of a user-friendly, comprehensive central
website on the programme of work on protected areas;
18. Further requests the Executive Secretary to compile the
information gathered from Parties pursuant to paragraph 5 (a) of the
present decision and make this information available on the website of
the Secretariat;
19. Encourages Parties to ensure that conservation and
development activities in the context of protected areas contribute to
the eradication of poverty and sustainable development and ensure that
benefits arising from the establishment and management of protected areas
are fairly and equitably shared in accordance with national legislations
and circumstances, and do so with the full and effective participation of
indigenous and local communities and where applicable taking into account
indigenous and local communities' own management systems and customary
use;
20. Requests the Executive Secretary, in collaboration with
relevant organizations, to collate existing best practices related to the
implementation of the programme of work on protected areas, in the
context of the present decision and make this available through the
clearing-house mechanism and other mechanisms;
21. Requests Parties to designate a national focal point for the
programme of work on protected areas in support of the Convention's
national focal point to facilitate the effective and coordinated
development and implementation of national and regional terrestrial and
marine protected area strategies and action plans, taking into account
the Convention's programme of work on protected areas and other relevant
programmes of work and decisions;
22. Requests the Executive Secretary, encourages Parties and invites relevant organizations to increase public
awareness and develop communication activities on the role and the
importance of the benefits of protected areas in overall sustainable
development and poverty eradication as a way to sustain human well-being;
23. Encourages Parties and invites relevant organizations to
enhance research and awareness of the role that protected areas and the
connectivity of networks of protected areas play in addressing climate
change;
24. Requests the Executive Secretary to draw to the attention of
the IUCN Fourth World Conservation Congress, to be held in Barcelona in
October 2008, the report of the second meeting of the Working Group on
Protected Areas (UNEP/CBD/COP/9/8) and invites IUCN to further
contribute to the strengthening of capacity for the implementation of the
programme of work on protected areas and the process of its review
leading to the tenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the
Convention;
25. Decides on the following process for continued
monitoring of the implementation of the programme of work on protected
areas and preparing for its in-depth review at the tenth meeting of the
Conference of the Parties;
(a) Reiterating the need to provide financial support to
developing countries, in particular the least developed countries and
small island developing States, as well as countries with economies in
transition to undertake the reporting required, urges Parties to undertake a review of their national implementation of the
programme of work on protected areas using mechanisms of effective
consultation and participation; and
(b) Requests the Executive Secretary to prepare an in-depth
review of the programme of work on protected areas using inter
alia the information contained in the fourth national reports,
relevant global and regional data bases and the results of the regional
and subregional workshops as mentioned in paragraph 15 of the present
decision and propose ways and means for strengthening the implementation
of the programme of work; for consideration by the Subsidiary Body on
Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice prior to the tenth meeting
of the Conference of the Parties.
B. Options for mobilizing, as a matter of urgency, through different
mechanisms adequate and timely financial resources for the implementation
of the programme of work
The Conference of the Parties,
Concerned that insufficient financial resources continues to be
one of the main obstacles to the implementation of the programme of the
work on protected areas by developing countries, in particular the least
developing countries, and small island developing States among them, as
well as countries with economies in transition,
Reiterating the need for increased support towards developing
countries, in particular the least developed countries and small island
developing States, as well as countries with economies in transition, in
the implementation of the programme of work on protected areas through
the provision of new and additional financial resources in accordance
with Article 20 of the Convention,
Recognizing the critical role that the Global Environment
Facility has played in advancing the implementation of the programme of
work on protected areas,
Welcomes the resource mobilization strategy and stresses the
need for ensuring that actions relating to finance under the programme of
work on protected areas are fully coherent with this strategy,
Recognizing the urgency of mobilizing adequate financial
resources for the implementation of the programme of work by all Parties,
1. Urges Parties, in particular developed country Parties, and invites other Governments and international financial
institutions including the Global Environment Facility, the regional
development banks and other multilateral financial institutions to
provide the adequate, predictable and timely financial support, to
developing country Parties, in particular the least developed countries
and small island developing states as well as countries with economies in
transition to enable the full implementation of the programme of work on
protected areas;
2. Recognizes that innovative mechanisms, including market-based
approaches can complement but not replace public funding and development
assistance;
3. Invites Parties to:
(a) Undertake completion of, as a matter of priority, country-level
financial needs assessments, and develop sustainable financing plans
including, as appropriate, a diversified financial portfolio, including
innovative mechanisms, in accordance with Agenda 21, Article 20 of the
Convention and relevant decisions of the Conference of the Parties,
further exploring with full and effective participation of indigenous and
local communities, and other relevant stakeholders and strengthened
cross-sectoral linkages, as appropriate, the concept of payments for
ecosystem services in accordance with applicable international law,
taking into account the fair and equitable sharing of both costs and
benefits of management of protected areas with indigenous and local
communities, and other relevant stakeholders consistent with national
legislations and applicable international obligations; and exploring the
potential of biodiversity offsets as a financing mechanism;
(b) Develop, in accordance with their
specific circumstances,
necessary measures to administer and implement the sustainable
financing plan including by creating protected area management
environments that encourage innovation in the development and use of
financial mechanisms, including inter alia, public-private
partnerships; and identifying and, as appropriate, removing barriers that
may hinder the diversification of sources of income for protected areas;
(c) Enhance the effectiveness of
financial-resource utilization by further improving the quality of
protected area project proposals;
(d) Promote the valuation of ecosystem goods and services provided by
protected areas, especially the socio-economic costs and benefits to
indigenous and local communities and other relevant stakeholders, to
achieve a better integration of conservation and development processes
and to facilitate the contribution of protected areas to the eradication
of poverty and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, to
mobilize increased funding for protected areas;
(e) Mainstream and integrate protected-area planning and
management within the development agendas of both donors
and developing countries by exploring the full potential
of both public and private sector
financing mechanisms which could achieve the Millennium Development
Goals ;
(f ) Consider, as appropriate,
a national fund-raising target from
national and international sources for implementing the programme of
work;
(g) Consider
allocation of resources to strengthen capacity for analysis of threats
and pressures on protected areas and explore the possibility of
exchanging experiences and harmonizing methodologies and mechanisms for
this analysis;
(h) Explore
funding opportunities for protected area design, establishment and
effective management in the context of efforts to
address climate change recalling that effective actions
to reduce deforestation could constitute a unique opportunity for
biodiversity protection, as noted by the Conference of Parties in
decision VIII/30;
4. Urges donor countries to:
(a) Enhance financial support for implementation
of new and additional protected areas and report on measures taken to carry out activities in
subparagraphs (b), (c) and (d) of paragraph 24 of
decision VIII/24;
(b) Support the reporting process of developing
countries, especially least developed countries
and small island developing States as
well as countries with economies in transition, with
regard to protected areas;
(c) Take further actions by
collaborating with developing countries in
the development of comprehensive and targeted programs for capacity development
and cooperation to meet the targets
and timelines of the programme of
work in support of the implementation of the programme
of work by developing countries based on priorities
identified in >national biodiversity strategies and
action plans and other strategies and action
plans;
(d) Take reasonable steps to enhance
availability of financial resources and technical support for the
implementation of the programme of work on protected areas based on
priorities identified in national biodiversity
strategies and action plans and other relevant
strategies and action plans taking into account the Paris Declaration on
Aid Effectiveness and including identification of suitable mechanisms for
ensuring that protected areas financing is better aligned with the aid
deliver y mechanisms in the Declaration;
(e) Support a strong next replenishment for
the Global Environment
Facility , taking into account the goals
and targets of the programme of work and the need for new and additional
funding to support this work in developing
countries , particularly the least
develop ed and small island developing
S tates among them, as well as countries with
economies in transition;
5 . Encourages developing country Parties to give priority to the implementation
of the programme of work on protected areas and to take reasonable steps
to mainstream protected areas into national and relevant sectoral plans
and relevant associated budgets where
appropriate ;
6. Urges multilateral donors, non-governmental organizations and
other funding organizations to support developing countries in particular
least developed countries, small island developing States as well as
countries with economies in transition by:
(a) Making adequate, timely, and predictable
funding available for developing countries , in particular the least
developed countries and small
island d eveloping States among them, as well as countries with economies
in transition, including new and additional funding to allow for the designation and
effective management of new protected areas and where applicable the
establishment of ecological networks, that are necessary in order to
complete comprehensive and ecologically representative national and
regional systems of protected areas, and for improving management of
existing protected areas, including, as appropriate,
co managed protected areas, private protected areas and
indigenous and local community conserved areas;
(b) Providing enhanced financial and technical support to endowment funds, national
environmental funds and other long-term protected area financing
mechanisms aimed at conservation and sustainable development;
(c) Supporting proposals for undertaking
financial needs assessments, sustainable financial plans for protected
area systems, and valuation of ecosystem goods and services provided by
protected areas;
(d) Providing financial and technical
cooperation for the development and implementation of financial
strategies and plans for national protected area systems;
(e) Supporting
projects that demonstrate the role that protecetd areas play in
addressing climate change
(f) Supporting
proposals on public-private partnerships in the developing
countries;
(g) Supporting
capacity - building for indigenous and
local communities to participate in the establishment and management of
protected areas to improve their standard of living;
(h) Supporting
the preservation and maintenance of traditional knowledge for the
conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity in the management of
protected areas;
7. Requests the Executive Secretary to:
(a) Promote the importance of financing for
protected areas;
(b) Prepare a progress report as part of the in-depth review of the
programme of work on protected areas by the tenth meeting of the
Conference of the Parties, drawing on the information provided by Parties
in their fourth national reports;
(c) Compile
information assessing the socio-economic values of protected areas,
focusing in particular on the contribution to poverty eradication and
achievement of the Millennium Development
Goals , based on the submission from
Parties and other Governments as well as from indigenous and local
communities and other relevant stakeholders ;
8. Welcomes the UNDP/GEF project "Supporting Country Action on
the CBD programme of work on protected areas" and notes the
limited access by countries in Africa region;
9. Invites the Global Environment Facility to:
(a) Continue to provide, and facilitate easier access to financial
resources for protected areas in the biodiversity focal area of the
Global Environment Facility including projects such as the UNDP/GEF
project "Supporting Country Action on the CBD programme of work on
protected areas", so as to extend support to developing countries, small
island developing States, least developed countries, and countries with
economies in transition, taking into account the goals and targets set in
the programme of work;
(b) To consider support for proposals that demonstrate the
role-protected areas play in addressing climate change;
(c) To ensure that protected areas remain a priority of the Global
Environment Facility for the foreseeable future;
10. Invites the President of the Conference of the Parties to
transmit the Bonn message on finance and biodiversity to appropriate
donor communities, including inter alia, GEFGlobal Environment Facility,
the OECD Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the G8 countries;
11. Welcomes the offer by Ecuador to host the regional workshop
on protected areas pursuant to paragraph 10 of decision VIII/24.
37/ In the context of this programme of work,
a generic term used in some countries and regions, as appropriate, to encompass the
application of the ecosystem approach that integrates protected areas into the broader
land- and/or seascapes for effective conservation of biodiversity and sustainable use.
