9 . ^^n>^ UCMCfvJ ^"TO A/nj 0-4 CBD Distr. CONVENTION ON GENERAL BIOLOGICAL UNEP/CBD/SBSTTA/9/INF/1 DIVERSITY 10October2003 ENGLISHONLY SUBSIDIARY BODY ON SCIENTIFIC.TECHNICAL AND TECHNOLOGICALADVICE Ninthmeeting Montreal, 10-14November2003 Item5.3 oftheprovisionalagenda* BIODIVERSITYINDICATORS FORNATIONAL USE: PRELIMINARYLESSONS FROM THE GEF PROJECT Progressreportbythe WorldConservationMonitoringCentreofthe UnitedNationsEnvironment Programme (UNEP-WCMC) andtheNationalInstituteforPublicHealthandEnvironmentinthe Netherlands(RIVM) NotebytheExecutiveSecretary 1. In January 2002, the Global Environment Facility (GEF) decided to support the medium-sized regional project on biodiversity indicators for national use. The project aims at operationalizing ecosystem-specific indicatorframeworksandcore setsofindicators foruse atnational level,usingacase- studyapproachandbuildingonworkalreadycarriedoutundertheConventiononBiologicalDiversity. 2. The attached progress report on theproject isbeing circulated forthe information ofparticipants in the ninth meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA). It was prepared by the World Conservation Monitoring Centre of the United Nations Envirormient Programme (UNEP-WCMC) and the National Institute forPublic Health and Enviroimient in the Netherlands (RIVM) and is being circulated in the language and form in which it was receivedby theSecretariatoftheConventiononBiologicalDiversity. UNEP/CBD/SBSTTA/9/1 Forreasonsofeconomy,thisdocumentisprintedtnalimitednumber. Delegatesarekindlyrequestedtobringtheircopiestomeetingsandnot torequestadditionalcopies UNEP/CBD/SBSTTA/9/INF/19 Page 2 BIODIVERSITY INDICATORS FORNATIONAL USE: PRELIMINARYLESSONSFROMTHE GEFPROJECT The CBD and SBSTTA have repeatedly identified the importance of indicators of biodiversity for tracking progress in the implementation of the Convention and in biodiversity conservation more generally (UNEP/CBD/SBSTT.4/3/9 and inf.U, UNEP/CBD/SBSTTA/7/12 and SBSTTA recommendations V/11 andVII/11). Atnational level,biodiversity indicators are the informationtoolsneededbycountriesto summarisedataoncomplex andsometimesconflictingenvironmental issuestoindicatetheoverallstatusand trendsoftheirbiodiversity. The CBD has called on institutions and Parties to develop such indicators and in 1996 (decision 111/10) specifically recommended that countries should implement pilot projects to advance the development ofbiodiversity indicators for national use. In response to this call, the Global Environment Facility has supported a medium sized project. Biodiversity Indicators for National Use (BFNU), which is also funded by the governments of Switzerland,.the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. The BINU projectwasoriginallyconceivedandproposed during aworkshop atLakeNaivasha, Kenya in June 2000, and implementationbegan formally in July 2002. It involves efforts by fourpartner countries to develop biodiversity indicators, each for a single focal ecosystem, which are appropriate for use to support policy and decision-making atnational level. The fourcountrypartners are: Ecuador, addressing forests and terrestrial ecosystems more generally; Kenya, working on wetlands; the Philippines, addressing marine ecosystems; and the Ukraine, which is addressing agricultural biodiversity. Details of the executing agencies in each country are provided in the annex below. The project is flmded through UNEP-GEF, with co-financing from the governments ofthe UK, the Netherlands and Switzerland. It is coordinated by the UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC), withaddedtechnical support from National Institute for Public Health and Environment in the Netherlands (RJVM). Further information on the project and its participants is available through the project's central website (http://sea.unep-wcmc.org/collaborations/BINU/index.cfm) andthelinksitprovidesto thewebsites ofthe nationalprojectcomponents. In each participating country, the project teams follow a series of steps that are analogous to those recommendedby the recent CBD expert meeting report (UNEP/CBD/SBSTTA/9/INF/7) asbeing crucial to biodiversity indicator development (Figure 1). They identify and consult with a broad range of stakeholdersto identifykeyquestions aboutbiodiversityofinterest to policy anddecision-makers. Close examination ofpolicy objectives and targets also plays an important role in identifying key questions, as does the use offrameworks, such as pressure-state-response to organise the questions. Project partners then locate and gather appropriate data and select the indicators that could be developed with the data available. Repeated consultation with stakeholders helps to refine both the key questions and the indicators selected. The final project outputs will include guidelines for indicator development and use based on the project experience and indicator portfolios for the focal ecosystem in each participating country. The process of implementing the project will itselfpromote the implementation ofthe CBD withintheparticipatingcountries. The partners have proceeded rapidly with project implementation, and institutional roles and responsibilities are well established. The identification ofkey stakeholders and their initial consultation has been completed in all four countries, and more in-depth consultations have been carried out with some important specific groups and sectors. The consultation process has helped the partners to identify key questions that biodiversity indicators should address within each national context and focal ecosystem, andinitial surveys ofdataavailabilityhavebeencarriedoutbyallthepartners. Theresultsof these initial steps in the project were compared and commonalities and divergences of experience identified during a mid-term workshop held in Cambridge in July 2003. The national partners are now proceeding with the identification and implementation ofindicators based on the available data that are /... UNEP/CBD/SBSTTA/9/INF/19 Page 3 appropriate to addressing thekey questions identifiedby the stakeholders. The most recentprogresswill bepresentedduring aside eventduring SBSTTA9, andsubsequentupdateswillbeprovidedtoCOP7. The major focus of this paper is to report on the lessons learned about the process of developing indicators from the practical experience ofthe partners during the initial phases ofthe project. These lessons relate to each ofthe steps ofthe process and also provide some crosscutting andgeneral insights into the nature ofthe problems attached to developing biodiversity indicators. A few recommendations are included forconsideration in widerdiscussion with respect to biodiversity indicators in thecontext of the CBD. Stakeholderidentificationandconsultation Although each of the national teams had distinct experiences in identifying and consulting their stakeholders, a number ofcommon lessons emerged. Firstly, it is easiest to involve those stakeholders with whom the agencies developing indicators already have estabhshed relationships; significant extra effort is required to ensure that a wider range ofstakeholders are consulted. For example, project teams have found it more difficult to involve stakeholders from socio-economic sectors than from natural resources sectors. In some cases, teams had difficulty involving policy makers, who tended to be impatient with the time scale of the indicator development process. Other groups without strong participationwere the large-scaleproductive private sectorandorganisations and small-scalebiodiversity users. For all stakeholders, and indeed for those most involved in the process, it is imperative to allocate time and effort to clarifying key concepts, including "biological diversity" and 'indicator", as well as the fiinctions of indicators and the scales of interest. A common understanding of these issues cannot be assumed. Individuals, and indeed countries, vary in their familiarity with indicators as a concept and in their willingness to embrace their use. The wider the range of stakeholders incorporated in a single consultation, the less common understanding ofindicators and theirpotential fiinctions there is likely to be among them. Furthermore, no single mechanism or forum will be effective for all types of stakeholders, and some disenfranchised groups (e.g. the rural poor) may be especially hard to involve, even indirectly. Therefore, several consultations, each involving aspecific groupofstakeholders, maybe the most appropriate means of reaching the fiill range of stakeholders. These consultations are very important in providing a firm basis from which the subsequent steps are approached and executed, in particularthedevelopmentofkeyquestions. Keyquestions The key questions identified by stakeholders and project teams as being of interest for indicator development often proved to be very general, and there was sometimes a reluctance to identify specific policy objectives that might help to focus the key questions. This may relate to concerns about accountability inrelation to the achievement ofsuch targets and objectives. On theotherhand, there was a greatdeal ofinterest inquestions pertaining to management ofbiodiversity aswell as topolicy. Many questions were linked to economic values and most relatedto trends ratherthan to status. Threats to and pressuresonbiodiversityalso featuredprominentlyamongthekeyquestions. Many ofthe questions initially identified were not expressed in forms amenable to being addressed by indicators. Some other questions of interest to stakeholders were important issues for resource management (e.g. questions about resource ownership and tenure), but were outside the remit of biodiversity indicators. Therefore, an iterative process ofrefinementjointly with the stakeholders was needed (see clarifying key concepts, in the previous section). A fiirther difficulty in identifying key questions is that they tend not to be confined to the focal ecosystems on which the project teams are concentrating, andthishad led some teams toredefinethescope oftheirefforts. Some ofthemostusefiil UNEP/CBD/SBSTTA/9/INF/19 Page4 questionstoemergewere those thatweredriven byveryspecificpoHcyormanagementneeds, e.g. which landtoremovefromagricuhiire, orwhen fishing canbeallowedtorecommenceataparticularsite. Useofexistingframeworks The project tested the utility of existing frameworks for organising environmental information and indicators, such as Driver-Pressure-State-Impact-Response (DPSIR) and the GEF's framework for programmeevaluation. Participants initially foundmanyofthese frameworksdifficult tounderstand, but found that, when understood, they were a useful way oforganising questions and checking for gaps in their coverage. The frameworks do not in themselves identify indicators. All frameworks are purpose- specific; e.g. the DPSIR framework is useflil for causal chain analysis and state-of-the-environment reporting, the GEF framework is aimed at programmes assessment, others are aimed at evaluating management effectiveness. All the available frameworks have weaknesses, but the Pressure-State- Re.sponse framework (as distinct from the more complicated DPSIR) has proved the most useful to projectparticipants. Dataavailability There is a substantial amount of data available to address some types of questions and for some ecosystems. However, thedatacome frommanysources, theirgenerationanduse is oftenuncoordinated, and they are often neither accessible nor entirely appropriate for indicator development. To identify appropriate data ithas proved to be ofthe utmost importance that the consultation process is as inclusive aspossibleandsucceedsineffectivelyclarifying theaimsofindicatordevelopment. Criteriaforindicatorselection The most promising approaches for indicator development will be largely dictated by the availability of appropriate data. However, in their discussions the project teams identified the following additional criteriaasuseful inhelpingtoselectthebestindicatorsfrom amongarangeofcandidates: • Doesithelpanswerthekeyquestion? • Isiteasytounderstand? • Can itbe implemented? • Isitapplicableto largeareas? • Doesithelpanswermorethanonekeyquestion? • Isitbiologicallysound? • Itispreciseinitswordingandinterpretation? • Doesithave aspatial component? • Doesitprovidedifferentviewpoints? • Isitamenable to forecasting? Cross-cuttingissuesandgenerallessonslearned The experience from the project is that the development of biodiversity indicators sits firmly at the intersection between policy making, natural resource management and science, and is therefore not simple. There is less existing expertise in the area ofbiodiversity indicators at national level than may have been assumed during CBD discussions. Although some research has been carried out on specific local questions ofbiodiversity trends, it isnotyet clearwhetherlocal indicators identified inthese studies can be scaled up easily. Developing indicators is a continuous and iterative process, which may metamorphoseovertime. Maintainingaclearunderstanding ofthekeyconcepts involved is challenging, even for those most involved in the process and still more so for wider groups ofstakeholders, who are less familiar with the CBD as a source ofthe concepts. 'Mainstreaming" ofbiodiversity considerations UNEP/CBD/SBSTTA/9/INF/19 Page 5 will clearlybe a limiting factorin determining interest in and uptake ofbiodiversity indicators. Both the scope and the scale ofquestions and indicators need to be defined clearly, but it may be necessary to adjust them to take account ofthe context in which the phenomena ofinterest occur (e.g. indicators for wetlands mayneed to includethepropertiesoftheircatchmentareas). Considerable thought isneededto decidewhetherbroadscaleindicatorscanbestbe derivedbyscalingup from finerscale informationorby using overview approaches. Site based approaches mayprovide more tangible interim benefits from the process. In orderto ensure the development ofeffective indicators thatmeet the greatest range ofneeds, it is crucial thatthe consultation process be iterative so that all parties" perceptions canevolve through it. Domestication and ownership ofthe indicators is ofparamount importance because when stakeholders feel thattheyhavenotbeen adequately involved then sustainability and use ofthe indicators is adversely, affected. Further information on the national teams" recent progress on indicator selection and calculation will be presented during a side event at SBSTTA9 and ina new information document to be prepared forCOP7. The BINU project will ultimately generate operational biodiversity indicators for the focal ecosystem in each participating country, documentation of the project experience and guidelines for developing nationalbiodiversityindicators. Recommendations It is important that the Subsidiary Body and Conference ofthe Parties recognise that the definition and importance of biological diversity are still not well understood by everyone, including some key stakeholders in the development ofbiodiversity indicators. People have different notions aboutwhat the process of biodiversity depletion is and how it should be described. To ensure the successful development of such indicators at national level, countries should first assess their own needs for indicators and thenrelate these needs to thoseofthe Convention. Countries shouldmove aheadwiththis as soon as possible, as it is a lengthy process. Progress is possible: useful data exist and can be used to constructindicatorstoanswersomeimportantquestionsaboutbiodiversityatnational level. UNEP/CBD/SBSTTA/9/INF/19 P^g^6 Figure 1. BINU Project Stages and Outputs Monitoring systems I 1 1 i ' Promote CBD National Guidelines for indicator Implementation Ecosystem-specific development & use Indicator Portfolio & Report 9 UNEP/CBD/SBSTTA/9/INF/1 Page7 Annex EXECUTINGAGENCIES FORTHE BIODIVERSITY INDICATORS FORNATIONAL USE PROJECT Ecuador EcoCiencia http://wwvv.ecociencia.org/provectos.asp?idtema=l&idprov=55 MinisteriodelAmbiente http://w\vw.ambiente.gov.ec/ Kenya Kenya Wildlife Service http://www.kws.org/clefault.htm Ukraine UkrainianLandandResourceManagement Centre(ULRMC) http://www.ulrmc.org.ua/services/index.html MinistryofEcologyandNaturalResourcesofUkraine(MENRU) Philippines Bureau ofFisheries andAquaticResources (BFAR) ProtectedAreasandWildlifeBureau(PAWB) Co-ordination andtechnical support: UNEP-WorldConservationMonitoringCentre http://www.unep-wcmc.org National InstituteforPublic HealthandEnvironment intheNetherlands(RTVM) http://vyww.rivm.nl/en/milieu/intemationaal/