Decision COP VI/7

The Conference of the Parties

1. Endorses the draft guidelines for incorporating biodiversity-related issues into environmental impact assessment legislation and/or processes and in strategic environmental assessment contained in the annex to the present decision;

2. Urges Parties, other Governments and organizations to apply the guidelines as appropriate in the context of their implementation of paragraph 1 of Article 14 of the Convention and share their experience, inter alia, through the clearing-house mechanism and national reporting;

3. Requests the Executive Secretary to compile and disseminate, through the clearing-house mechanism and other means of communication, current experiences in environmental impact assessment and strategic environmental assessment procedures that incorporate biodiversity-related issues, as well as experiences of Parties in applying the guidelines; in light of this information, to prepare, in collaboration with relevant organizations, in particular the International Association for Impact Assessment, proposals for further development and refinement of the guidelines, particularly to incorporate all stages of the environmental impact assessment and strategic environmental assessment processes taking into account the ecosystem approach (particularly principles 4, 7 and 8) and to provide a report of this work to the Subsidiary Body prior to the seventh meeting of the Conference of the Parties.

The Conference of the Parties

1. Requests the Executive Secretary to report on the development and use of indicators in all the thematic areas and cross cutting issues to the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice prior to the seventh meeting of the Conference of the Parties;

2. Urges Parties that have yet not done so to respond to the questionnaire on the subject of indicators that was sent by the Executive Secretary in May 2001 so as to enable the Executive Secretary to update the analysis;

3. Requests the Executive Secretary to convene a meeting of an expert group that is broadly representative of experts from both United Nations and biogeographical regions. The group should further develop the three annexes to the note of the Executive Secretary on ongoing work on indicators on:

4. Requests the Executive Secretary to report to a meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice prior to the seventh meeting of the Conference of Parties. In doing so, the Executive Secretary should take into account the specific comments of delegates in the seventh meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice and the following guidance:

The Conference of the Parties

1. Welcomes the outline for the assessment reports developed by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment;

2. Encourages Parties to support the involvement of experts in the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment process and provide assistance to developing countries and countries with economics in transition that are interested in undertaking national or regional assessments within the framework of the Millennium Ecosystems Assessment;

3. Requests the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical, and Technological Advice to review the findings of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment and provide recommendations to the Conference of the Parties based on the review;

4. Recognizing the importance of the assessment of the status of the world's protected areas, encourages the Executive Secretary, in close collaboration with the World Conservation Monitoring Centre of the United Nations Environment Programme and IUCN, to facilitate development and implementation of this assessment.