Annex
DECISION VIII/9: IMPLICATIONS OF THE FINDINGS
OF THE MILLENNIUM ECOSYSTEM ASSESSMENT
THE CONFERENCE
OF THE
PARTIES
1. Acknowledges the reports of the Millennium
Ecosystem Assessment, in particular the Synthesis Report on Biodiversity
(UNEP/CBD/SBSTTA/11/INF/22) and its summary for decision makers,
as well as other reports, including the General Synthesis Report,
synthesis reports on Desertification, Human Health, and Wetlands
and Water, the report on Opportunities and Challenges for Business
and Industry, and the reports of the four working groups on, respectively,
current status and trends, scenarios, policy responses, and multi-scale
assessments, recognizing that these reports include key findings
relevant to the implementation of the Convention's programmes
of work;
2. Commends the ongoing efforts made by
the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment to make available the summary
and synthesis reports in the official languages of the United
Nations and invites Parties, other Governments and relevant donors
to provide support to complete this process;
3. Notes the successful use of indicators
in the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, including those indicators
of the framework contained in decision VII/30, for communicating
trends in biodiversity and highlighting its importance to human
well-being, and further notes the need for additional and improved
measures of biodiversity and ecosystem services at all scales,
in order to facilitate the application of indicators at the national
level, assist in communication, set achievable targets, enhance
mutual supportiveness between biodiversity conservation and other
objectives, and optimize responses;
4. Takes note of the main findings of the
Biodiversity Synthesis Report, namely that:
(a) Biodiversity is being lost at rates unprecedented
in human history;
(b) Losses of biodiversity and decline of
ecosystem services constitute a concern for human well-being,
especially for the well-being of the poorest;
(c) The costs of biodiversity loss borne
by society are rarely assessed, but evidence suggests that they
are often greater than the benefits gained through ecosystem changes;
(d) The drivers of loss of biodiversity and
the drivers of change in ecosystem services are either steady,
show no evidence of declining over time, or are increasing in
intensity;
(e) Many successful response options have
been used, but further progress in addressing biodiversity loss
will require additional actions to address the main drivers of
biodiversity loss; and
(f) Unprecedented additional efforts will
be required to achieve, by 2010, a significant reduction in the
rate of biodiversity loss at all levels;
5. Notes the key messages contained in the
Biodiversity Synthesis Report;
6. Noting that the Millennium Ecosystem
Assessment finds that the degradation of ecosystem services could
significantly increase during the first half of this century,
and is a barrier to achieving the Millennium Development Goals,
and that, at the same time, many of the actions being undertaken
to promote economic development and reduce hunger and poverty
could contribute to the loss of biodiversity, emphasizes that
the Millennium Development Goals, the 2010 target of significantly
reducing the rate of biodiversity loss, and other internationally
agreed targets related to biodiversity, environmental sustainability
and development need to be pursued in an integrated manner;
7. Noting the new and significant evidence
presented in the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, urges Parties,
other Governments and relevant organizations to strengthen their
efforts and take the measures necessary to meet the 2010 target
adopted in the Strategic Plan of the Convention, and the goals
and sub-targets annexed to decision VII/30, taking into account
the special needs, circumstances and priorities of developing
countries, in particular the least developed countries and small
island developing States among them, and countries with economies
in transition;
8. Invites the Global Environment Facility,
in coordination with the Executive Secretary, to identify gaps
and needs in relation to existing financial resources, until 2010,
to meet the unprecedented additional efforts needed to significantly
reduce the rate of biodiversity loss and maintain the provision
of ecosystem goods and services;
9. Noting the finding of the Millennium
Ecosystem Assessment that an increase in average global temperature
of two degrees or more above pre-industrial temperatures will
give rise to globally significant impacts on ecosystems, with
significant consequences for livelihoods, urges Parties and other
Governments, where appropriate, to meet their commitments under,
and to take cognizance of, the provisions of the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Kyoto Protocol,
in order to avoid dangerous impacts;
10. Mindful that the loss of biodiversity
is continuing, and recognizing the inertia in ecological systems
and in the drivers of biodiversity loss and therefore the need
for longer-term targets, decides to consider, at its ninth meeting,
the need to review and update targets as part of the process of
revising the Strategic Plan beyond 2010;
11. Recognizes that the main drivers of
biodiversity loss differ among regions and countries;
12. Decides to consider the findings of
the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment in the implementation and
the future review of the programmes of work and cross-cutting
issues under the Convention;
13. Notes in particular the urgent need
to address the issues which the Assessment finds most significant
at the global level in terms of their impacts on biodiversity
and consequences for human well-being, such as:
Land use change and other habitat transformation;
(a) The consequences of over-fishing;
(b) Desertification and degradation in dry
and sub-humid lands;
(c) The multiple drivers of change to inland
water ecosystems;
(d) Increasing nutrient loading in ecosystems;
(e) The introduction of invasive alien species;
and
(f) The rapidly increasing impacts of climate
change;
14. Aware in particular of the impacts of
these issues on the conservation and customary use of biodiversity
by local and indigenous communities, and the consequences for
their well-being, emphasizes the need for dialogue with such communities;
15. Aware also of the inter-sectoral nature
of many of these issues, urges Parties and other Governments to
promote dialogue among different sectors, to mainstream biodiversity,
at the regional and national levels including, when appropriate,
through the processes of the Convention, to address linkages between
the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity and, among
others, international trade, finance, agriculture, forestry, tourism,
mining, energy and fisheries, in order to contribute to the more
effective implementation of the Convention, in particular its
Article 6;
16. Recognizing that these issues are the
concern of a number of other international and regional conventions
and processes, encourages Parties and other Governments to also
address these issues within these other international conventions
and regional processes;
17. Requests the Executive Secretary to
bring the findings of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment to the
attention of the liaison group of the biodiversity-related conventions,
and to other multilateral environmental agreements and relevant
international and regional processes, with a view to explore options,
within their respective mandates and, as appropriate, for joint
activities to successfully address and respond to the direct and
indirect drivers of biodiversity loss;
18. Aware of the impacts of the inequalities
in the use of resources and the implications of this imbalance
for the drivers of biodiversity loss, urges Parties to change
unsustainable patterns of production and consumption that impact
on biodiversity, taking into account the Rio Declaration on Environment
and Development, including, inter alia, the principle of common
but differentiated responsibilities, as set out in Article 7 of
the Rio Declaration, as well as the provisions of the Johannesburg
Plan of Implementation;
19. Aware also of the need to improve knowledge
of trends in biodiversity, and understanding of its value, including
its role in the provision of ecosystem services, as a means of
improving decision-making at global, regional, national and local
levels, and also recognizing cross-scale interactions in ecosystems,
urges Parties, other Governments and relevant organizations, including
scientific bodies, to increase support for and coordinate research,
inter alia, to improve: basic knowledge and understanding of biodiversity
and its components; monitoring systems; measures of biodiversity;
biodiversity valuation; models of change in biodiversity, ecosystem
functioning and ecosystem services; and understanding of thresholds;
20. Requests the Executive Secretary, in
collaboration with relevant organizations, taking into account
the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment scenarios, to assist Parties
in the development of appropriate regionally-based response scenarios
within the framework of the Convention's programmes of work, and
to coordinate these efforts with other international and regional
organizations involved with work on scenarios;
21. Requests the Subsidiary Body on Scientific,
Technical and Technological Advice to take note in its deliberations
of the linkages between biodiversity and relevant socio-economic
issues and analysis, including economic drivers of biodiversity
change, valuation of biodiversity and its components, and of the
ecosystem services provided, as well as biodiversity's role in
poverty alleviation and achieving the Millennium Development Goals;
22. Requests the Subsidiary Body on Scientific,
Technical and Technological Advice and invites Parties to draw
upon the lessons learned from the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment
process, including the sub-global assessments, and to make use
as appropriate of its conceptual framework and methodologies in
further developing work on environmental impact assessment, strategic
environmental assessment and the ecosystem approach;
23. Encourages Parties and other Governments
to conduct national and other sub-global assessments making use
of the conceptual framework and methodologies of the Millennium
Ecosystem Assessment, as appropriate, and invites the Global Environment
Facility and bilateral and multilateral funding organizations,
as appropriate, to provide funding for these assessments;
24. Requests the Executive Secretary to
draw upon relevant information from the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment
and other relevant sources in the preparation of future editions
of the Global Biodiversity Outlook and meeting documentation;
25. Invites Parties and the Executive Secretary
to use all relevant Millennium Ecosystem Assessment reports, as
appropriate, in strengthening dialogue with other stakeholders,
including the private sector, and to promote the wider dissemination
of the findings contained in these reports, including through
the clearing-house mechanism;
26. Encourages Parties, other Governments
and relevant organizations to make use, as appropriate, of the
methodologies and conceptual framework of the Millennium Ecosystem
Assessment;
27. Emphasizes the need for contributions
of Parties, other Governments and relevant organizations for capacity-building
to support integrated ecosystem assessment and improvement of
knowledge and understanding about trends in biodiversity, ecosystem
goods and services and human well-being, through the provision
of adequate resources and the dissemination of findings, methodologies
and procedures of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, especially
in developing countries, in particular the least developed countries
and small island developing States among these, and countries
with economies in transition;
28. Requests the Subsidiary Body on Scientific,
Technical and Technological Advice and the Executive Secretary
to contribute to the evaluation of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment,
due to be undertaken during 2007 by the institutions represented
on the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment Board, focusing in particular
on the impact of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment on implementation
of the Convention at global, regional, national and local levels;
29. Decides to consider, at its ninth meeting,
the evaluation of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment to be undertaken
during 2007, and the need for another integrated assessment of
biodiversity and ecosystems, taking into account the future plans
of the Global Biodiversity Outlook, as well as the outcomes of
the current and future processes of the Global Environment Outlook
of the United Nations Environment Programme, and scientific assessments
that may be undertaken by the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical
and Technological Advice;
30. Also decides to consider, at its ninth
meeting, taking into account the results of other relevant processes,
options for improving the availability to the Subsidiary Body
on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice of scientific
information and advice on biodiversity, keeping in mind the need
to avoid duplication of efforts.
October 2006
|
