Background

In 2002, Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity adopted the Strategic Plan, committing themselves to more effective and coherent implementation of the objectives of the Convention to achieve, by 2010, a significant reduction in the current rate of biodiversity loss. The 2010 Target was subsequently endorsed by the World Summit on Sustainable Development in its Plan of Implementation (paragraph 44). Recognizing that, to achieve this target, more effective processes for evaluation, reporting and reviewing implementation of the Convention and the Strategic Plan were needed, the Conference of the Parties adopted decision VII/30, paragraph 23, establishing the Ad Hoc Open-ended Working Group on Review of Implementation of the Convention (WGRI).

WGRI 1

The first meeting of the Working Group was held in September 2005 in Montreal. The final report and recommendations of this meeting are available here.

WGRI 2

The eighth meeting of the Conference of the Parties decided that a second meeting of the Working Group on Review of Implementation of the Convention would be held prior to the ninth meeting of the Conference of the Parties (decision VIII/10, paragraph 24). In accordance with this decision, the second meeting of the Working Group was held from 9-13 July 2007 at UNESCO headquarters in Paris, back-to-back with the twelfth meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice.

The eighth meeting of the Conference of the Parties further decided that the Working Group would undertake an in-depth review of the implementation of goals 2 and 3 of the Strategic Plan (excluding consideration of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety), in accordance with decisions VIII/8 and VIII/13 on national biodiversity strategies and action plans, financial resources and the financial mechanism.

The Conference of the Parties made additional requests to the Working Group concerning guidance to the financial mechanism (decision VIII/18, paragraph 6), the Global Biodiversity Outlook (decision VIII/14, paragraph 18), and Operations of the Convention (decision VIII/10, paragraphs 35 and 39). The findings were reported to the Conference of the Parties at its ninth meeting in 2009.