Measuring progress in nature conservation against the CBD and PEBLDS

About the project

The European Environment Ministers set the ambitious goal to halt the loss of biodiversity by 2010 at the Kyiv Ministerial Conference in May 2003. Thus they reinforced the commitments undertaken at the Gothenburg Summit of the European Council by EU Member States, and went beyond the target of the Strategic Plan for the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg to reach a significant reduction in the curr ent rate of loss of biological diversity. However considering the current trends threatening biological diversity on different levels, and the challenge of making progress towards the 2010 target, it must be acknowledged that substantial changes are required in all areas of policy forming.

There are valuable policy tools that could be utilised in the efforts towards the 2010 target, namely the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and its regional arm for implementation, the Pan-European Biological and Landscape Diversity Strategy (PEBLDS). Their goals and objectives, as well as the supporting guidance, work programmes should be duly taken into account in responsible policy- and decision-making. Nevertheless these international policy-making tools and the 2010 target are largely invisible in the governmental sector, among the NGOs and the public, and thus they are not utilised in their full potential. It is especially difficult to put these policy-making tools into practice due to their complexity, as well as the insufficient knowledge among decision-makers on them.

Thus four South East European NGOs (BIOTICA Ecological Society from Moldova, Green Action from Croatia, Makmontana from Macedonia and Young Researchers of Serbia) under the coordination of the CEEweb for Biodiversity launched a one-year project in 2005 for the incorporation of the CBD and PEBLDS into national policies and decisions and raising awareness on them. It included communication and public participation activities in different aspects of the implementation of the CBD and PEBLDS (legislative procedures, protected area management, international cooperation, campaigns, etc.).

At the beginning of the project the project partners took part at a training on these tools (29-31 March, 2005 Zagreb, Croatia) and gained an insight into the commitments of the articles and the guidance provided by the decisions of the Conference of the Parties of CBD. Besides, they could learn about the international practices for the effective implementation.

The mid-term meeting between 10-11 July (see it on photos) provided opportunity to discuss first experiences from the project and brainstorm on future ones. Unclear points within the project implementation were clarified and possible continuation of the project was also discussed.

The 4th Biodiversity in Europe Conference held in Croatia between 21-25 February provided the opportunity for a final meeting within the project, where the partners could share their experiences and recommendations with other NGOs from the region.

The final reports summarise the national project activities in lobbying and decision making and evaluate the CBD and PEBLDS as lobbying tools to be used by NGOs.

The project was realised with the generous support of the Swiss Agency for Environment, Forest and Landscape.