National processes of development and implementation of National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs) are as important as the final NBSAP documents. There is a great wealth of experience in numerous countries on how key stakeholders were engaged, how key policy makers were convinced, how national budget financing was captured, and more. Unfortunately, these processes are not usually well documented in NBSAPs or in national reports, although some have been captured in case studies and workshop reports.

The Documentation of NBSAP Development and Revision Processes project was initiated to increase the critical reflection on, and to improve, the process of NBSAP development and revision as it took place in different countries in accordance with COP Decision X/2 and Aichi Target 17. This “process” experience is invaluable for other countries facing similar challenges and therefore, within this JBF project, an effort was made to document a regionally representative set of national processes and to disseminate the results of an aggregate analysis.

Researchers were commissioned to prepare monographs documenting and analyzing the NBSAP revision process in their countries. The national researchers also participated in a workshop to share their experiences and reflections mid way through the project in Bangkok, Thailand from 16 to 17 July 2014. The 10 countries participating included Antigua and Barbuda, Bhutan, Burkina Faso, Colombia, Fiji, Georgia, Guatemala, Iraq, Namibia, and Philippines.

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) coordinated the project. They prepared a report that was presented to the twelfth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP 12) as an information document (UNEP/CBD/COP/12/INF/38) and a Final Report which was published in January 2015.

The results from the NBSAP Process Project were presented at the first side event of its kind during COP 12 in Pyeongchang, Republic of Korea.