Notification 2021-078

Dear Madam/Sir, I am writing as a follow-up to the communications sent in April and July 2021 regarding a stocktaking exercise undertaken to establish an accurate picture of the status of the elements of Aichi Biodiversity Target 11 in each country. This exercise was undertaken pursuant to decision 14/34 (https://www.cbd.int/decisions/cop/14/34) of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the Convention, in collaboration with Parties to the Convention, in order to gauge progress on the Target, understand barriers to reporting, and build support for area-based conservation measures of the post 2020 global biodiversity framework. The stocktaking exercise was a joint effort between the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the United Nations Development Programme, with the engagement of UNEP-WCMC, to support the aims of the Global Partnership on Aichi Target 11 (https://www.cbd.int/protected/partnership/about/), formed in response to COP decision XIII/2 (https://www.cbd.int/decisions/cop/13/2). As part of this process, country dossiers containing current publicly available information on elements of Aichi Biodiversity Target 11 and commitments made for improving the coverage and quality of protected areas and OECMs, were shared with CBD National and PoWPA Focal Points in July 2021, to assist in determining the updated status of the target and identifying potential gaps. However, please note that the updating of data in these country dossiers does not replace the already established mechanisms and procedures for updating coverage and other information on a country’s network of protected areas and OECMs; i.e., submission of updated data and information to the World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA) and World Database on Other Effective Area-Based Conservation Measures (WD-OECM), in line with COP decisions including 10/31 (https://www.cbd.int/decisions/cop/10/31) and 14/8 (https://www.cbd.int/decisions/cop/14/8)). To do this, please contact protectedareas@unep-wcmc.org. Following the conclusion of the stocktaking exercise, the Creating a Nature-Positive Future report will be launched during the week of 15 November 2021. Alongside the report, the Aichi Biodiversity Target 11 country dossiers will be made available on the CBD’s protected areas webpage. Following this notification, the updated country dossiers will be shared via e-mail. If you require any changes to the data/information in the dossier for your country, please let us know via e-mail at: Patrick.gannon@un.org (with a copy to: secretariat@cbd.int), at the latest by Wednesday, 15 December 2021, after which date the country dossiers will be made available online. I thank you for your cooperation and continued support to the Convention, as well as for your contributions towards the post-2020 global biodiversity framework. Please accept, Madam/Sir, the assurances of my highest consideration.

Executive Secretary

To: CBD National Focal Points and PoWPA Focal Points