Decision COP IX/16

The Conference of the Parties

1. Decides that, in conducting future in-depth reviews of the programmes of work of the Convention, climate change considerations should be integrated into each programme of work where relevant and appropriate, taking into account, inter alia, the Third and Fourth Assessment Reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Technical Series No. 10 and No. 25 of the Convention on Biological Diversity and the global Assessment on Peatlands, Biodiversity and Climate Change, considering the following: 

2. Requests the Executive Secretary when preparing for the in-depth review of the programmes of work of the Convention to take into account an analysis to identify the elements of the guidance (paragraph 1 above)already included in the existing programmes of work and an assessment of the state of implementation, as well as the identification of gaps in implementation including a review of barriers and suggestions to overcome them;

3. Requests the Executive Secretary, as far as possible in collaboration with the secretariats of the other two Rio conventions, to compile and synthesize information on interactions between acidification, climate change and multiple nutrient-loading as possible threats to biodiversity during the in-depth reviews of the programmes of work on inland water and marine and coastal biodiversity;

4. Urges Parties to enhance the integration of climate-change considerations related to biodiversity in their implementation of the Convention with the full and effective involvement of relevant stakeholders and considering changing consumption and production models, including:

5. Encourages Parties, other Governments, donors and relevant organizations to provide financial and technical support to capacity‑building activities, including through raising public awareness, so as to enable developing countries, especially least developed countries, small island developing States, and countries with economies in transition, to implement activities related to the impacts of climate change, and of the positive and negative impacts of climate change mitigation and adaptation activities on biodiversity;

6. Requests the Executive Secretary, subject to the availability of financial resources, to convene a workshop for small island developing States to integrate considerations on the impacts of climate change, * and both the positive and negative impacts of climate-change mitigation and adaptation activities within programmes of work and national biodiversity strategies and action plans, with a view to holding similar capacity‑building workshops in other groups of countries;

The Conference of the Parties,

Noting with appreciation the reports of the seventh and eighth meetings of the Joint Liaison Group and the document prepared jointly by the three Rio conventions (UNEP/CBD/WGRI/1/7/Add.1) containing proposals on mutually supportive activities for the secretariats of the Rio conventions;

Noting the information notes on forests and adaptation highlighting the links between biodiversity, desertification/land degradation and climate change drafted jointly by the secretariats of the three Rio conventions;

Further noting the Rio Principles on Environment and Development when developing synergies,

Further noting the results of the International Expert Meeting on Responses to Climate Change for Indigenous and Local Communities and the Impact on their Traditional Knowledge Related to Biological Diversity in the Arctic Region, held in Helsinki from 25 to 28 March 2008 (UNEP/CBD/COP/9/INF/43),

Recognizing the specific needs and concerns of developing country Parties, in particular least developed countries and small island developing States, and Parties with economies in transition, when developing synergies,

Welcoming the High-Level Conference on World Food Security and the Challenges of Climate Change and Bioenergy of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations to be held from 3 to 5 June 2008, that will address issues related to climate change adaptation and mitigation, 

1. Recognizing the distinct mandates and independent legal status of each convention and the need to avoid duplication and promote cost savings, requests the Executive Secretary to collaborate with the secretariats of the other Rio conventions in order to:

2. Requests the Executive Secretary to continue discussions within the Joint Liaison Group on the following activities:

3. Requests the Executive Secretary to compile case-studies, good-practice examples and lessons learned on activities, tools and methods to promote synergies between activities addressing biodiversity, desertification/land degradation and climate change at the national and, where appropriate, the local level, and report thereon and, through the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice, on progress in the implementation of mutually supportive activities, during the in-depth review of the ongoing work under the cross-cutting issue of biodiversity and climate change at the tenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties;

4. Requests the Executive Secretary to explore, inter alia, with the Global Environment Facility, ways and means to achieve biodiversity co-benefits and benefits for combating desertification/land degradation in climate-change activities, including through capacity-building, with a view to presenting a specific proposal to the Conference of the Parties at its tenth meeting;

5. Requests the Executive Secretary, recalling the Memorandum of Cooperation with the Secretariat of the International Plant Protection Convention, to enhance cooperation with regard to changing risk for biodiversity resulting from climate-change impacts on plant pests, in order to gather relevant scientific information so as to inform policy; 

6. Requests the Executive Secretary to explore with the United Nations Environment Programme, and as far as possible in collaboration with the Joint Liaison Group, the nature and scope of the Bali Strategic Plan for Technology Support and Capacity-Building with a view to identifying how it might support the achievement of synergies between the three Rio conventions in national implementation, and report thereon to the Conference of the Parties at its tenth meeting; 

7. Invites the secretariats of the three Rio conventions to build on and strengthen existing tools and synergies with members of the Collaborative Partnership on Forests (CPF), including the CPF Web platform, for forest-related activities;

8. Noting that efforts at the national and local levels are of high importance to the achievement of synergies between activities addressing biodiversity, combating desertification/land degradation and climate change, invites Parties and other Governments, where appropriate based on national circumstances, to implement the activities contained in the indicative list in annex II to the present decision;

9. Further invites Parties and other Governments to support, as appropriate, the implementation of relevant components of existing national climate change adaptation plans in developing countries, particularly the least developed countries, small island developing States, and countries with economies in transition;

10. Invites relevant organizations to provide support to Parties, as appropriate and based on national circumstances, in implementing the activities laid out in annex II to the present decision in order to enhance cooperation and coordination between the three Rio conventions and other relevant multilateral environmental agreements;

11. Notes that reduced deforestation and forest degradation, and increased afforestation and reforestation, could provide multiple benefits for biodiversity and reducing greenhouse gas-emissions, and:

12. Recalling paragraph 11 of decision 1/CP.13, on the Bali Action Plan, in which Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change agreed that the comprehensive process to enable the full, effective and sustained implementation of the Framework Convention through long-term cooperative action shall be informed by, inter alia, the best available scientific information, experience in implementation of the Framework Convention and its Kyoto Protocol, and processes thereunder, outputs from other relevant intergovernmental processes and insights from the business and research communities and civil society:

13. Invites Parties to submit views on ways to integrate biodiversity considerations in climate‑change related activities;

14. Requests the Executive Secretary to prepare a compilation of the views submitted pursuant to paragraph 13 of the present decision for consideration by the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice, prior to the tenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties;

15. Invites Parties to support efforts by developing countries to monitor, at the national level, the impacts of climate change on biodiversity;

16. Requests the Executive Secretary to summarize information on the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity relevant for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in developing countries (REDD) found within existing documents, including the report of the Viterbo Workshop on “Forests and Forest Ecosystems: Promoting Synergy in the Implementation of the three Rio Conventions” (April 2004), the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment and CBD Technical Series Nos. 10 and 25 and provide this information to the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change with the intention that it be transmitted to the third session, and subsequent sessions, of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action under the Convention of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change; 

17. Invites Parties and other Governments, as appropriate, considering the negative impacts of climate change on biodiversity and related traditional knowledge, innovations and practices of indigenous and local communities, to apply the ecosystem approach and to make use of existing publications such as Convention on Biological Diversity Technical Series Nos. 10 and 25 and the UNEP/IUCN TEMATEA Issue-Based Module on Climate Change and Biodiversity when planning or implementing mutually supportive activities among the three Rio conventions with regard to biodiversity, combating desertification/land degradation and climate change at the national and international levels.

The Conference of the Parties,

Notes the work of the London Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other Matter (1972) and the  1996 London Protocol, welcomes the decision of the twenty-ninth Consultative Meeting of the Contracting Parties held from 5 to 9 November 2007, which: (i) endorsed the June 2007 “Statement of Concern regarding iron fertilization of the oceans to sequester CO2” of their Scientific Groups, (ii) urged States to use the utmost caution when considering proposals for large-scale ocean fertilization operations and (iii) took the view that, given the present state of knowledge regarding ocean fertilization, large-scale operations were currently not justified:

1. Requests the Executive Secretary to bring the issue of ocean fertilization to the attention of the Joint Liaison Group;

2. Urges Parties and other Governments to act in accordance with the decision of the London Convention;

3. Recognizes the current absence of reliable data covering all relevant aspects of ocean fertilization, without which there is an inadequate basis on which to assess their potential risks;

4. Bearing in mind the ongoing scientific and legal analysis occurring under the auspices of the London Convention (1972) and the 1996 London Protocol, requests Parties and urges other Governments, in accordance with the precautionary approach, to ensure that ocean fertilization activities do not take place until there is an adequate scientific basis on which to justify such activities, including assessing associated risks, and a global, transparent and effective control and regulatory mechanism is in place for these activities; with the exception of small scale scientific research studies within coastal waters.  Such studies should only be authorized if justified by the need to gather specific scientific data, and should also be subject to a thorough prior assessment of the potential impacts of the research studies on the marine environment, and be strictly controlled, and not be used for generating and selling carbon offsets or any other commercial purposes;

5. Requests the Executive Secretary to disseminate the results of the ongoing scientific and legal analysis under the London Convention and London Protocol, and any other relevant scientific and technical information, to the fourteenth meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice.

The Conference of the Parties

Recognizing the importance of the conservation and sustainable use of the biodiversity of wetlands and, in particular, peatlands in addressing climate change and noting with appreciation the findings of the global Assessment on Peatlands, Biodiversity and Climate Change,

1. Invites the Global Environment Centre, subject to available resources, to translate into other United Nations languages, and further disseminate the global Assessment on Peatlands, Biodiversity and Climate Change;

2. Encourages Parties and other Governments to strengthen collaboration with the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands and promote the participation of interested organizations in the implementation of the Guidelines for Global Action on Peatlands and other actions, such as the ones listed in the global Assessment of Peatlands, Biodiversity and Climate Change, that could contribute to the conservation and sustainable use of peatlands;

3. Welcomes the initiative of the Scientific and Technical Review Panel of the Ramsar Convention to consider wetlands and climate change as an important emerging issue, invites the Secretariat and the Scientific and Technical Review Panel of the Ramsar Convention, subject to available resources, to further assess the contribution of biodiversity to climate-change mitigation and adaptation in peatlands and other wetlands and further invites the Secretariat and the Scientific and Technical Review Panel of the Ramsar Convention to make the reports on these assessments available, for example through its website;

4. Requests the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice to explore ways to engage with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in planning and preparing its next assessment reports and invites the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to participate in the Convention on Biological Diversity and Ramsar processes of preparing future technical studies on climate change and biodiversity, particularly on wetlands;

5. Requests the Executive Secretary, in collaboration with the Secretariat of the Ramsar Convention, and subject to available resources, to conduct an analysis of the potential of incentive measures and funding mechanisms under climate-change adaptation and mitigation in supporting biodiversity conservation and sustainable use in wetlands as well as in supporting local livelihoods and contributing to poverty eradication and further requests the Executive Secretary to explore ways to engage with those national and international research centres (e.g. CGIAR centres) addressing climate‑change adaptation and mitigation in relation to wetlands biodiversity; 

6. Invites the Conference of the Parties to the Ramsar Convention, at its tenth meeting, to consider appropriate action in relation to wetlands, water, biodiversity and climate change in view of the importance of this subject for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity and human welfare.