Through decision VII/30 the Conference of the Parties requested the Executive Secretary, with the assistance of the World Conservation Monitoring Centre of the United Nations Environment Programme and other relevant international organizations, to prepare the second Global Biodiversity Outlook for publication prior to the eighth meeting of the Conference of the Parties following peer review and review by the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA) at its tenth or eleventh meeting.

The second Global Biodiversity Outlook is meant to provide an assessment of progress towards the 2010 biodiversity target at the global level and to communicate effectively trends in biodiversity related to the three objectives of the Convention . The assessment should be based on the focal areas listed in paragraph 1 of decision VII/30, and should make use of the indicators that have been successfully developed and tested, information provided in the national reports, as well as information provided by international organizations.

The Conference of the Parties further requested the Executive Secretary to prepare the necessary background documentation to assist SBSTTA in its review of the use of the indicators and the identification or development of indicators that require further work.
In response to these requests the Executive Secretary established an electronic discussion forum with task forces on each indicator and organized a meeting of the ad hoc technical expert group on indicators.

On the basis of the discussions of the expert group and relevant research articles, and making use of relevant work of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, the Executive Secretary prepared background documents on the indicators for information of SBSTTA-10 (UNEP/CBD/SBSTTA/10/INF/10 through UNEP/CBD/SBSTTA/10/INF/22).
SBSTTA-10 provided guidance, both on the Indicators for assessing progress towards, and communicating, the 2010 target at the global level and on the Second Global Biodiversity Outlook .

Following peer review and review by SBSTTA at its eleventh meeting of a draft of GBO-2, and on the basis of further guidance provided by SBSTTA, the Executive Secretary finalized Global Biodiversity Outlook 2.