COP Decision

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COP 7 Decisions

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COP 7 Decision VII/25

National reporting

A. National reporting

The Conference of the Parties

1. Takes note of the analysis of the information contained in the second national reports as contained in the relevant documents prepared by the Executive Secretary for the consideration of the seventh meeting of the Conference of the Parties (UNEP/CBD/COP/7/17/Add.3 and UNEP/CBD/COP/7/INF/2);

2. Expresses concern over the delay in the submission of national reports by some Parties, and takes note of the difficulty that this delay may pose to the assessment of the implementation of the Convention in the absence of an adequate number of national reports;

3. Requests Parties to facilitate the preparation of the third and future national reports and endeavour to submit national reports in time;

4. Encourages Parties, Governments, relevant bilateral, regional and multilateral organizations to collaborate to strengthen the various capacities of Parties, particularly developing country Parties and countries with economies in transition, to prepare their future national and thematic reports;

5. Further encourages Parties, Governments, relevant bilateral, regional and multilateral organizations, to analyse the progress of Parties, particularly developing country Parties and countries with economies in transition, in implementing the Convention, in relation to those areas identified as a priority by those countries, in order to inter alia assist them in the preparation of their future national reports;

6. Requests Parties to submit as much information and data as available to improve the adequacy of information for the evaluation of the implementation of the Convention, the Strategic Plan of the Convention and the progress towards the 2010 target, particularly focusing on:

(a) Status and trends of biodiversity and its various components;

(b) Impacts of national actions on the achievement of the objectives of the Convention, the goals and objectives identified in the Strategic Plan of the Convention and the 2010 target;

(d) Constraints or impediments encountered in the implementation of the Convention;

7. Requests the Subsidiary Body for Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice and other bodies established under the Convention to take into account, where appropriate, the conclusions drawn from the analysis of the second national reports when addressing relevant programmes of work, cross-cutting and other issues under the Convention.

B. Guidelines for the third national report

The Conference of the Parties

1. Endorses the format for the third national report, as contained in the annex to the note by the Executive Secretary on guidelines for the third national report (UNEP/CBD/COP/7/17/Add.2), as amended, with respect to the questionnaire on forest biological diversity, by annexes I and II of the note by the Executive Secretary on proposals for the review of the expanded programme of work on forest biological diversity (UNEP/CBD/COP/7/17/Add.7);

2. Requests the Executive Secretary to further develop this format to incorporate the views expressed by Parties and further questions arising from the decisions of its seventh meeting and to make the revised format available to Parties no later than July 2004;

3. Further requests the Executive Secretary to revise the existing national reporting formats to make them more concise and better targeted to reduce the reporting burden placed on Parties, and to better contribute to the assessment of progress towards achieving the mission of the Strategic Plan and the 2010 target, and the identification of obstacles to implementation. The revision of the reporting formats should address the matters in decision VI/25, paragraph 3, and:

(a) The need to include reporting on all the four goals of the Strategic Plan;

(b) The need to allow Parties to incorporate the results of indicators (where available) to enable Parties to provide a more comprehensive assessment of progress;

(c) The need to include available factual data on the outcomes and impacts of measures taken to achieve the objectives of the Convention (including status and trends of biodiversity);

4. Invites Parties to promote wide stakeholder involvement, as well as that of indigenous and local communities, in the preparation of national reports, or in related processes that will inform national-report preparation, to ensure a more accurate and comprehensive reflection of the views and priorities of national stakeholders;

5. Invites developed country Parties to continue to provide support in the form of technical capacity development and financial resources to developing country Parties, Parties with economies in transition and small island developing States, as appropriate, to facilitate these Parties to meet their reporting obligations;

6. Encourages the Executive Secretary to continue to participate in the ongoing efforts to harmonize and streamline the national reporting processes of the Convention with those of other biodiversity related conventions and processes with a view to reduce reporting burdens on Parties and increase synergies among biodiversity related conventions, without impeding progress on improvements to the national reporting process to meet the needs of Parties to the Convention, and to strengthen the inter-sessional efforts to promote the submission of national reports;

7. Decides to further reduce the reporting burden on Parties by, wherever possible, using other means to gather information to allow evaluation of implementation of the Convention and the Strategic Plan;

8. Requests Parties to submit their third national reports:

(a) By 15 May 2005;

(b) In an official language of the United Nations;

9. Further requests the Executive Secretary to prepare an analysis of the information contained in the third national reports for consideration by the Conference of the Parties at its eighth meeting, and make it available through the clearing-house mechanism;