SBSTTA Recommendation
. Fourth edition of the Global Biodiversity Outlook
XVIII/1.Fourth edition of the Global Biodiversity Outlook
The Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice
1.Welcomes the drafts of the fourth edition of the Global Biodiversity Outlook and the underlying technical reports;
2.Encourages Parties, other Governments, indigenous and local communities, and relevant organizations and experts to participate in the peer-review process for the drafts of the fourth edition of the Global Biodiversity Outlook and the underlying technical reports;
3.Requests the Executive Secretary, in consultation with the Advisory Group for the fourth edition of the Global Biodiversity Outlook and the Bureau of the Subsidiary Body, to finalize the fourth edition of the Global Biodiversity Outlook, including the executive summary and main messages as well as the underlying technical reports, so that it can be launched during the twelfth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, taking into account:
(a)Comments made during the eighteenth meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice;
(b)Comments provided through the peer-review process;
(c)Information from additional fifth national reports and revised or updated national biodiversity strategies and action plans;
(d)Findings of the executive summary of the Second Report of the High-level Panel on the Global Assessment of Resources for Implementing the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020;
4.Also requests the Executive Secretary, when finalizing the fourth edition of the Global Biodiversity Outlook, to pay particular attention to the progress made by Parties, and the effectiveness of policy responses taken, in achieving the Aichi Biodiversity Targets, and to highlight the links between the findings of the report and the ongoing discussions on the post-2015 United Nations development agenda and the sustainable development goals;
5.Further requests the Executive Secretary to initiate, in collaboration with relevant partners and in line with the communication strategy for the fourth edition of the Global Biodiversity Outlook, the preparation of ancillary products in all United Nations languages, subject to the availability of resources, targeted to specific audiences with a view to conveying key messages from the report to those audiences;
6.Encourages Parties, other Governments and relevant organizations, as appropriate, to take steps to prepare for the wide dissemination of the fourth edition of the Global Biodiversity Outlook and its findings, including by translating the report into local languages;
7.Requests the Executive Secretary, taking into account comments made during the eighteenth meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice and during the peer-review process for the draft fourth edition of the Global Biodiversity Outlook, in consultation with the Advisory Group for the fourth edition of the Global Biodiversity Outlook and the Bureau of the Subsidiary Body, to prepare a concise list of potential key actions to enhance progress towards the implementation of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 and the achievement of the Aichi Biodiversity Targets, on the basis of the actions listed in the draft executive summary of the fourth edition of the Global Biodiversity Outlook
1 ensuring consistency with the final version of the report, for consideration by the Conference of the Parties at its twelfth meeting;
8.Requests the Executive Secretary, to include the lessons learned with regard to the preparation and timely finalization of the draft fourth edition of the Global Biodiversity Outlook and the challenges encountered by the eighteenth meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice in fulfilling its task to review the draft report, in his work envisaged in paragraph 6 of recommendation XVII/3;
9.Recommends that the Conference of Parties consider incorporating key decisions taken at its twelfth meeting, including the draft decision below, in a wider package of decisions that could collectively be known as the “Pyeongchang Roadmap for the enhanced implementation of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 and the achievement of the Aichi Biodiversity Targets”, in recognition of the host of the twelfth meeting of the Conference of the Parties;
The Subsidiary Body, on the basis of the draft fourth edition of the Global Biodiversity Outlook, further recommends that the Conference of the Parties, at its twelfth meeting, consider a decision along the following lines:
The Conference of the Parties
1.Recalls that the purpose of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 is to promote effective implementation of the Convention through a strategic approach, comprising a shared vision, a mission, and strategic goals and targets (“the Aichi Biodiversity Targets”), that will inspire broad-based action by all Parties and stakeholders and takes into account the different tools and approaches used by Parties to achieve the Aichi Biodiversity Targets;
2.Welcomes the fourth edition of the Global Biodiversity Outlook;
3.Acknowledges with appreciation the financial and in kind support provided by Canada, the European Union, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, the Republic of Korea, Switzerland and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to the preparation of the fourth edition of the Global Biodiversity Outlook;
4.Notes the following general conclusions of the fourth edition of the Global Biodiversity Outlook with regard to the implementation of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020:
(a)There has been encouraging progress towards meeting some elements of most Aichi Biodiversity Targets but, in most cases, this progress will not be sufficient to achieve the targets unless further urgent and effective action is taken to reduce the pressures on biodiversity and to prevent its continued decline;
(b)Meeting the Aichi Biodiversity Targets will contribute significantly to fighting hunger and poverty, improving human health, ensuring a sustainable supply of energy, food and clean water, facilitating climate-change mitigation and adaptation, combating desertification and land degradation, and reducing vulnerability to disasters and they will contribute to the post-2015 United Nations development agenda and the sustainable development goals;
(c)Actions to achieve the Aichi Biodiversity Targets should be undertaken in a coherent and coordinated manner; Actions towards certain targets, notably those that address the underlying causes of biodiversity loss, the development and implementation of national biodiversity strategies and action plans, the further development and sharing of information, and the mobilization of resources, will have an especially strong influence on the achievement of the other targets;
(d)Attaining the Aichi Biodiversity Targets will require a suite of actions at the national level, typically including: legal or policy frameworks; socioeconomic incentives aligned with such frameworks; public and stakeholder engagement, including the effective participation of indigenous and local communities; monitoring; and compliance. Coherence of policies across sectors and the corresponding government ministries, is necessary to deliver an effective package of actions;
(e)It is necessary to broaden political and general support for the implementation of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 and to achieve the objectives of the Convention. This will require working to ensure that all levels of government and stakeholders across society are aware of the multiple values of biodiversity and related ecosystem services;
(f)Partnerships at all levels are required for the effective implementation of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020, to leverage broad-scale actions, to mainstream biodiversity across sectors of government, society and the economy and to enable synergies in the implementation of the various multilateral environmental agreements;
(g)There are opportunities to support the implementation of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 through enhanced technical and scientific cooperation among Parties. Further capacity-building support and technology transfer will also be needed, especially for developing countries, in particular the least developed countries and small island developing States, as well as countries with economies in transition;
(h)A substantial increase in the mobilization of financial resources from all sources, in accordance with Aichi Biodiversity Target 20, is needed for the implementation of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011–2020;
5.Notes with great concern that, given the progress made, Aichi Biodiversity Target 10 will not be achieved by its 2015 target date;
6.Requests the Executive Secretary:
(a)To analyse the fourth edition of the Global Biodiversity Outlook with the aim of proposing ways to enhance guidelines for future national reports and to report on this to the Subsidiary Body and the Ad Hoc Open-ended Working Group on Review of Implementation of the Convention 2 at meetings held prior to the thirteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties;
(b)To transmit the fourth edition of the Global Biodiversity Outlook to the secretariats of the biodiversity-related conventions, the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, other relevant organizations and to the General Assembly of the United Nations and to bring the main findings of the report to the attention of these bodies;
(c)To implement in collaboration with relevant partners, as appropriate, and in cooperation with relevant stakeholders such as other sectors and youth the communication strategy, for the fourth edition of the Global Biodiversity Outlook with a focus on key audiences.
7.Encourages Parties, other Governments and relevant organizations, as appropriate, to take steps to disseminate widely the fourth edition of the Global Biodiversity Outlook and its findings, including by translating the report into local languages;
8.Recalling
decision XI/22 and United Nations General Assembly resolution 67/212, 3
highlights the need to ensure the appropriate integration of biodiversity and ecosystem functions and services into the post-2015 United Nations development agenda and sustainable development goals and notes, in this respect, the relevant findings of the fourth edition of the Global Biodiversity Outlook;
9.Emphasizing that, in order to achieve the Aichi Biodiversity Targets and to progress towards the 2050 Vision of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020, it will be necessary to enhance and accelerate implementation, urges Parties and encourages other Governments to take comprehensive measures necessary to ensure the full implementation of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 and corresponding national biodiversity strategies and action plans;
10.Emphasizing that the specific actions needed to implement the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 and to improve progress towards the Aichi Biodiversity Targets will vary with national circumstances and priorities, including those set out in updated national biodiversity strategies and action plans, encourages Parties, other Governments and Organizations, to make use of, in a flexible manner, the list of potential key actions contained in the annex to this decision to enhance progress towards the implementation of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 and the achievement of the Aichi Biodiversity Targets;
11.Noting, that the thematic and cross-cutting programmes of work of the Convention provide detailed guidance relevant to the implementation of the various elements of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 and recalling the key scientific and technical needs related to the implementation of the Strategic Plan identified by the Subsidiary Body in its recommendation XVII/1, and reiterates that, other than the specific gaps identified in that recommendation, policy-support tools and methodologies, if more widely shared and adapted to the specific needs of Parties, are sufficient to enable action to implement the Strategic Plan and to achieve the Aichi Biodiversity Targets, 4
requests the Subsidiary Body, in its future meetings, to review the main implications of the key findings of the fourth edition of the Global Biodiversity Outlook for the enhanced implementation of the Strategic Plan and the achievement of the Aichi Biodiversity Targets, in particular for the targets where there has been insufficient progress, also in the light of the key scientific and technical needs for the implementation of the Strategic Plan, identified by the Subsidiary Body in recommendation XVII/1, additional information from fifth national reports, voluntary reports, detailed guidance from the cross cutting issues and programmes of work, and the updated global indicators for the Strategic Plan, for consideration by the Conference of the Parties at its thirteenth meeting.
 XVIII/14 | XVIII/2 |
2This is subject to a decision by the Conference of the Parties at its twelfth meeting on the establishment of a subsidiary body on implementation, as recommended by the Working Group on Review of Implementation of the Convention at its fifth meeting in paragraph 7 of its recommendation 5/2.
3In resolution 67/212 of 21 December 2012 on the implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity and its contribution to sustainable development, paragraph 23 the General Assembly, among other things, encourages parties and all stakeholders, institutions and organizations concerned to consider the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 and the Aichi Biodiversity Targets in the elaboration of the post-2015 United Nations development agenda, taking into account the three dimensions of sustainable development.
4In the draft decision considered by the Conference of the Parties, paragraphs 3, 4 and 5 of SBSTTA recommendation XVII/1 would be inserted here.