Side Event

Strengthening National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAP) via the appropriate integration of governance issues and conservation capacities of indigenous peoples and local and traditional communities

Organizer
ICCA Consortium

Date and Time
18 October 2012 18:15 - 19:45

Meeting
Eleventh meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP 11)

The National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs) are an integral requirement of CBD for all the Parties to the Convention. A first round of NBSAP preparation/development/ implementation has been completed by many countries, often financed by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) through its various implementing agencies. As witnessed by the Rio+20 results, however, many NBSAPs have fallen short of their promises and may even be perceived as lacking innovative and imaginative solutions to the environmental and social problems besetting the world. It is remarkable, in particular, how little cross-fertilisation has taken place between NBSAP and other relevant initiatives of CBD, in particular those in support of article 8(j) and 10(c) and the CBD Programme of Work on Protected Areas (PoWPA) and especially its innovative element 2 on “Governance, Participation, Equity and Benefit-Sharing”. Indeed, the time has come to strengthen NBSAPs with an appropriate integration of governance issues (e.g., a plurality of actors with authority, responsibility and accountability to produce results for the conservation of biodiversity) and more effective recognition of the conservation capacities and rights of indigenous peoples and local and traditional communities. There is now a programme in CBD to revise or renew the NBSAPs in the countries that are parties to the Convention. A round of “training programmes” have been held in various regions to prepare the Parties for this revision. These training programmes have too often devoted little or no attention to CBD initiatives in support of article 8(j) and 10(c) and Element 2 of POWPA—including initiatives and tools that could open up entrenched situations of environmental degradation and take advantage of new opportunities for restoration and sustainable use in close partnership with indigenous peoples and local communities. This side event will kick-start a process for awareness of the need to take advantage of these opportunities on the basis of lessons learned from India, Senegal, the Philippines, Argentina, Iran, Surinam, Kenya, Tanzania, Australia, and others.