COP Guidance on Developing NBSAPs

COP-9 Decision IX/8 on the "Review of implementation of goals 2 and 3 of the Strategic Plan", paragraph 8, provides consolidated guidance to assist Parties in the development and revision of their NBSAP. This text is extracted below.

National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans

8. "… urges Parties in developing, implementing and revising their national and, where appropriate, regional, biodiversity strategies and action plans, and equivalent instruments, in implementing the three objectives of the Convention, to:

Meeting the three objectives of the Convention:

(a) Ensure that national biodiversity strategies and action plans are action-driven, practical and prioritized, and provide an effective and up-to-date national framework for the implementation of the three objectives of the Convention, its relevant provisions and relevant guidance developed under the Convention;

(b) Ensure that national biodiversity strategies and action plans take into account the principles in the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development adopted at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development;

(c) Emphasize the integration of the three objectives of the Convention into relevant sectoral or cross-sectoral plans, programmes and policies;

(d) Promote the mainstreaming of gender considerations;

(e) Promote synergies between activities to implement the Convention and poverty eradication;

(f) Identify priority actions at national or regional level, including strategic actions to achieve the three objectives of the Convention;

(g) Develop a plan to mobilize national, regional and international financial resources in support of priority activities, considering existing and new funding sources;

Components of biodiversity strategies and action plans

(h) Take into account the ecosystem approach;

(i) Highlight the contribution of biodiversity, including, as appropriate, ecosystem services, to poverty eradication, national development and human well-being, as well as the economic, social, cultural, and other values of biodiversity as emphasized in the Convention on Biological Diversity, making use, as appropriate, of the methodologies and conceptual framework of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment;

(j) Identify the main threats to biodiversity, including direct and indirect drivers of biodiversity change, and include actions for addressing the identified threats;

(k) As appropriate, establish national, or where applicable, subnational, targets, to support the implementation of national biodiversity strategies and action plans, consistent with the flexible framework established in decisions VII/30 and VIII/15, taking into account, as appropriate, other relevant strategies and programmes, such as the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation and focusing on national priorities;

Support processes

(l) Include and implement national capacity-development plans for the implementation of national biodiversity strategies and action plans, making use of the outcomes of national capacity self-assessments in this process, as appropriate;

(m) Engage indigenous and local communities, and all relevant sectors and stakeholders including representatives of society and the economy that have a significant impact on, benefit from or use biodiversity and its related ecosystem services. Activities might include:

(i) Preparing, updating and implementing national biodiversity strategies and action plans with the participation of a broad set of representatives from all major groups to build ownership and commitment;

(ii) Identifying relevant stakeholders from all major groups for each of the actions of the national biodiversity strategies and action plans;

(iii) Consulting those responsible for policies in other areas so as to promote policy integration and multidisciplinary, cross-sectoral and horizontal co-operation to ensure coherence;

(iv) Establishing appropriate mechanisms to improve the participation and involvement of indigenous and local communities and civil society representatives

(v) Striving for improved action and cooperation to encourage the involvement of the private sector, namely through the development of partnerships at the national level;

(vi) Strengthening the contribution of the scientific community in order to improve the science/policy interface to support research-based advice on biodiversity;

(n) Respect, preserve and maintain the traditional knowledge, innovations and practices of indigenous and local communities consistent with Article 8(j);

(o) Establish or strengthen national institutional arrangements for the promotion, coordination and monitoring of the implementation of the national biodiversity strategy and action plans,

(p) Develop and implement a communication strategy for the national biodiversity strategy and action plan;

(q) Address existing planning processes in order to mainstream biodiversity concerns in other national strategies, including, in particular, poverty eradication strategies, national strategies for the Millennium Development Goals, sustainable development strategies, and strategies to adapt to climate change and combat desertification, as well as sectoral strategies, and ensure that national biodiversity strategies and action plans are implemented in coordination with these other strategies;

(r) Make use of or develop, as appropriate, regional, subregional or subnational networks to support implementation of the Convention;

(s) Promote and support local action for the implementation of national biodiversity strategies and action plans, by integrating biodiversity considerations into subnational and local level assessments and planning processes, and, as and where appropriate, the development of subnational and local biodiversity strategies and/or action plans, consistent with national biodiversity strategies and action plans;

Monitoring and review

(t) Establish national mechanisms including indicators, as appropriate, and promote regional cooperation to monitor implementation of national biodiversity strategies and action plans and progress towards national targets, to allow for adaptive management, and provide regular reports on progress, including outcome-oriented information, to the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity;

(u) Review national biodiversity strategies and action plans to identify successes, constraints and impediments to implementation, and identify ways and means of addressing such constraints and impediments, including revision of the strategies where necessary;

(v) Make available through the Convention’s clearing-house mechanism national biodiversity strategies and action plans, including periodic revisions, and where applicable, reports on implementation, case studies of good practice, and lessons learned;"