Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020, including Aichi Biodiversity Targets

Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020, including Aichi Biodiversity Targets

• The tenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties, held from 18 to 29 October 2010, in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, Japan, adopted a revised and updated Strategic Plan for Biodiversity, including the Aichi Biodiversity Targets, for the 2011-2020 period.
• This Plan provided an overarching framework on biodiversity, not only for the biodiversity-related conventions but for the entire United Nations system and all other partners engaged in biodiversity management and policy development.
• Parties agreed to translate this overarching international framework into revised and updated national biodiversity strategies and action plans within two years.
• Additionally, the Conference of the Parties decided that the fifth national reports, due by 31 March 2014, should focus on the implementation of the 2011-2020 Strategic Plan and progress achieved towards the Aichi Biodiversity Targets.

Key Elements of the Strategic Plan 2011-2020, including Aichi Biodiversity Targets

RATIONALE

• The rationale for the new plan is that biological diversity underpins ecosystem functioning and the provision of ecosystem services essential for human well-being. It provides for food security, human health, the provision of clean air and water; it contributes to local livelihoods, and economic development, and is essential for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, including poverty reduction.
• The conclusions of the third edition of the Global Biodiversity Outlook (published in 2010) have contributed to the formulation of these elements. The third edition analyzes future biodiversity scenarios and reviews possible actions that might be taken to reduce future loss.

VISION

• The vision for the new plan is: “Living in Harmony with Nature” where “By 2050, biodiversity is valued, conserved, restored and wisely used, maintaining ecosystem services, sustaining a healthy planet and delivering benefits essential for all people.”

MISSION

• The mission of the new plan is to “take effective and urgent action to halt the loss of biodiversity in order to ensure that by 2020 ecosystems are resilient and continue to provide essential services, thereby securing the planet’s variety of life, and contributing to human well-being, and poverty eradication. To ensure this, pressures on biodiversity are reduced, ecosystems are restored, biological resources are sustainably used and benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources are shared in a fair and equitable manner; adequate financial resources are provided, capacities are enhanced, biodiversity issues and values mainstreamed, appropriate policies are effectively implemented, and decision-making is based on sound science and the precautionary approach.”

STRATEGIC GOALS AND THE AICHI BIODIVERSITY TARGETS

• The new plan consists of five strategic goals, including twenty Aichi Biodiversity Targets.
  • Strategic Goal A: Address the underlying causes of biodiversity loss by mainstreaming biodiversity across government and society
  • Strategic Goal B: Reduce the direct pressures on biodiversity and promote sustainable use
  • Strategic Goal C: To improve the status of biodiversity by safeguarding ecosystems, species and genetic diversity
  • Strategic Goal D: Enhance the benefits to all from biodiversity and ecosystem services
  • Strategic Goal E: Enhance implementation through participatory planning, knowledge management and capacity building
• The twenty headline Aichi Biodiversity Targets for 2015 or 2020 are organized under the five strategic goals. The goals and targets comprise both aspirations for achievement at the global level and a flexible framework for the establishment of national or regional targets. Parties are invited to set their own targets within this flexible framework, taking into account national needs and priorities, while also bearing in mind national contributions to the achievement of the global targets, and report thereon to the eleventh meeting of the Conference of the Parties. Parties are also invited to incorporate this information into their national biodiversity strategy and action plan.
  Technical rationale, possible indicators, suggested milestones for the strategic goals and targets
• The Conference of the Parties agreed to complement the global headline indicators contained in the above document with additional indicators which are suitable for monitoring progress towards those targets for which suitable indicators have not yet been identified, in particular in relation to the economics of biodiversity and ecosystem services and the benefits derived from these services.

IMPLEMENTATION, MONITORING, REVIEW AND EVALUATION

• For related information, see also the summary of activities COP-10 urges countries to undertake towards the achievement of the 2011-2020 Strategic Plan and its Aichi Biodiversity Targets
• Means for implementation: The Strategic Plan will be implemented primarily through activities at the national or subnational level, with supporting action at the regional and global levels. The means of implementation for this Strategic Plan will include the provision of financial resources in accordance with respective obligations under the Convention, taking into account Article 20 of the Convention.
• Programmes of work: The thematic programmes of work of the Convention include: biodiversity of inland waters, marine and coastal biodiversity, agricultural biodiversity, forest biodiversity, the biodiversity of dry and sub-humid lands, mountain biodiversity and island biodiversity. Together with the various cross-cutting issues, they provide detailed guidance on the implementation of the Strategic Plan, and could also contribute to development and poverty reduction.
• Broadening political support: for this Strategic Plan and the objectives of the Convention is necessary, for example, by working to ensure that Heads of State and Government and the parliamentarians of all Parties understand the value of biodiversity and ecosystem services.
• Partnerships: Partnerships at all levels are required for effective implementation of the Strategic Plan, to leverage actions at the scale necessary, to garner the ownership necessary to ensure mainstreaming of biodiversity across sectors of government, society and the economy and to find synergies with national implementation of multilateral environmental agreements.
• Reporting by Parties: Parties will inform the Conference of the Parties of the national targets or commitments and policy instruments they adopt to implement the Strategic Plan, as well as any milestones towards these targets, and report on progress towards these targets and milestones, including through their fifth and sixth national reports.
• Review by the Conference of the Parties: The Conference of the Parties, with the support of other Convention bodies, in particular the Ad Hoc Open-ended Working Group on Review of Implementation of the Convention, will keep under review implementation of this Strategic Plan, and support effective implementation by Parties ensuring that new guidance is informed by the experience of Parties in implementing the Convention, in line with the principle of adaptive management through active learning.

SUPPORT MECHANISMS

• Capacity-building for effective national action
• Clearing-house mechanism and technology transfer
• Financial resources
• Partnerships and initiatives to enhance cooperation
• Support mechanisms for research, monitoring and assessment