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SBSTTA 14 Recommendation XIV/4

XIV/4.In-depth review of the implementation of the programme of work on protected areas

I.RECOMMENDATION TO THE CONFERENCE OF THE PARTIES

The Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice recommends that the Conference of the Parties adopt a decision along the following lines:
The Conference of the Parties

A.Strategies for strengthening implementation

1.National level

1.Invites Parties to:
(a)Enhance the coverage and quality, representativeness and, if appropriate, connectivity of protected areas as a contribution to the development of representative systems of protected areas and coherent ecological networks that include all relevant biomes, ecoregions, or ecosystems;
(b)Develop a long-term action plan or reorient, as appropriate, relevant existing plans, taking into account national circumstances and priorities, involving all relevant stakeholders including indigenous and local communities, for the implementation of the programme of work on protected areas, including appropriate implementation mechanisms, and, where appropriate, detailing list of activities, timelines, budget and responsibilities, based upon the results of key assessments of the programme of work on protected areas, with a view to contributing to the implementation of the Strategic Plan of the Convention and requests the Executive Secretary to submit a report on the preparation of such plans to the Conference of the Parties at its eleventh meeting;
(c)Integrate the action plans of the programme of work on protected areas into revised national biodiversity strategies and action plans, and into relevant sectoral plans and budgets, as soon as possible and no later than six months before the twelfth meeting of the Conference of the Parties and requests the Executive Secretary to submit a report on the integration of protected area action plans into national biodiversity strategies and action plans, and into relevant sectoral plans and budgets, to the Conference of the Parties at its twelfth meeting;
(d)Promote the application of the ecosystem approach that integrates protected areas into broader land and/or seascapes for effective conservation of biological diversity and to ensure sustainable use of protected areas;
(e)Expedite establishment where appropriate of multisectoral advisory committees for strengthening intersectoral coordination and communication to facilitate the integration of protected areas in national and economic development plans;
(f)Increase awareness of the programme of work on protected areas especially among decision makers, in the context of communication, education and public awareness and other programmes such as The Green Wave;
(g)Carry out communications plans to promote understanding among decision makers of key sectors at all levels of government, on the benefits of protected areas to national and subnational economies, public health, maintenance of cultural values, sustainable development and climate change adaptation and mitigation;
(h)Consider standard criteria for the identification of sites of global biodiversity conservation significance, when developing protected area systems drawing on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, established criteria in other relevant processes including those of UNESCO Man and Biosphere Programme, the World Heritage Convention, the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, threatened ecosystem assessments, gap analysis and other relevant information;
(i)Take into account as appropriate the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (General Assembly resolution 61/295 of 13 September 2007, annex) in the further implementation of the programme of work on protected areas;
2.Invites Parties, other Governments and relevant organizations to develop and implement research and monitoring programmes for conservation and sustainable use within protected areas at any relevant scale as well as assess the efficiency and effectiveness of various kinds and categories of protected areas complying with the three objectives of the Convention;

2.Regional level

3.Notes progress in regional initiatives, such as the Micronesian Challenge, the Caribbean Challenge, marine conventions, the Dinaric Arc Initiative, the Amazonian Initiative, the Coral Triangle Initiative, the Natura 2000 and Emerald Networks, the Alpine Convention and the Carpathian Network of Protected Areas, and invites Parties to foster the formation of such initiatives and formulate regional action plans, where appropriate through national focal points for the programme of work on protected areas in collaboration with the IUCN-World Commission on Protected Areas and other conservation organizations, based on country action plans for implementation of the programme of work on protected areas and other relevant programmes of work, and through regional technical support networks, to coordinate funding, technical support, exchange of experiences and capacity building for implementing the programme of work on protected areas;
4.Invites donor countries, non-governmental organizations and other funding organizations to support regional initiatives, including marine protected areas;
5.Urges Parties to actively explore the potentially suitable areas for transboundary protected area cooperation and by effective means to create an enabling environment for transboundary cooperation in regards to planning and management practices, connectivity as well as to development across national borders;
6.Encourages Parties to use existing guidelines, best practices and tools to improve the effectiveness of transboundary protected area cooperation as well as to explore the suite of standards to evaluate the quality of such cooperation;

3.Global level

7.Requests the Executive Secretary subject to available funds to:
(a)Continue to hold regional and subregional capacity-building workshops, with special attention to element 2, and other identified priorities with specific timetables for planning and funding, developing cooperation with regional and subregional convention agreements, IUCN-World Commission on Protected Areas, technical networks and other partners;
(b)Provide additional technical support through the development of toolkits, best practices, and guidelines on themes of the programme of work on protected areas in collaboration with partners and international organizations, in particular new concepts such as techniques and instruments to assess and communicate values of ecosystems services and cost benefits as well as on element 2 (governance, participation, equity and benefit-sharing) keeping in mind the need for standards and criteria for protected area governance;
(c)Increase awareness of the benefits resulting from the implementation of the programme of work on protected areas to health, water and other sectors, fisheries, industry, climate change adaptation and mitigation, the importance of ecosystem services provided by protected areas, poverty alleviation and the Millennium Development Goals by holding workshops to bring key actors from these sectors to discuss ways of collaborating to promote the implementation of the programme of work on protected areas in order to reach mutual benefits;
(d)Support the global Friends of the Programme of Work on Protected Areas network including through the involvement of, among other actors, indigenous and local communities, relevant international organizations and technical networks;
(e)Support coordination and communication to strengthen synergies with regional conventions and global conventions as well as national policies and strategies in the implementation of the programme of work on protected areas;
8.Invites the IUCN-World Commission on Protected Areas, and other relevant organizations to develop technical guidance on ecological restoration, monitoring and evaluation of the status of biodiversity in protected areas, governance of protected areas, connectivity, representativity with a regional approach, management effectiveness, conservation corridors, and adaptation to and mitigation of climate change;

B.Issues that need greater attention

1.Sustainable finance

[Recalling that in paragraph 1 of its decision IX/18 B, the Conference of the Parties urged Parties, in particular developed country Parties, and invited other Governments and international financial institutions including the Global Environment Facility, the regional development banks, and other multilateral financial institutions to provide the adequate, predictable and timely financial support, to developing country Parties, in particular the least developing countries, and small island developing States, as well as countries with economies in transition to enable the full implementation of the programme of work on protected areas,]
9.Invites Parties to:
(a)Develop and implement sustainable finance plans in accordance with national legislation, for protected area systems by 2012 and support individual protected areas ,based on realistic needs assessments and a diversified portfolio of traditional and innovative financial mechanisms, such as inter alia payments for ecosystem services, as appropriate;
(b)[Timely and appropriately use the Global Environment Facility 5 protected-area biodiversity allocations, bilateral, multilateral and other aid using their action plan for implementing the programme of work on protected areas as the basis for accessing funds; ]
(c)Develop and implement additional means and methods of generating and allocating finance, inter alia on the basis of a stronger valuation of ecosystem services, taking into account the findings of the TEEB study, as appropriate;
10.Encourages developing country Parties, in particular the least developing countries, and small island developing States among them, as well as countries with economies in transition, to express their protected area system-wide and project-funding needs via the LifeWeb Initiative and relevant funding institutions based on their national biodiversity strategies and action plans and action plans for the programme of work on protected areas and invites donors to support funding needs through this mechanism, taking into account the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness;
11.Encourages donors and Parties, subject to available funding, to hold subregional and national donor roundtable meetings to mobilize funding for implementing the programme of work on protected areas involving the LifeWeb Initiative and relevant funding institutions;
12.[Urges the Global Environment Facility and its Implementing Agencies to streamline their delivery for expeditious and proportionate disbursement and to align the projects to national action plans for the programme of work on protected areas for appropriate and focused interventions and continuity of projects;]

2.Climate change

13.Invites Parties to:
(a)Achieve target 1.2 of the programme of work on protected areas by 2015, through concerted efforts to integrate protected areas into wider landscapes and seascapes and sectors, including through the use of connectivity measures such as the development of ecological networks and biological corridors including free flow rivers, where appropriate, and the restoration of degraded habitats and landscapes in order to address climate change impacts and increase resilience to climate change;
(b)Enhance scientific knowledge and the use of ecosystem approach to support the development of adaptive management plans and to improve management effectiveness of protected areas for addressing impacts from climate change on biodiversity;
(c)Recognize and communicate the value and the benefits of comprehensive, effectively managed and ecologically representative protected area systems in climate change adaptation and mitigation;
(d)Identify areas that are important for biodiversity conservation as well as for climate change mitigation and/or adaptation, including carbon sequestration and maintenance of carbon stocks ,and where appropriate protect, restore and effectively manage and/or include them in the protected areas systems recognizing that biodiversity conservation remains the primary objective of protected areas with the aim to increase co-benefits for biodiversity for addressing climate change and for human well-being;
(e)Support and finance the conservation and management of naturally functioning ecosystems and in particular, protected area systems in contributing to carbon sequestration and maintenance of carbon stocks as well as to ecosystem based approaches to adaptation to climate change, while recognizing that biodiversity conservation remains the primary objective, and to link improved design and management approaches for comprehensive and integrated protected area systems (including buffer zones, corridors and restored landscapes) into national strategies and action plans for addressing climate change, including through existing national adaptation strategies and plans;
(f)Further develop tools to be used by relevant national authorities and stakeholders for the joint planning of protected area networks and climate change mitigation and adaptation measures such as overlaying maps of biodiversity, natural carbon storage and other relevant ecosystem services;
14.Invites Parties to explore how funding opportunities under climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies could contribute to the implementation of the programme of work on protected areas, while enhancing co-benefits for biodiversity and climate change adaptation and mitigation;
15.Reminds the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to pay attention to the impact on and the role of protected areas in adaptation and mitigation strategies and support projects related to adaptation and mitigation in protected areas ;
[16.Invites the Executive Secretary to convene a special meeting of the Joint Liaison Group of the three Rio conventions in 2011 on the role of protected areas in the implementation of the objectives of the three Rio conventions with a view to recommending to the sixteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) elements of a joint programme on protected areas, biodiversity, climate change and land degradation;]

3.Management effectiveness

17.Invites Parties, taking into account the target for goal 1.4 of the programme of work, which calls for all protected areas to have effective management in existence by 2012 using participatory and science-based site planning processes with active stakeholder involvement, and noting that to assess the effectiveness of the management, specific indicators may also be needed to:
(a)Continue to expand and institutionalize management effectiveness assessments to work towards assessing 60 per cent of the total area of protected areas by 2015 using various national and regional tools and report the results into the global database on management effectiveness maintained by the World Conservation Monitoring Centre of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP WCMC) ;
(b)Include information on governance and social impacts and benefits of protected areas into the management effectiveness evaluation process;
(c)Consider climate change adaptation in management effectiveness assessments;
(d)Ensure that the results of assessments are implemented and integrated into other assessments of the programme of work on protected areas (e.g., sustainable finance, capacity);

4.Invasive alien species management

18.Noting the role of invasive alien species as a key driver of biodiversity loss invites Parties to consider the role of invasive alien species management as a cost effective tool for the restoration and maintenance of protected areas and the ecosystem services they provide;

5.Marine protected areas (MPAs)

19.Encourages Parties, other Governments and relevant organizations to cooperate, as appropriate, collectively or on a regional or subregional basis, to identify and protect ecologically or biologically significant areas in open-ocean waters and deep-sea habitats in need of protection, including by establishing representative networks of marine protected areas in accordance with international law and based on scientific information, and to inform the relevant processes within the United Nations General Assembly and invites UNGA to encourage the United Nations Ad Hoc Open-ended Informal Working Group established by UNGA in resolution 59/24 to expedite its work in this area [on a process towards designation of marine protected areas in areas beyond national jurisdiction];
20.Notes with concern slow progress towards achieving the 2012 target of establishment of marine protected areas consistent with international law and based on scientific information, including representative networks and therefore Urges Parties, where necessary through relevant regional and international organizations to increase their efforts, in accordance with national capacities, to improve the design and extent of marine protected area networks to achieve the 2012 target and invites financial institutions to support the efforts of Parties;
21.Encourages Parties to establish and/or strengthen a range of governance types for long term appropriate management of marine protected areas and to incorporate good governance principles;

6.Inland water protected areas

22.Encourages Parties to increase the coverage, quality, representativeness and connectivity where appropriate of inland water ecosystems and their key hydrological features in their protected area systems through the designation or extension of inland water protected areas and to maintain or enhance their resilience and sustain ecosystem services including through the use of exisiting designation mechanisms available and being applied under biodiversity related Conventions, such as the World Heritage Convention and the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands;

7.Restoration of ecosystems and habitats of protected areas

23.Urges Parties to:
(a)Increase the effectiveness of protected area systems in biodiversity conservation and their resilience to climate change, and other stressors including invasive alien species, through increased efforts in restoration of ecosystems and habitats and including, as appropriate, connectivity tools such as biodiversity corridors in and between protected areas and adjacent landscapes and seascapes;
(b)Include restoration activities in the action plans of the programme of work on protected areas and national biodiversity strategies;

8.Valuing protected area costs and benefits including their ecosystem services

24.Requests the Executive Secretary in collaboration with IUCN-WCPA and other partners, including indigenous and local communities in supporting the programme of work to explore and evaluate existing methodologies for measuring the values, costs and benefits of protected areas, bearing in mind the characteristics of the different biomes and ecosystems, building on existing work including on the findings of The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) study, and disseminate the results of the evaluation for Parties to apply;
25.Invites Parties to:
(a)Increase understanding of and communicate the role, importance and costs and benefits of protected areas in sustaining local livelihoods, providing ecosystems services, reducing risks from natural disasters, adapting to and mitigating climate change, health, water and other sectors, at all levels;
(b)Advance innovative means within their protected areas and by their management agencies to create a deeper understanding of the values of biodiversity among protected area visitors and the general public, and inspire their support and commitment for its protection;

9.Programme element 2 on governance, participation, equity and benefit-sharing

26.Encourages Parties to:
(a)Enhance coordination at the national level between the programme of work on protected areas and other related processes under the Convention on Biological Diversity, including, inter alia, forests, marine, access and benefit-sharing and Article 8(j) working groups and the processes related to the Addis Ababa and Akwe: Kón Guidelines for exchange of information on implementation of these programmes and recommendations on possible joint actions for enhanced implementation;
(b)Promote integration of the provisions of access and benefit sharing in regard to the third objective of the Convention in the governance of protected areas and support initiatives on the role of protected areas in poverty alleviation as well as for indigenous and local community livelihoods;
27.Invites Parties to:
(a)Establish clear mechanisms and processes for equitable cost and benefit-sharing and for full and effective participation of indigenous and local communities, related to protected areas, in accordance with national laws and applicable international obligations;
(b)Recognize the role of indigenous and local community conserved areas and conserved areas of other stakeholders in biodiversity conservation, collaborative management and diversification of governance types;
(c)Recalling paragraph 6 of decision IX/18 A, develop appropriate mechanisms for the recognition and support of indigenous and community conserved areas (ICCAs), inter alia, through formal acknowledgement, inclusion in listings or databases, legal recognition of community rights to land and/or resources, as appropriate, or incorporation of ICCAs into official protected area systems, with the approval and involvement of indigenous and local communities in accordance with national laws and applicable international obligations. Such mechanisms for recognition should respect the customary governance systems that have maintained ICCAs over time;
(d)Include indigenous and local communities in multi-stakeholder advisory committees, in consultations for national reporting on the programme of work on protected areas, and in national reviews of the effectiveness of protected area system;
(e)Conduct, where appropriate, assessment of governance of protected areas using toolkits prepared by the Secretariat, and conduct capacity building activities for protected area institutions and relevant stakeholders, with support from international organizations, non-governmental organizations and donor organizations, on the implementation of element 2, and especially on governance aspects of protected areas;

10.Reporting

28.Invites Parties to:
(a)Consider as part of national reporting, a simple and effective reporting process that tracks the overall status of the conservation of biodiversity within protected areas, as well as actions and outcomes of the programme of work on protected areas;
(b)Consider and adopt a reporting framework on national implementation of the programme of work on protected areas submitted by the Executive Secretary, taking into account the draft framework contained in document the addendum to the in-depth review of the programme of work on protected areas (UNEP/CBD/SBSTTA/14/5/Add.1), submissions made by the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice at its fourteenth meeting, and further consultations through an e–discussion forum and other means. This format will foster periodic updates using standardized, user-friendly, web-based frameworks;
(c)Consider voluntary in-depth reporting using standardized indexes and taxonomies including the proposed global registry of indigenous and community conserved areas, where applicable;
(d)Establish transparent and effective mechanisms for stakeholder input and review;
(e)Ensure that reporting on the programme of work on protected areas is clearly integrated with reporting on progress towards post-2010 biodiversity targets and indicators;
29.Requests the Executive Secretary to explore and communicate options for enhancing the review of progress and achievements of the implementation of the programme of work on protected areas by considering additional information to what is provided in national reports;
30.Encourages Parties to share and update relevant information on their protected areas system with the World Database on Protected Areas which includes the United Nations list of Protected Areas;

C.Target and time table issues

31.Requests the Executive Secretary to align the targets of the programme of work on protected areas with specific indicators and timelines that are based on agreed post-2010 targets and the revised Strategic Plan of the Convention on Biological Diversity;
32.Invites Parties to link these indicators and timelines to their national targets and indicators and use this framework to focus monitoring on the progress in the implementation of the programme of work on protected areas.

II.REQUEST TO THE EXECUTIVE SECRETARY

The Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice requests the Executive Secretary to prepare, for consideration by the Conference of Parties at its tenth meeting, a reporting framework on national implementation of the programme of work on protected areas, taking into account the draft framework contained in the addendum to the note by the Executive Secretary on in-depth review of the implementation of the programme of work on protected areas (UNEP/CBD/SBSTTA/14/5/Add.1), submissions made by the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice at its fourteenth meeting, and further consultations through an e–discussion forum and other means.