. Designing national-level monitoring programmes and indicators
Designing national -level monitoring programmes and indicators
The Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice
- Takes note of the progress report on ongoing work on indicators (UNEP/CBD/SBSTTA/7/12);
- Recommends that the Conference of the Parties:
(a) Requests the Executive Secretary to report on the development of indicators in all the thematic areas and cross cutting issues to The Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice prior to the seventh meeting of the Conference of the Parties;
(b) Urges Parties that have yet not done so to respond to the questionnaire on the subject of indicators that was sent by the Executive Secretary in May 2001 so as to enable the Executive Secretary to update the analysis;
(c) Requests the Executive Secretary to convene a meeting of an expert group that is broadly representative of experts from both United Nations and biogeographical regions. The meeting should further develop three annexes to the Executive Secretary on ongoing work on indicators on: (i) principles for developing national-level monitoring and indicators; (ii) a set of standard questions for developing national - level indicators; and (iii) a list of available and potential indicators based on a conceptual framework that has qualitative and quantitative approach and report to a meeting of The Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice prior to the seventh meeting of the Conference of Parties. In doing so, the Executive Secretary should take into account the specific comments of delegates in the seventh meeting of The Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice and the following guidance:
(i) Give particular attention to the note by the Executive Secretary on recommendations for a core set of indicators on biological diversity prepared for the third meeting of the Subsidiary Body (UNEP/CBD/SBSTTA/3/9) and background paper prepared for the same meeting by the liaison group on indicators of biological diversity (UNEP/CBD/SBSTTA/3/INF.13) and subsequent related papers;
(ii) Consider development and segregation of the key questions contained in annex II to the note by the Executive Secretary on ongoing work on indicators (UNEP/CBD/SBSTTA/7/12) according to the three levels of biodiversity, and reorder them to correspond to articles of the convention as far as possible, and give attention to the use of early warning indicators;
(iii) Consider organizing the list of indicators in two levels: (a) a set of core indicators to be related to the thematic areas or policy instruments and initiatives. Indicators should be policy relevant and related to the target setting (including regional targets) in programmes of work of the Convention on Biological Diversity, and describe status and trends of biological diversity, and (b) headline indicators to assess overall effectiveness of implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity;
(iv) Consider developing and organizing the list of indicators for each thematic area grouped as drivers, pressure, state, impact and response;
(v) Regional approaches to indicator development should be promoted in order to assess the status and trends of biodiversity. For the development of the set of indicators, there is a need for harmonization and collaboration with regional and international initiatives, including the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the Commission on Sustainable Development, the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, the Pan-European processes (the Pan-European Biological and Landscape Strategy and the Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe), the Montreal process on criteria and indicators for the conservation and sustainable management of temperate and boreal forests, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the United Nations Forum on Forests.