MEA Support

UNEP-WCMC support to the thematic programmes of the CBD

Thematic programmes set out visions for future work on major ecosystems or ecosystem types and provide guidance for implementation. UNEP-WCMC has undertaken or is planning a wide range of activities that support the implementation of these programmes of work.

Marine and Coastal Biodiversity

The CBD work programme on Marine and Coastal Biodiversity has five key elements:

• implementation of integrated marine and coastal area management
• marine and coastal living resources
• marine and coastal protected areas
• mariculture
• alien species and genotypes.

UNEP-WCMC supports the objectives of these elements in many ways. Projects include: the mapping of marine ecosystems (coral reefs, mangroves, seagrasses, salt marches and cold water coral reefs) and species (turtles and sharks), maintaining global marine databases (coral disease, coral bleaching, marine aquarium trade and marine protected areas), coastal modelling, marine pollution mitigation and considers issues of the high seas and small island developing states.

UNEP-WCMC provides and maintains up-to-date information on marine and coastal protected areas through collaboration with the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) marine task force, and in partnership of the Sea Around Us Project, Fisheries Centre, University of British Columbia and with the World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA) consortium.

• In 2007 the Protected Areas programme will be working on several topical areas to support the CBD programme of work on protected areas in relation to the marine environment. Key projects will include:
  • High Seas: Planning of a process to collate and disseminate information on designated sites that exist beyond national jurisdiction through the WDPA
  • Enhancing the MPA dataset within the WDPA: Following on from the successful partnership between UNEP-WCMC, the University of British Columbia and supported by WWF, UNEP-WCMC has initiated a project to enhance the MPA dataset further
  • Management effectiveness: This project is being run in partnership with the WCPA management effectiveness task force, and aims to define the process by which this type of information will be presented through the WDPA. This project includes marine as well as terrestrial protected areas

The conservation of the biodiversity of polar regions is not emphasised in the CBD thematic programmes and cross-cutting issues. However, UNEP-WCMC work in this area is relevant for the CBD programmes of work on marine and coastal biodiversity, inland waters, and mountain biodiversity.

Within its Polar programme of work, UNEP-WCMC studies environmental changes in these regions. In particular, UNEP-WCMC supports the Arctic Environmental Protection Strategy, including the Conservation of Arctic Fauna and Flora (CAFF) programme of the Arctic Council and its Circumpolar Biodiversity Monitoring Program.

UNEP WCMC also produces a range of publications and public awareness material annually, which support these objectives.

For more detailed information please see the UNEP-WCMC Marine and Coastal page.

Forest Biodiversity

The CBD expanded programme of work on forest biodiversity aims at the conservation of forest biodiversity, the sustainable use of its components and the fair and equitable use of the benefits arising from the utilization of forest genetic resources.

• UNEP-WCMC's activities on forests promote the CBD programme of work by synthesising and analysing information, and developing indicators of status and trends, including global scale work on certification and national scale work on biodiversity indicators
• The Forest Restoration Information Service (FRIS) is an open-access service supporting forest restoration projects world-wide
• UNEP-WCMC is working with FAO to support the biodiversity components of the Forest Resources Assessment (FRA). The next FRA is due in 2010

Mountain Biodiversity

Parties to the CBD have agreed to implement the programme of work on mountain biodiversity taking into account the ecosystem approach. UNEP-WCMC work on mountains includes:

• Creation of a UNEP portal to mountain information
• Production of maps and data on mountain ecosystems such as cloud forests, including values and pressures
• Global scale reporting and analyses, such as Mountain Watch: environmental change & sustainable development in mountains and Cloud Forest Agenda. Mountain Watch was presented at the ninth meeting of the CBD Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA) in 2003, the meeting that prepared for adoption of the programme of work on mountain biodiversity at COP 7 in 2004

Inland Water Biodiversity

The revised programme of work on inland water biodiversity of the CBD places emphasis on the ecosystem approach, which includes integrated watershed management. Monitoring, assessment and evaluation of biological diversity of inland water ecosystems is one action identified by the Convention as necessary to reduce the rate of inland water biodiversity loss. UNEP-WCMC has completed work on freshwater in support of this action:

• Activities include a preliminary global assessment of areas of special importance for freshwater biodiversity, and contribution to the freshwater chapter in UNEP’s GEO3 report
• As part of the UNEP/IUCN project on issue-based modules for coherent implementation of biodiversity conventions, UNEP-WCMC drafted a module on inland waters. This project makes available obligations and commitments for Parties from environmental conventions and agreements, structured according to specific issues
• UNEP-WCMC is also contributing to the IUCN Pan-Africa Freshwater Biodiversity Assessment, through input of user needs guidance, spatial analysis of freshwater biodiversity distribution, and other technical support
• UNEP-WCMC is working with the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands and the CBD on a joint national reporting framework for inland waters

Agricultural Biodiversity

The CBD work programme on agricultural biodiversity focuses on assessing the status and trends of the world’s agricultural biodiversity and of their underlying causes, as well as the use of local knowledge in its management. It also pays attention to identifying and promoting adaptive management practices, technologies, policies and incentives. UNEP-WCMC is working in direct support of a call by the COP for the impacts of trade liberalization on agricultural biodiversity to be studied (Decision VI/5) by:

• Working with the UNEP Economics and Trade Branch (UNEP-ETB) on a EU funded Initiative on Integrated Assessment of Trade-Related Policies and Biological Diversity in the Agriculture Sector. The integrated assessment Reference Manual being developed includes a general framework for conducting integrated assessments of trade-related policies in the agriculture sector with a focus on biodiversity. This project is described below in more detail under the cross-cutting issue Economics, Trade, Incentive Measures
• UNEP-WCMC participated in the peer review of the International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development. The GLOBIO consortium, of which UNEP-WCMC is a partner, is modelling the response of biodiversity to agricultural expansion as part of this assessment

Dry and Sub-humid Lands Biodiversity

The CBD programme of work on dry and sub-humid lands seeks to assess the status of, and threats to, the biodiversity of dry and sub-humid lands, to support best management practices, and further to promote synergies and coordination between related conventions, in particular the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). The aim of the UNCCD is to combat desertification and mitigate the effects of drought in countries experiencing serious drought and/or desertification.

Relevant UNEP-WCMC activities:

• Lead authorship of A global overview of the conservation status of tropical dry forests (Miles et al. 2006, Journal of Biogeography 33, 491-505), a spatial analysis of threats to tropical dry forests, their impacts and regional prevalence
• Work on the delineation of drylands according to the dryland definitions of CBD and UNCCD, following a UNEP DEWA supported study on options for UNEP-WCMC to support the UNCCD. This work is supported by a scholarship from the Carlo Schmid Programme

Island Biodiversity

The CBD thematic programme of work on island biodiversity was recently established at COP 8 (decision VIII/1). UNEP-WCMC will respond to decision VIII/1 with an overview of status of, trends in and threats to island biodiversity by:

• Preparing an overview of island biodiversity, working with stakeholders including the Global Islands Network and Institut de Recherche pour le Développement