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PA. Protected areas

IX/18.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 e-learning 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 clearing-house 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 recommendation 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 delivery 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 developed and small island developing States 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 developing 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 MDGs, 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, the Global Environment Facility, the 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.
IX/17IX/19