UNEP Biodiversity meeting February 2006

Report on meeting on Issue-Based Modules for the coherent implementation of biodiversity conventions
Regional Workshop for Europe, Croatia 20-21 February 2006

Attended by Karin Dubsky Coastwatch

1. Summary
2. Matters arising
3. Finance
4. Papers

1. Summary
   A small 2 day meeting of experts, government officials from Nature and policy departments, and international bodies (UNEP, Ramsar, EEA. And IUCN) It had been called by UNEP and part paid by the EC.The purpose was to carry out an expert review of an ongoing short term project lead by UNEP to help improve implementation of biodiversity related conventions (or in their words ‘multinational environmental agreements – MEAs)The project was to examine how 5 main MEAs cover 4 high profile topics:
   Inland Waters
   Invasive Alien Species
   Sustainable use of resources
   Climate change

   The approach was to trawl through the Biodiversity , the Ramsar, the Bern and the Aarhus Conventions as well as CITES to find where the 4 topics were mentioned and in what context. Then to produce a web site with each of the topics as one separate module for which all relevant obligations for signatories in the conventions are presented.. The web tool is interactive and is aimed at a wide user audience. It has both a short semi layman’s language version of the convention texts and a link to the full convention. So if you are working say on invasive alien species, you can see under what Convention assessment, reporting, prevention, or eradication are required and what specifically.

   Then as extra feature you can click on a country of choice and pull up which of the conventions it has ratified and hence which obligations apply nationally.

   Assessment: I am really weak in using such tools but found it excellent to get an overview and home in on a section of interest. Having just gone around in circles trying to identify how one might deal with an invasive alien brown sea weed recorded for the first time in Bannow Bay – I can see how I would have saved myself time if I had known all the Conventions and directives which cover it and could have asked more targeted questions (of the EEA data base and the people one still has to find !!! in different departments)

   From feedback of governments especially pilot countries which have tested it, application in training new staff to get an overview of the conventions and who nationally is dealing with what aspects has proved useful already. One is also planning streamlining of reporting, as in the past different officials might report in parallel on similar sites ( eg Ramsar and Natura 2000.

   After their first trawl they expanded the list of Conventions and regional agreements including EU law. So one is now looking at a well presented mountain of obligations, some legally binding, some morally binding. See www.svs-unepibmdb.net

   The pilot modules were presented together with possible adaptations and uses around the world. They are also being tested in Africa and are now available as draft 2 in Russian, English and French. Translation into other languages will follow after the trial is completed in June this year.

   At COP VIII in March a launch of the almost final version is planned to give one further opportunity of wider bidi interest feedbacks.

   There are still a number of challenges, not least how to ensure upkeep. This was only a short project with no assured future. To be useful, such a website (and CD version) has to be maintained and updated with new obligations or – hopefully more streamlined ones. Financial backing for that is not yet assured. But if enough countries want it or a donor is found, it will go onto the main UNEP website (from present obscure position) At the end of the meeting we drafted a motion for COP VIII to consider it

   EEA approach:
   For EU countries there is a super extra tool to use on the EEA website. The Irish EEA rep introduced the EEA’s Reporting Obligations Database or ROD, which tabulates all obligations with deadlines and details on format of reporting under all environmental decisions and laws for both conventions and EU law for each EU member state. It even gives information on deliveries – see http://rod.eionet

   On its own, it is a very useful tool for those who already know the legislation, or are working on reporting on an area and want to plan staff work and deadlines etc. But if read together with the UNEP site which actually goes into the conventions and EU laws, their text, their goals etc a complete picture emerges. What seems like very daunting monitor and report tasks in the EEA list are put into context of their original env. protection, health and management goals through the conventions.

   Follow Up:

   1. UNEP and IUCN are really keen to get feedback on their draft and would like to include short use case studies on the final web version.
   2. Try using the websites. If you do, you can deal with point 1 above too.
      NOTE: not everything we saw is fully uploaded on the web and changes we suggested wont be up till end of next week. Have a quick look now anyway.
   3. Capacity building workshop to use this? I would be happy to do a short overview of the project demonstrating some uses. Or even better, the main consultant who did the module design and worked on the inland waters module is in Cambridge. He would in principle be prepared to do a training workshop with us. ‘us’ could be all gov and NGO. I told him it wasn’t a consultant’s job, but one of being nice to your neighbour. So expenses only and that it depended on what you all thought. He is also a bird counter so would be interested to get out and see ours. No better place than Dub bay this time of year. Was a really nice guy.

   Please give feedback.

   Papers:
   I will deposit complete copy of handouts in EENGO office today. Will make email version available on request. Too big a file to send all.

   Date: 24.2.06