Integrating biodiversity conservation strategies

This strategy features in the framework of Agenda 21 as formulated at UNCED (Rio de Janeiro, 1992), now coordinated by the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development and implemented through national and local authorities. Agenda 21 recommends integrating strategies for conservation of biological diversity and sustainable use of biological and genetic resources into relevant sectoral or cross-sectoral plans, programmes and policies, with particular reference to the special importance of terrestrial and aquatic biological and genetic resources for food and agriculture.

The 12th Global Biodiversity Forum met in December 1998 in Senegal to explore synergies between biodiversity and desertification agendas. The meeting participants represented research, education, resource management, private sector, government, NGOs, and local and traditional communities. The Forum recommended Parties to the Convention for Biological Diversity identify and work to remove perverse policy, legal, institutional and economic obstacles to synergy among the biodiversity-related conventions.

The EU Biodiversity Strategy is intended to fulfill the EU's obligations under the Convention on Biological Diversity and is an element of the EU's Fifth Environmental Action Programme. The Strategy aims to contribute to reversing present trends in biodiversity losses and to placing species and ecosystems in a satisfactory conservation status both within and beyond the territory of the EU. This involves in the first place the integration of environmental concerns into other sectoral policies. The Strategy identifies what needs to be done with specific reference to four major themes of relevance for EU policy: (1) the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity; (2) the sharing of benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources; (3) research, identification, monitoring and the exchange of information; and (4) education, training and awareness. The Strategy highlights special objectives in eight policy areas: conservation of natural resources, agriculture, fisheries, regional policies and spatial planning, forestry, energy and transport, tourism, and development and economic cooperation. Achieving the Strategy's objectives are secured through the development and implementation of sectoral and cross-sectoral action plans and other measures for the identified policy areas. Indicators enable an ex ante and ex post evaluation of the implementation of the action plans and focus on the species and ecosystems likely to be affected by sectoral policies.

The Pan-European Biological and Landscape Diversity Strategy (1995) (PEBLDS) seeks to introduce biological and landscape diversity considerations into all social and economic sectors by striving to integrate them into agriculture, forestry, hunting, fisheries, water management, energy and industry, transportation, tourism and recreation, defence, structural and regional policies and urban and rural planning. Main actors involved in the implementation of the Strategy will include national authorities, bilateral donors, international organizations and financial institutions, organizations and associations active in the economic sector, private enterprises, the research community, information dissemination organizations, private and public landowners, non-governmental organizations, the public (grassroot and citizen groups), indigenous and local peoples of the regions of Europe. Commonality of actions and direction between the Guiding Principles and the implementation of CBD is essential at the European level. The Bern Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats, supported by all European States, makes an important contribution to the implementation of the CBD both through its input to relevant areas of PEBLDS and implementation of its Emerald Network system of areas where special measures need to be taken to conserve biological diversity.