The Mid-term Review of the Japan Biodiversity Fund (JBF) recommended a shift in focus from National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plan (NBSAP) development and revision to implementation. The Pilot Project Programme was introduced in 2015 as a means of capacity-building whereby selected Parties would be supported in prioritizing actions from their NBSAPs and implementing them. The outputs would be a series of demonstration projects for the larger CBD community.
The JBF Team put considerable effort into the selection of pilot countries and assisting them with the formulation of their project proposals. The criteria for awarding pilot projects strictly encompassed sound project logic, replicability, as well as the possibility to use the content and outcomes for capacity-building activities among the wider group of Parties. As a result of this strict selection, implemented pilot projects are well formulated, highly representative, and relevant for capacity-building purposes.
The projects implemented tangible activities which directly helped them move forward with their NBSAP implementation and provided them with clear and measurable outputs. The outcomes from this pioneering process help to pave the way for other Parties and assists the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity in tailoring its capacity-building activities towards supporting Parties in their NBSAP implementation.
To date, the JBF Team has focused on three main weaknesses identified in many pre-2010 NBSAPs, including:
- Mainstreaming,
- Spatial data and information, and
- Socio-economic data and indicators.
Pilot projects supported by the JBF:
The outcomes and lessons learned from the pilot projects were shared during two side events during COP 13 and
COP 14.
