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E/CN.17/1997/2/Add.14 |
Economic and Social Council
Distr. GENERAL
21 January 1997
ORIGINAL: ENGLISH
COMMISSION ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Fifth session
7-25 April 1997
Overall progress achieved since the United Nations
Conference on Environment and Development
Report of the Secretary-General
Addendum
Conservation of biological diversity *
(Chapter 15 of Agenda 21)
(* The report was prepared by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP),
as task manger for chapter 15 of Agenda 21, in accordance with arrangements
agreed to by the Inter-Agency Committee on Sustainable Development (IACSD).
It is the result of consultation and information exchange between United
Nations agencies, international and national and non-governmental
organizations, interested government agencies and a range of other
institutions and individuals.)
CONTENTS
Paragraphs Page
I. KEY OBJECTIVES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 - 2 2
II. SUCCESSES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 - 12 2
III. PROMISING CHANGES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 - 15 4
IV. UNFULFILLED EXPECTATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 - 23 4
V. EMERGING PRIORITIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 - 31 6
I. KEY OBJECTIVES
1. The present report reviews progress made in the implementation of the
objectives set out in chapter 15 of Agenda 21 (Conservation of biological
diversity), taking into account the decisions taken by the Commission on
Sustainable Development on that subject at its third session, in 1995. The
objectives and activities recommended in chapter 15 of Agenda 21 are to
improve the conservation of biological diversity and the sustainable use of
biological resources. The objectives related to the conservation of
biodiversity are also addressed in the various provisions of the Convention on
Biological Diversity and other related agreements.
2. The key objectives of chapter 15 of Agenda 21 concern the wide
ratification and implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity and
related agreements, and action plans will go a long way towards meeting those
objectives. At its third session, in April 1995, the Commission on
Sustainable Development stressed that the conservation of biological diversity
and the sustainable use of its components cut across a wide spectrum of
sectoral and cross-sectoral issues addressed in Agenda 21, and that the extent
to which developing country Parties effectively implemented their commitments
under the Convention would depend on the effective implementation by developed
countries Parties of their commitments related to financial resources and the
transfer of technology. The Commission recognized that the Convention
provides a principal mechanism for advancing the objectives of chapter 15.
II. SUCCESSES
3. The objectives of chapter 15 of Agenda 21 and those of the Convention on
Biological Diversity, which came into force on 29 December 1993, set the stage
for intensive action and consultation, creating an opportunity for cooperation
among Governments, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations,
national and regional institutions, communities, target groups and individuals
in the area of the conservation of biological diversity and the sustainable
use of biological resources.
4. The Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice
(SBSTTA) has been established pursuant to article 25 of the Convention. The
main task of that body is to provide the Conference of the Parties with
scientific advice in order to facilitate the implementation of the Convention.
The main issues that have emerged during SBSTTA sessions have been detailed
technical issues, such as how to promote access to and transfer of technology,
the development of monitoring systems and assessments, and issues dealing with
agricultural, terrestrial, marine and coastal biodiversity and traditional
knowledge.
5. Article 39 of the Convention appointed, on an interim basis, the Global
Environmental Facility (GEF) to develop operation programmes based on
ecosystems, using Conference of the Parties guidance and criteria of species
diversity, endemism and degree of threat. Initially, those long-term
operational programmes will focus on arid and semi-arid ecosystems. Their
goals include progress in securing global biodiversity objectives and
providing a framework for the design and implementation of national actions
involving the coordination of international, intersectoral and inter-agency
activities. In 1995, the GEF Council approved US $24 million for the small
grants programme. In that programme, which is mainly focusing on community-
based activities, 147 grants have been approved within the area of
biodiversity. A clearing-house mechanism to promote technical and scientific
cooperation was launched by the Convention secretariat in 1996.
6. The second meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention,
held in 1995, marked the beginning of the implementation of the principles of
the Convention. A framework for global action was adopted that promotes
support for and cooperation with other international bodies, and the
development of a programme of work for the Convention process.
7. The Convention is evolving as a policy guidance body that seeks to
promote action through existing institutions, as illustrated by the focus of
decisions on framework programmes and guidance statements. The ability of the
Conference of the Parties to the Convention to monitor its implementation will
be enhanced by the analysis of national reports submitted by parties from 1997
on and the periodic publication of the Global Biodiversity Outlook.
8. The third meeting of the Conference of the Parties, held in November
1996 at Buenos Aires, highlighted the critical areas shared by the Convention
and the objectives of sustainable development outlined in chapter 15 of Agenda
21.
9. A permanent secretariat has been established to ensure the effective
implementation of the Convention under the guidance of the Conference of the
Parties, and has commenced its work. National, regional and international
initiatives in response to the various objectives of the Convention and
chapter 15 of Agenda 21 have been made. Capacity-building to address
scientific, technical, social and economic issues has been and continues to be
instituted, and policy and legislative responses to the Convention have been
or are in the process of being put in place.
10. The secretariat of the Convention is collaborating and cooperating with
relevant United Nations entities, such as UNEP, the Food and Agriculture
Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the United Nations Conference
on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the United Nations Development Programme,
the World Meteorological Organization, the World Trade Organization and the
World Bank, as well as international non-governmental organizations, such as
the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources -
World Conservation Union (IUCN) and the World Wide Fund for Nature, in
organizing training activities and regional meetings aimed at capacity-
building and human resources development on the subject of biodiversity
conservation and sustainable use.
11. As a cooperative activity of UNEP, the World Resources Institute (WRI)
and IUCN, a set of guidelines on the preparation of biodiversity strategies
and action plans was prepared and global biodiversity forums were organized to
assist Governments and the public in integrating biodiversity components in
improving the understanding of the role of biodiversity in sustainable
development and in monitoring implementation and the reporting of progress
made.
12. Many United Nations entities and non-governmental organizations have
strengthened their activities on the economics of biological diversity so as
to promote the use and development of economic instruments supportive of the
implementation of the objectives of chapter 15 of Agenda 21 and the Convention
on Biological Diversity.
III. PROMISING CHANGES
13. With the Convention now entering its second phase and the guidance of
the Commission, it is anticipated that Governments will move to integrate the
conservation of biological diversity and the sustainable use of biological
resources into national development plans and sectoral policies. National
reports on country activities on biodiversity are due by 1 January 1998. As
implementation gains momentum worldwide, Governments will increasingly
recognize the importance of the conservation of biological diversity and the
sustainable use of biological resources to their political agenda for socio-
economic development.
14. The Seville Strategy on Biosphere Reserves adopted by UNESCO, the FAO
Report on the Status of the World's Plant Genetic Resources, and the Global
Plan of Action for the Conservation and Sustainable Utilization of Plant
Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture adopted at the International
Technical Conference on Plant Genetic Resources (Leipzig, 1996) have together
focused worldwide attention on the contribution of the Global Network of
Biosphere Reserves and the Global Plan of Action on Plant Genetic Resources to
the implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity.
15. The Intergovernmental Panel on Forests, in the consideration of its 11
priority issues, has included the conservation and sustainable use of
biological diversity in a cross-sectoral manner. The progress made in
integrating relevant biodiversity concerns in all the forests priority issues
of the Panel's programme of work was duly reflected in the reports of the
Secretary-General to the Panel at its third session (Geneva, 9-20 September
1996). Areas of the Panel's work programme identified as the most relevants
ones for integrating forest and biodiversity are national forest programmes;
underlying causes of deforestation; traditional forest-related knowledge;
trade in forest products and services; valuation of the multiple benefits of
forests; qualitative forest assessment; and criteria and indicators for
forests sustainability. Both the Panel and Conference of the Parties to the
Convention have recognized the importance of the fruitful cooperation and
mutually supportive working relation established between the two
intergovernmental processes.
IV. UNFULFILLED EXPECTATIONS
16. Although Governments, relevant United Nations bodies, non-governmental
organizations and major groups, among others, have made great strides in
meeting the formidable challenges inherent in the implementation of objectives
and activities contained in the Convention and hence chapter 15 of Agenda 21,
there are a number of key areas in which expectations remain unfulfilled,
including (a) insufficient new and additional financial resources; (b)
transfer of technologies for conservation and sustainable use of biological
diversity; (c) equitable sharing of benefits; (d) failure to integrate
biodiversity into sectoral plans and national systems of accounts; (e) lack of
incentives at the national, regional and global levels; and (f) rehabilitation
and restoration of degraded ecosystems.
17. The insufficiency of new and additional financial resources envisaged
under the Convention has had its telling effects on the efforts of all
stakeholders in the field of biodiversity conservation and the sustainable use
of genetic resources, particularly in developing countries. Part of the
problem is insufficient national capabilities (human, technical and financial
capabilities), so that its solution will require strengthening such
capabilities.
18. It was expected that a permanent institutional structure for operating
the financial mechanism under the Convention would be decided upon at the
second meeting of the Conference of the Parties in Jakarta. The Conference of
the Parties decided that the restructured GEF should continue, on an interim
basis, to serve as the institutional structure on an interim basis, and in its
decisions II/6 and II/7 instructed GEF to facilitate urgent implementation of
articles 6 and 8 of the Convention by making available to developing country
Parties financial resources for projects in a flexible and expeditious manner.
It is hoped that the issue of replenishment of GEF and the level of funding by
developed country Parties will meet the expectations of the Conference of the
Parties for new and additional financial resources for the conservation and
sustainable use of biological diversity.
19. Transfer of technologies relevant for the conservation and sustainable
use of biological diversity continues to be a major area of unfulfilled
expectations of most developing country Parties, who require those
technologies in order to make use of their genetic resources sustainably
without causing damage to the environment.
20. The failure to integrate biodiversity concerns into sectoral plans and
national systems of accounts has hitherto been attributable to the lack of
comprehensive methodologies for that purpose. However, significant progress
is anticipated in that area, as more and more countries develop their national
biodiversity strategies and action plans using the new UNEP/WRI/IUCN
biodiversity planning guidelines. Considerable emphasis is laid in those
guidelines on the need for incorporating appropriate incentive measures to
underpin in situ and ex situ biodiversity conservation and its sustainable
use, and to recognize and reward efforts by local and/or indigenous
populations adjacent to protected areas.
21. Countries are still a long way from attaining the objective of providing
incentive measures to enhance local benefits from biodiversity, including
establishing secure property or use rights; providing education and relevant
technologies; providing compensation for damage to crops, livestock and other
property damaged by wild animals/predators; involving local communities in
biodiversity management; and providing endowment funds or other financial
mechanisms that ensure predictable and secure sources of income, such as user
fees, franchises, land-use taxes and bonds.
22. The restoration and rehabilitation of habitats, which depend on the
availability of material and its multiplication ex situ, will come to play
increasingly major roles in re-establishing the integrity of degraded and
damaged ecosystems. Expectations were high in the minds of the negotiators of
the Convention regarding the possible rehabilitation and restoration of
degraded and damaged ecosystems through the application of ecological
principles and science and technology. The mounting pressure on existing
ecosystems and the threat of their further degradation, however, gives much
cause for alarm in view of the apparent inaction on already degraded
ecosystems. Part of the problem is attributed to the absence of adequate
national and regional capacities to deal with the problem in terms of the
expert human resources required, including the need for technical,
technological and infrastructural requirements.
23. Capacity-building initiatives would help, and the Conference of the
Parties to the Convention, at its third meeting, directed GEF to address that
issue. Committed trainers, educators and skilled people are the key to the
successful maintenance and sustainable use of biodiversity. To build adequate
and effective national capacity and expertise, there is a need to reorient the
thrust of current training programmes. An essential element in the training
of the next generation of professionals will require a new focus on the
broader aspects of resources management and the critical role of maintaining
adequate levels of biodiversity in conjunction with the management of
forestry, fisheries and agriculture. Training of more skilled scientists must
be provided for those developing and safe-guarding ex situ and in situ
facilities of all kinds.
V. EMERGING PRIORITIES
24. Over the years since the United Nations Conference on Environment and
Development, a number of issues have emerged requiring urgent resolution in
order to firmly secure the gains made in the field of biodiversity, including
(a) focus on marine and aquatic biodiversity issues; (b) the crucial role of
forests in conserving biological diversity; (c) greater awareness/advocacy for
benefit sharing and equity; (d) biosafety issues; (e) the need for
understanding ecosystem functioning; (f) the crucial role of biodiversity
economics; (g) the FAO Undertaking on Plant Genetic Resources; (h)
implementation of environmental impact assessments, taking into account
relevant socio-economic and cultural aspects; (i) a greater role for private
sector involvement; and (j) the importance of the precautionary approach and
the users pay principle.
25. Recognition of and reward for traditional knowledge and practices of
local communities and indigenous people, the role of women in the biodiversity
arena, and the responsibility of the relevant private-sector entities have all
generated a great deal of scope and hope for more effective means to provide
incentives for conservation and the sustainable use of biodiversity and its
components.
26. Issues of biosafety have emerged with regard to national capacity needed
for the implementation of effective in situ conservation measures, through
establishing and maintaining the means to regulate, manage or control risks
associated with invasive species and/or the use and release of living modified
organisms resulting from biotechnology and likely to have adverse
environmental impacts on the conservation and sustainable use of biological
diversity. The biosafety issue, in particular the public perception of the
impact of biotechnology research, development and applications, is receiving
due global attention and global consensus is building rapidly.
27. A greater understanding of ecosystem functioning through research and
monitoring is needed not only with respect to the impact of invasive species
and modified living organisms on the environment but also, as noted above, for
the formulation, adoption and implementation of appropriate strategies and
action plans that integrate the various biodiversity values of the ecosystems
into the national development plans and sectoral policies.
28. The critical importance of integrating various biodiversity values for
conservation and sustainable use has made biodiversity economics an especially
challenging subject for the estimation of benefits derived from biological
resources. Measuring the economic values of biological resources demands a
great deal of information and appropriate methodologies. Application of such
methodologies will shed more light on the socio-economic and scientific/
ecological aspects of the ecosystems valuation, and will benefit all
stakeholders in their various biodiversity-related pursuits. It is important
to demonstrate through biodiversity economics the relationship between
economics, international trade and biodiversity to enable national
Governments, local communities and the private sector to capture and share
equitably the benefit of economic incentives for the sustainable use of
genetic resources. The globalization of the economy and liberalization of
markets should not lead to negative impacts in economics or the ecology of
nations. Another relevant development in this regard is the UNCTAD BIOTRADE
Initiative, which can be seen as a contribution in the area of economic
valuation and economic incentive measures for promoting the conservation and
sustainable use of biological diversity.
29. The need to conserve the biotic wealth of aquatic ecosystems and the
principles for doing so are less appreciated than for terrestrial ecosystems.
The conservation and sustainable use of marine and aquatic biodiversity that
lags decades behind is an emerging issue under the Convention on Biological
Diversity and the Programme of Action for the Sustainable Development of Small
Island Developing States that requires a major focus globally.
30. Carrying out environmental impact assessments (EIAs) of proposed
projects, programmes and plans likely to have significant adverse effects on
biological diversity remains a major challenge, and is an issue that is
attaining increasing importance for decision makers and those responsible for
implementing policy. The economic challenge in managing biodiversity is to
balance the benefits derived from sustainable resource use/conservation
against the social and other costs caused by unsustainable use or non-use.
The challenge to policy makers and those responsible for implementing policy
is to develop institutional capacity for EIAs as well as to develop, adopt and
apply methodologies that will confront resource users with the full social
costs of their current or intended activities. A wide variety of sectors that
have not hitherto examined the implications or consequences of their
activities upon conservation and the sustainable use of biodiversity must be
subjected to EIAs to determine environmental, economic and social costs and
benefits.
31. A greater role for private-sector involvement in the sustainable use of
biodiversity is emerging, and calls for priority attention by Governments in
their efforts to address the issues of poverty and inequitable distribution of
income and assets, both of which are causes and consequences of biodiversity
loss and/or overexploitation. Private-sector participation is important in
the formulation of economic and financial policies that could help address or
redress market failures by capturing for the nation and its local populations
the benefits from goods and services derived from biodiversity, especially
biotechnology, which holds great promise for increasing the benefits from
biodiversity. Cooperation and corporate responsibility of the private sector
in acknowledging and addressing public concerns over unintended consequences
of technological applications, including biotechnology, are essential for the
success of economic and financial policies of Governments, including the
implementation of transparent EIAs on proposed projects.
Note
1/ See Report of the United Nations Conference on Environment and
Development, vol. I, Resolutions Adopted by the Conference (United Nations
publication, Sales No. E.93.I.8 and corrigendum), resolution 1, annex II.
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Date last posted: 10 December 1999 17:25:35
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