Since the late 1970s the UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) has delivered services that support implementation of international biodiversity-related agreements at global, regional and national levels. These services not only support the work of the agreement secretariats, but also of the advisory and governance bodies, and of governments party to the various agreements. The aim of this paper is to illustrate this work through examples of work we have undertaken.

The support that UNEP-WCMC provides is based on expert understanding of the agreements and how they work, resulting from many years of experience and close relationships with secretariats. There are two key elements to this, which are essential to UNEP-WCMC’s ability to deliver relevant products and services.

• Regular meetings with secretariat staff aid in planning the work that UNEP-WCMC can do to support conventions, and where possible this is translated into mutually agreed programmes of work.
• Participation in major meetings for those conventions with which UNEP-WCMC is regularly working, both to listen to and participate in relevant deliberations, and to liaise with other participants.

 The breadth of this work is described in a six page paper Improving International Environmental Governance: 30 years supporting the Multilateral Environmental Agreements.

Data management and analysis services for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, and support for the implementation of theEU Wildlife Trade Regulation.

A broad range of support for implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity including the following:

• facilitating assessment of achievement of globally adopted goals and targets through the 2010 Biodiversity Indicators Partnership
• working with the CBD Secretariat on both editions of the Global Biodiversity Outlook and on the GreenFacts Digest
• building capacity at the national level on Biodiversity Indicators for National Use working with partners in Ecuador, Indonesia, Kenya and Ukraine
• developing guidelines for assessing biodiversity impact of trade liberalization in the agriculture sector

Support to the Convention on Migratory Species and its Annex II agreements through the following types of activities:

• design and maintenance of the CMS Information Management System based on listed species, information submitted by parties, and national reports
• hosting the Convention on Migratory Species and the African-Eurasian Waterbird Agreement websites
• development and management of the marine turtle interactive mapping system for the IOSEA Marine Turtle MoU
• development and management of the species interactive mapping system for the African-Eurasian Waterbird Agreement

Support to UNESCO in the evaluation of World Heritage sites, and support to a number of conventions through information in the World Database on Protected Areas

Because of extensive work with conventions on reporting and information management, the Centre is well placed to support increased harmonization, for example through:

• support to biodiversity-related conventions and programmes in their work towards harmonization of information management and national reporting
• development of tools to support more coherent implementation of conventions at the national level through the tematea project
• working with convention secretariats on means for improved knowledge management, including development of a portal for integrated information access

As a UN-linked organization with strong experience in biodiversity issues, the Centre is also well placed to collaborate in highlighting new issues, for example:

• In 2003 UNEP-WCMC planned and implemented a conference on 2010 – The Global Biodiversity Challenge with the CBD Secretariat and UNDP
• UNEP-WCMC is running a series of regional workshops on timber tree species in international trade
• UNEP-WCMC is strongly promoting opportunities for achievement of multiple benefits through reducing emissions from deforestation

Finally the Centre also has a range of past projects relevant to current implementation, including, for example, one carried out in 1999-2002 to develop and implement methods for better assessment of CBD implementation at national and regional levels.

The Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the Director of UNEP-WCMC have signed a jointly agreed programme of work on support of UNEP-WCMC for the implementation of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020. The Plan was adopted by the 10th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the CBD in 2010 in Nagoya, Japan.

The programme of work identifies a number of areas where UNEP-WCMC and CBD will collaborate, including, among others, biodiversity indicators, marine and coastal biodiversity, protected areas, and capacity-building for National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans.

• Programme of work - UNEP-WCMC support for Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020(pdf, 254Kb)