On behalf of the UN-REDD Programme, UNEP-WCMC would like to announce an upcoming invitation only workshop on REDD+ safeguards and multiple benefits. Participants will discuss applying REDD+ safeguards in country, the quantification, valuation and mapping of multiple benefits, and monitoring the impacts of REDD+ on ecosystem services and biodiversity.

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We are delighted to announce that our 2011 Annual Report is now available.

   “If we are to make our future on this planet sustainable, a strong science-policy interface is critical. It is here that UNEP-WCMC is vital.”

Achim Steiner,
UNEP Executive Director and UN Under-Secretary-General
 

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UNEP-WCMC and International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) launched the Biodiversity Mainstreaming Diagnostic tool at a side event titled “Mainstreaming biodiversity, poverty reduction and development” held on October 9th 2012 at the just ended CBD CoP 11, Hyderabad, India. The tool will help countries to revise their National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs) - something all parties to the CBD have agreed to do by 2014. As part of the project, four African countries -- Botswana, Namibia, Seychelles and Uganda -- are already using the tool to update and strengthen their NBSAPs. The tool will be translated and rolled out through the NBSAP Forum in 2013.

The tool is one of the first major outputs of a three-year NBSAPS 2.0: Mainstreaming Biodiversity and Development project funded by the UK Government's Darwin Initiative with co-funding from UK aid. The project is led by IIED and UNEP-WCMC and is intended to ensure that policies to conserve nature and reduce poverty work in harmony. For more information on the project please visit: http://povertyandconservation.info/en/pages/pclg-nbsaps and on the launch: http://www.iied.org/new-tool-help-join-policies-cut-poverty-conserve-biodiversity

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The HLP, co-sponsored by the Governments of the United Kingdom (UK) and India, have launched their report on ‘Resourcing the Aichi Biodiversity Targets: A first assessment of the resources required for implementing the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020’ during the High-Level Segment of CBD COP 11. Click here to download the report. Click here for more details on the work of the HLP.

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The Aichi Passport is now available to download as a SmartPhone App and PDF document. The Beta version of the Passport, which will be officially launched at CBD COP 11 in Hyderabad, India, is a "proof of concept” for annual indicator reporting by the Biodiversity Indicators Partnership. UNEP-WCMC is host to the Secretariat of the BIP.

Download the Passport now:

iTunes: http://d.pr/3dKU

Google Play: http://d.pr/3z1W

Online PDF>>

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The Strategic Plan for Biodiversity (2011-2020) sets a challenging and ambitious vision that biodiversity is fully valued and integrated into national decision making, and that concrete actions are taken to reverse biodiversity losses during the next decade. Embedded in this plan is a concerted global effort to update Parties’ National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs). In fact, the revised NBSAPs are not endpoints in themselves but the key conduit for achieving all of the Aichi Targets and implementing the Strategic Plan over the coming decade.
There have been recent discussions on how the CBD, UNEP, UNDP and other partners can collaborate more effectively on supporting countries to revise their NBSAPs successfully.

To this end, the Government of Norway, via UNEP’s Division of Environment Policy Implementation (DEPI), has provided support to kick-start a more coordinated and comprehensive technical support programme. The intention is to bring to bear the resources and collective capacities of key partners and collaborators supporting countries to transform their NBSAPs towards achieving the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity and the Aichi Targets.

Outputs from the seed project by the end of 2012 would be an agreement on the scope and modalities of the partnership, a capacity needs assessment and gap analysis presented as an Information Document for Parties’ views at COP11, a visual identity and set of clearly articulated key messages, working principles to clarify the partnership arrangements, joint work planning, and collaborative resource mobilisation for the needs identified by Parties. UNEP-WCMC is playing a coordinating and secretarial role during this inception phase.

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UNEP-WCMC is working to assess existing indicators that focus on the linkages between biodiversity and poverty, commissioned by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). With a range of collaborators - International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), United Nations University- Institute of Advanced Studies (UNU-IAS), Applied Environmental Research Foundation (AERF) and a former WCMC staff – the team will propose a strategy for the development and use of such indicators. The review will suggest an initial suite of appropriate metrics that would speak to both conservation and development audiences.

This technical work will underpin the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity (2011-2020), enabling biodiversity to become better mainstreamed across national and sub-national development efforts and all sectors of society.

The findings of the review will be presented for the views of Parties to the Convention as an Information Document at the eleventh Conference of the Parties (COP 11) in Hyderabad, India (8-19 October 2012).

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Parties to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification have embarked on a new round of national reporting. For the first time, this will include reporting on the UNCCD impact indicators, which were piloted by eleven countries in 2011 (see project report). As part of the UNEP/GEF project “Support to GEF Eligible Parties for Alignment of National Action Programs and Reporting Process under UNCCD”, UNEP-WCMC will provide technical helpdesk support to UNCCD Parties on impact indicators and alignment of National Action Programmes (NAPs).

The UNCCD impact indicators are assessing progress against the Conventions strategic objectives and are part of the Performance Review and Assessment of Implementation System (PRAIS).

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Biodiversity is commonly assumed to be important for the livelihoods of poor people and thereby contribute to poverty alleviation – e.g. wild foods are consumed and sold, genetically diverse crops increase harvest and reduce the risk of harvest failure and charismatic species attract eco-tourists providing income to rural communities. However, we know surprisingly little about the scientific evidence demonstrating biodiversity-poverty linkages.

The IIED and UNEP-WCMC Biodiversity Poverty Partnership has recently embarked on a project to systematically map the existing evidence. This will enable us to identify gaps in the evidence, assess which components of biodiversity and expressions of poverty have been researched. It will also promote the mainstreaming of poverty issues into second generation National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs) by providing national experts with a detailed overview of available information.

This project is funded by the Ecosystem Service and Poverty Alleviation (ESPA) Evidence and Impact Research Grants scheme, with additional funding provided by UK aid from the UK Government.

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