1. The short-list of priority activities has been formulated to provide a coherent framework to guide implementation of the programme of work for CEPA in the short term, and in particular the upcoming biennium. The list addresses activities drawn from the CEPA programme of work in the annex to decision VI/19 as well as the CEPA dimensions in the programmes of work of the Convention in the thematic areas and cross-cutting issues to ensure that there is an integrated and coordinated approach in the delivery of CEPA messages and outputs to the intended target audiences.
2. CEPA strategies should be developed and implemented, wherever possible, as components of national biodiversity strategies and action plans. Where countries have yet to develop national biodiversity strategies and action plans, any CEPA strategies should take the potential of this into account.
3. In addition, the short-list of priority activities has taken into consideration the related ongoing CEPA work of other organizations and the need to build on the success and strengths of these efforts whilst providing a focused framework for the implementation of the identified activities at national, regional and international levels. This approach recognizes the value of strategic alignments and partnerships, networking, harmonization of related activities, and capacity building to ensure consistency in the generation and delivery of the envisaged outputs including key biodiversity messages.
4. In this respect, the short-list also recognizes the need to address some of the priority global initiatives in sustainable development, including the 2010 biodiversity target, the Millennium Development Goals, the Plan of Implementation of the World Summit on Sustainable Development and other relevant initiatives. This approach is consistent with the requirement for the Convention process to provide substantial inputs and guidance in the ongoing efforts to address these global policy initiatives.
5. The purpose of the short-list of priority activities is to provide support for the rapid and immediate implementation of pilot project efforts in support of the programme of work on CEPA, taking into account national and regional needs and resources. The aim is to use outputs from this process to better refine the key elements of the longer-term implementation process and thus help reorient the overall approach for more detailed longer-term programme activities. The CEPA dimensions of the programmes of work on thematic areas and cross‑cutting issues will serve as a basis for the identification and implementation of appropriate pilot projects in accordance with the specific needs and circumstances of the individual Parties.
6. The implementation of the priority activities in this list will be guided by the need to undertake detailed needs assessments, particularly at the national level in order to better identify and elaborate the interventions required to meet the expressed needs in the longer term.
7. The formulation of the short list of priority activities has recognized the need to keep the implementation process broad in scope and approach in order to allow parties and other partners make the necessary modifications to customize it to their specific requirements and situations. This aspect will no doubt continue to evolve as the parties provide feedback on the progress and impacts of the implementation process and thus the need to continuously re-orient programme activities to conform to the evolving nature of the user needs at various levels.
8. Implementation of the short list of priority activities is intended to provide guidance for the refinement of the plan of implementation leading up to 2010.
Priority activity 1: Establish implementation
structure or process for CEPA activities |
- Where appropriate, and taking into account existing institutional
arrangements and other processes, establish focal points and implementation
bodies for CEPA activities, including the list of priority activities,
at national, regional and global level.
- Promote participation of relevant actors in national advisory bodies,
including, as appropriate representatives from:
- Media
- Education
- Business Sectors
- Youth
- Science Community
- Indigenous and local communities
- Other actors
- Promote communication and collaboration between these implementation
bodies and the Executive Secretary
- Utilize national and regional structures for implementation of priority
activities for the programme of work on CEPA, including as components
of national biodiversity strategies and action plans.
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Tasks for Executive Secretary |
Tasks for Parties |
- Establish electronic infrastructure, including enhancement of the
CEPA Portal to facilitate communication on CEPA with national and regional
CEPA networks
- disseminate information, advice and materials on CEPA activities
among these networks.
- Ensure that implementation bodies are informed of activities at
the international level
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- Establish implementation structure or process and advise the Executive
Secretary.
- Promote participation of relevant actors in advisory bodies.
- Formulate implementation strategy and plans for the priority activities
for the Programme of work on CEPA.
- Establish patterns of bilateral and regional assistance as necessary
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Programme elements (decision
VI/19) |
Programme elements 1, 2, and
3 |
Priority activity 2: Assess the state
of knowledge and awareness on biodiversity and determine capacity for
communication |
- Establish a baseline understanding of the state of awareness among
key audiences through a variety of research tools. Wherever possible,
use existing data and tools at the national and international level,
and those created by international organizations such as IUCN, UNESCO,
FAO, World Bank and OECD. Assessment tools may include inter alia:
- Focus group research and interviews with key stakeholders
- Survey research
- Press clipping reviews
- Determine key publics to be surveyed by the assessment, including, inter
alia, and as appropriate:
- Media
- General public
- Youth and Children
- Scientific Community
- Indigenous and local communities
- Business Sector including key sectors identified in the Strategic
Plan, such as: Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries
- Decision-makers
- Assessment should address the following elements, inter aila:
- Awareness of Biodiversity and its relationship to human well-being
- Awareness of the 2010 biodiversity target and CBD processes
- Capacity of Parties to communicate biodiversity messages
- Synthesize information for its use in implementation strategies
of all priority activities, including Activity 3 below.
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Tasks for the Executive Secretary |
Tasks for Parties |
- Drawing upon input from the Informal Advisory Committee on CEPA
, create template of assessment and assessment methodology and disseminate
to the Parties
- Conduct pilot assessment amongst actors who have regular interactions
with the Secretariat
- Provide advice on best way to integrate assessment to future national
reporting processes.
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- Where appropriate, adapt knowledge and awareness template developed
by the Executive Secretary for use at national level.
- Where tools already exist, adapt for use in assessment process.
- Conduct assessment and collate results for use by implementation
body.
- Transmit results of this assessment process before the end of the
biennium to the Executive Secretary for dissemination through the Clearing-House
Mechanism.
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Programme elements (Decision
VI/19) |
Programme elements 2 and 3 |
Priority activity 3: Develop
key messages |
- Draw upon knowledge and awareness assessment for basic data on
information gaps and needs among target audiences
- Develop messages to overcome these gaps and to provide information
on the following, inter alia:
- The role of biodiversity in supporting human well-being, poverty
alleviation and achieving the Millennium Development Goals
- The 2010 biodiversity target and its focal areas
- The unique nature and achievements of the Convention
- Linkages with the UNESCO Decade of Education for Sustainable
Development
- Examples of conservation, sustainable us and equitable benefit
sharing relevant to specific target audiences determined in Priority
Activity 2, including the media
- The relevance of taxonomy for nature conservation supporting
sustainable development
- The relevance of the ecosystem approach
- Draw upon additional resources in message development, including, inter
alia the following:
- The first and second editions of the Global Biodiversity Outlook
- Key messages from the Biodiversity Synthesis Report of the Millennium
Ecosystem Assessment
- Elements from the Programmes of Work of the Convention
- Produce a short (i.e. under 10 pages) graphic summary for decision-makers
of the Second Global Biodiversity Outlook, which profiles some of
the headline indicators and key actions needed to attain the 2010
target.
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Tasks for Executive Secretary |
Tasks for Parties |
- E stablish key messages for some of the target audiences identified
in priority activity 2 above.
- Disseminate list to national implementation bodies
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- Use existing resources to communicate key messages to target groups
identified in priority activity 2 above.
- Elaborate key messages for national audiences including indigenous
and local communities.
- Transmit messages to Executive Secretary for further dissemination
to Parties as example of best practices.
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Programme elements (Decision
VI/19) |
Programme element 3 |
Priority activity 4: Implement
media relations strategy |
- Identify relevant media organizations including general and specialized
media.
- Establish and maintain media contact lists for general media,
and specialized media segments drawing upon existing national and
international lists, including that maintained by UNEP, IUCN and
international organizations of environmental journalists.
- Foster good working relationships with international and national
media, including independent journalists through any of the following
methods inter alia:
- Direct contacts via face-to-face meetings, telephone communication
or e-mail correspondence.
- Host familiarization workshops and present key messages.
- Participate in environmental journalism conferences.
- Sponsor Annual Media Awards.
- Provide tailored, issue-based information relating to the key
messages developed in Activity 3 above.
- Encourage publication and production of stories for press, radio
and television.
- Work with the advertising community to increase their awareness
and seek their support for spreading the message of the importance
of biodiversity
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Tasks for Executive Secretary |
Tasks for Parties |
- Establish standards for media lists.
- In cooperation with UNEP, Parties and international organizations,
elaborate and maintain international and regional media lists, disseminate
through the clearing-house mechanism.
- In partnership with UNESCO, provide template for media familiarization
workshops.
- Provide information on key biodiversity issues to the international
media and disseminate this to Parties
- Participate in key international environmental journalism conferences.
- Host media familiarization workshops..
- Develop media relations strategy for COP and SBSTTA meetings, as
indicated under priority activity 9 below.
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- On the basis of the standards provided by the Executive Secretary,
create and disseminate national media lists to the Executive Secretary
- On the basis of template provided by the Secretariat, host familiarization
workshops
- Adapt, translate and disseminate information on biodiversity issues
to national media.
- Host local media familiarization workshops.
- Participate in national journalism conferences..
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Programme elements (decision
VI/19) |
Programme Element 1 |
Priority activity 5: Elaborate
toolkits for development and implementation of CEPA strategies |
- Drawing upon existing initiatives and resources, including case-studies
and best practices, and the expertise of partner organizations such
as UNESCO, IUCN, FAO, World Bank and other relevant conventions,
elaborate and diffuse a toolkit for the elaboration and implementation
of national CEPA strategies, including as components of NBSAPs, using
data from activities 2 through 4 above, and including, as appropriate,
the following elements:
- Explanation of CEPA and the goals for implementation of the
programme of work
- The role of communication, education and public awareness
in the CBD
- The importance of biodiversity to human well-being
- Inspiring action and cooperation by and among key sectors.
- Techniques to identify target audiences and conduct knowledge
assessments
- Identifying important audiences and sectors for the work of
the Convention;
- Methodologies for awareness assessments
- The role of media relations
- Reaching out to the education sector
- Building key messages for the target audiences
- Sources of material
- CBD documents: Global Biodiversity Outlook, Programmes of
Work, 2010 Target and the Strategic Plan
- Millennium Ecosystem Assessment and other external documents
- How to customize messages for target audiences.
- Delivering messages.
- Building and implementing campaigns to reach out to target audiences
- Building a campaign and the national plan
- Partnerships and funding
- Events, including the International Day for Biological Diversity
- Maintaining activities in the long term
- Templates for CEPA Materials
- Media and stakeholders lists ;
- Samples of Key messages;
- Case-studies & best practices;
- Educational videos/materials;
- Kits for Media, Stakeholders, Education
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Tasks for Executive Secretary |
Tasks for Parties |
- In consultation with the Informal Advisory Committee for CEPA, and
relevant international organizations, elaborate and draft a pilot version
of the toolkit based on a review of existing materials and resources.
- Subject to the availability of funds, publish in United Nations
languages and distribute to Parties, relevant international organizations.
- Provide support to Parties who wish to use the kit for their national
strategies.
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- Where appropriate and subject to available resources translate toolkit
into local languages
- Distribute toolkit to stakeholders as part of capacity-building
strategies related to activity 6 below.
|
Programme elements (decision
VI/19) |
Programme Elements 1, 2, and
3 |
Priority Activity 6: Organize
workshops for the articulation of CEPA strategies |
- Using toolkits, such as that elaborated in Activity 5 above, and
subject to the availability of resources, convene and host workshops
to facilitate the implementation of National CEPA strategies, including
as components of NBSAPs.
- Workshops will serve the following purposes
- Facilitate the sharing of experiences and stimulate bilateral
and regional cooperation for CEPA
- Build capacity for applying the elements of such toolkits to
NBSAPs
- Include the participation of key actors required for the implementation
of national CEPA strategies as components of NBSAPs
- Produce templates for national implementation of CEPA Strategies
as components of NBSAPs.
- Initiate process of formulating and implementing national CEPA
strategies as components of NBSAPs.
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Tasks for Executive Secretary |
Tasks for Parties |
- In consultation with Parties, relevant international organizations,
elaborate draft structure of workshops, including goals, actors and
agendas.
- Convene regional workshops, with the participation of relevant countries,
international organizations, subject to funding.
- In cooperation with funding agencies, assist in the mobilization
of funds for workshops.
- Participate in regional workshops .
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- Collaborate with the Executive Secretary, and other regional actors
to host regional workshops on CEPA.
- Assist as appropriate in the mobilization of funds for the holding
of such workshops.
- Provide follow-up and reporting on the state of implementation of
the results of workshops
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Programme elements (decision
VI/19) |
Programme Element 1, 2, and
3 |
Priority Activity 7: Develop
infrastructure and support for a global network |
- Provide communication tools to enable the
sharing of experiences on implementation of CEPA at national, regional
and global levels.
- Facilitate communication between partner organizations and parties
on best practices in Communication, Education and Public Awareness
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Tasks for Executive Secretary |
Tasks for Parties |
- Continue to develop the CEPA electronic portal on the website of
the CBD and maintain alternative information dissemination mechanisms
in support of the establishment of a global support network on CEPA
building on, where possible, existing initiatives, including the following:
- Provide Links to the following:
- other networks and websites on communication and education,
for example, those of IUCN, the Convention on Wetlands (Ramsar),
the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, CITES,
UNESCO, etc.
- established learning institutions and centres of excellence
- Provide access to relevant projects, publications, NFPs briefing
kits and updates
- Through the creation of an online forum, stimulate and provide
means for experts and others to find those working on similar projects,
problems or issues;
- Building upon the work conducted under activity 4, create
a media network and disseminate the following information:
- activities by regions,
- backgrounders,
- archives of news releases by the Executive Secretary a
- archives of speeches
- Develop a “Children’s” website in all United Nations languages,
subject to the availability of funding, that includes:
- background information on biodiversity and the Convention, contest
announcements, quizzes, maps;
- an “educators corner” with background information on the Convention
and biodiversity, downloadable teachers aids, and possibly a forum
where classrooms could share findings and achievements
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- Where appropriate, provide information resources to the Executive
Secretary for inclusion on the CEPA Electronic Portal.
- Where appropriate, provide support for alternative information dissemination
mechanisms
- Promote, through existing networks, the CEPA electronic portal as
a source of materials.
- Work actively to interconnect national and regional educational
networks to share resources and expertise;
- Promote and encourage the development of open learning and distance
education programmes by establishing partnerships among universities,
centres of excellence in teaching, Parties and Governments and other
stakeholders.
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Programme elements (decision
VI/19) |
Programme elements 1, 2 and
3 |
Priority activity 8: The
International Day for Biological Diversity |
- Create the infrastructure for the celebration of the International
Day for Biological Diversity at the Secretariat and in all Parties
to the Convention
- Create communication and outreach strategies
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Tasks for Executive Secretary |
Tasks for Parties |
- Develop overarching communication strategy for the International
Day for Biological Diversity each year.
- Develop slogan/theme
- Designate “Ambassador Country”
- Organize contests as appropriate, including: media awards; poster
contests, etc.
- Ensure coordination with relevant international organizations
- Organize key events in Montreal for the day, including, as appropriate:
- Exhibitions
- Media coverage
- Editorial coverage
- Develop communication tools that streamline, facilitate and harmonize
the organization of events to mark the International Day for Biological
Diversity by Parties
- Slogan/theme
- Press kits
- Press releases
- Create templates of promotional material to be used by the Parties
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- Based on the communication tools developed by the Executive Secretary,
create plans for national celebrations of the International Day for
Biological Diversity
- Create and implement communication strategies to promote the day.
- Pursuant to availability of resources, develop local materials based
on communication tools developed by the Executive Secretary
- Inform Executive Secretary of the results
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Programme elements (decision
VI/19) |
Programme elements 2 and 3 |
Priority activity 9: Raise
profile of meetings of the Conference of the Parties and the Subsidiary
Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA) |
- Increase visibility of meetings of the Convention to international
and national media
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Tasks for Executive Secretary |
Tasks for Parties |
- Increase media coverage opportunities during COP & SBSTTA event
through development and implementation of a media stimulation campaign:
- Encourage publication of advance stories, advance registration
to facilitate media participation·
- Develop Media Conference Kit including special edition of the
CBD newsletter
- Establish and manage Media Centre at COP, include support for
press, television and radio journalists
- Host press briefings/bulletins, press conferences,
- Provide one on one interviews
- Provide web based simulcast of key plenary sessions
- Through the CBD website, provide daily electronic briefings to
generate coverage among non attending media. Post all speeches and
releases on the CBD website.
- Facilitate the participation of communities (poster display, photo
gallery, stage performances, etc.)
- Organise and host “CEPA Fair” at COP
- Encourage participation of Parties, international organizations
and others
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- Participate in “CEPA Fair” and sponsor participation of national
CEPA actors
- Transmit CBD press releases to national media during COP and SBSTTA
- Create national media strategy for COP
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Programme elements (decision
VI/19) |
Programme element 2 |
Priority activity 10: Strengthen
formal and informal education on Biodiversity |
- Taking into account the importance of both formal and informal education,
initiate programmes to strengthen formal and informal education on
biodiversity
- Ensure that these programmes are informed by and linked with the
UNESCO Decade of Education for Sustainable Development
- Identify best practices in biodiversity education, including those
initiated by indigenous and local communities, and seek to disseminate
these for further adoption.
- Education on biodiversity should seek to communicate, in language
and methods suitable to a variety of age groups and communities:
- Biological Diversity and its role in sustaining human well-being.
- The importance of the interlinkage between conservation, sustainable
use and equitable sharing of the benefits from the use of biological
resources.
- Ways that people can identify and monitor biodiversity in the
ecosystems in which they live
- Local and traditional knowledge about biodiversity.
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Tasks for Executive Secretary |
Tasks for Parties |
- In liaison with UNESCO, disseminate information, methodologies and
best practices relating to the Decade for Education for Sustainable
Development to the Parties
-
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- Taking into account the best practices at the international and
national level, and drawing upon local experiences, initiate pilot
projects for the strengthening of biodiversity education;
- Encourage partnerships among Parties, Governments and stakeholders
for the development of generic K-university biodiversity-related curricula
for use at the national and regional levels;
- Share best practices with parties through the CEPA portal.
- Evaluate pilot projects with a view to extend implementation as
specified in the plan of implementation for CEPA
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Programme Elements (decision
VI/19) |
Programme elements 2 and 3 |
