Action plans should as a general rule set out clear tasks, targets and mechanisms to assess their performance and to evaluate progress in their implementation. Sponsors of action plans, in co-operation with relevant bodies, should identify indicators in order to enable an evaluation before and after the implementation of the plans. Species and ecosystems likely to be affected by each policy area, and for which action is needed to ensure their conservation and sustainable use, should be the basis for the establishment of indicators. Economic indicators should also be considered.
Action plans and other measures should pursue the respect, preservation and maintenance of knowledge, innovations and practices of indigenous and local communities embodying traditional lifestyles relevant for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity and promote their wider application with the approval and involvement of the holders of such knowledge, innovations and practices.
When adopted in Sofia in 1995, the [Pan-European Biological and Landscape Diversity Strategy] set a general framework for cooperation aimed to last twenty years. Its first Action Plan identified actions to be undertaken between 1996 and 2000, and was planned as a first step towards reaching the twenty-year aims and objectives of the Strategy. As reported to the [Environment for Europe] Ministers' meeting in Ã…rhus in June 1998, and to the Strategy Council in April 1999, much was achieved in the initial phase.