V.           OTHER SUBSTANTIVE ISSUES ARISING FROM DECISIONS OF THE CONFERENCE OF THE PARTIES

26.       Thematic programmes of work

26.1.         Forest biological diversity:  implementation of the programme of work (VIII/18)

A.      Consideration of matters arising from the implementation of paragraph 19 of decision VI/22

The following draft decision is taken from recommendation XI/11 of the eleventh meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice.

Conference of the Parties:

Recalling paragraph 19 of decision VI/22 of the Conference of the Parties in which the Executive Secretary was requested to initiate a series of actions in support of the implementation of the expanded programme of work on forest biodiversity,

Mindful that many organizations, including the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF), the World Bank Forest Law Enforcement Governance (FLEG) processes, other members of the Collaborative Partnership on Forests, and regional forest-related processes, have relevant and current information, including on forest law enforcement and sustainable forest management, national forest programmes and cross-sectoral integration,

1.             Welcomes the note prepared by the Executive Secretary on matters arising from the implementation of paragraph 19 of decision VI/22 (UNEP/CBD/SBSTTA/11/14); and the report on the effects of insufficient law enforcement on forest biological diversity (UNEP/CBD/SBSTTA/11/INF/12), and the compilation of best practices to reduce negative impacts and enhance positive impacts of other sectoral policies on forest biological diversity (UNEP/CBD/SBSTTA/11/INF/13);

2.             Expresses its appreciation to those Parties, other Governments, non-governmental organizations, members of the Collaborative Partnership on Forests, regional forest-related processes, , other United Nations bodies and conventions, intergovernmental organizations, and research institutes for their various inputs and collaborative efforts in the implementation of the different actions outlined in subparagraphs 19 (a)-(g) of decision VI/22;

3.             Urges Parties and invites international organizations and non-governmental organizations to provide information on forest law enforcement and related trade and its effects on forest biological diversity as a contribution to the review of the programme of work;

4.             Requests the Executive Secretary to:

(a)            Strengthen collaboration on issues regarding forest law enforcement and sustainable forest management  with the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO), the United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), the World Bank, other relevant members of the Collaborative Partnership on Forests, and regional forest-related processes, in order to complement and contribute to the ongoing Forest Law Enforcement and Governance (FLEG) Ministerial processes and similar initiatives, with a view to improving the implementation of relevant activities of the expanded programme of work on forest biological diversity at the national level and in order to determine where the Convention on Biological Diversity can add value in the development of regional approaches;

(b)            Synthesize, in collaboration with relevant members of the Collaborative Partnership on Forests, existing information on the way Parties are promoting the implementation of their national forest programmes and national biodiversity strategies and action plans;

(c)            Develop in collaboration with stakeholders and taking into account the work of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the United Nations Forum of Forests, the Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe (MCPFE), other relevant regional forest-related processes, and members of the Collaborative Partnership on Forests, the toolkit on cross-sectoral, integrated approaches making best use of already existing instruments, notably national forest programmes, to reduce negative impacts and enhance positive impacts of other sectoral policies on forest biological diversity, for consideration of SBSTTA at its twelfth meeting, and to disseminate it through electronic and non-electronic means;

(d)            Suspend  the operation of the forest web portal of the Convention on Biological Diversity due to its low rate of use, and direct Parties to the Collaborative Partnership on Forests (CPF) Joint Information Framework web site, hosted by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)¨[1]/ and invite the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations to incorporate the CBD forest-related information more comprehensively into the CPF web portal;

(e)           Complete the assessment on unauthorized harvesting on fauna (including bushmeat) as proposed in document UNEP/CBD/SBSTTA/11/INF/12 and finalize the compilation of best practices outlined in document UNEP/CBD/SBSTTA/11/INF/13;

(f)            Compile the lessons learned from paragraph 19 of decision VI/22, in particular those under subparagraph (f) on sustainable use;

5.             Recalling paragraph 28 of decision VI/22 and paragraphs 7 and 11 (b) of decision VII/11, encourages Parties to continue to integrate the ecosystem approach and sustainable forest management policies and practices and to further strengthen the institutional and human capacity for implementing adaptive management;

6.             Invites Parties and other Governments to strengthen collaboration at the national level between the World Heritage Convention, the Convention on Biological Diversity, and UNESCO focal points respectively, in order to increase the effectiveness of implementation of the expanded programme of work on forest biological diversity, and the programme of work on protected areas, in relevant World Heritage sites, taking into account the relevance of the programme of work on protected areas for the implementation of programme element 1, goal 3, objective 3 of the expanded programme of work on forest biological diversity;

7.             Considers the outcomes to be derived from the sixth session of the United Nations Forum on Forests;

8.             Explores further means to strengthen the exchange of information and capacity?building related to the implementation of the expanded programme of work on forest biological diversity through non-web based means, such as CD-Rom and hard copies and to enhance sharing of practical and useful web-based forest information;

9.            Takes note of the potential impacts of genetically modified trees on forest biological diversity and suggests a process on how to address this issue.

B.      Review of implementation of the expanded programme of work on forest biological diversity

The following draft decision is taken from paragraph 3 of SBSTTA recommendation X/10 and the annex thereto.

The Conference of the Parties

1.  Requests the Executive Secretary to carry out an in?depth review of the expanded programme of work following the proposed review process as delineated in the annex to the present recommendation, in collaboration with members of the Ad Hoc Technical Expert Group on Review of Implementation of the Programme of Work on Forest Biological Diversity, especially with respect to providing information on the impediments and technical information on successes, and also taking into account relevant recommendations from the Working Group on Review of Implementation of the Convention;

2.  Encourages Parties and other relevant stakeholders to access existing information on forest related reporting when preparing the third and fourth national report, for example, through the Joint Information Framework for Forest-Related Reporting web site of the Collaborative Partnership on Forests and other non-web-based means;

3.  Encourages the Task Force on Streamlining Forest-related Reporting of the Collaborative Partnership on Forests to continue its work towards reducing reporting burden and minimizing duplication of reporting requests, including options for developing joint forest-related information requests at future stages, such as reporting on global outcome-oriented forest targets;

Annex

PROPOSAL on the review of implementation of the expanded programme of work on forest biological diversity

A.           Sources of information

1.                   Relevant sources of information that will contribute to the review of implementation of the expanded programme of work on forest biological diversity are listed as follows:

(a)                 The primary source information is to be extracted from the third national report submitted by Parties to the Convention in 2005; [2]/

(b)                 Other forest-related information in the form of national reports previously submitted to the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the International Tropical Timber Agreement (but only for countries members of the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO)), the United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF), the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), and the United Nations Framework on Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), that can be accessed at the Collaborative Partnership on Forest’s Joint Information Framework for Forest-Related Reporting web site and regional criteria and indicators processes; [3]/

(c)                 Information contained in voluntary thematic reports produced, in the framework of the Convention, on forest biological diversity (thematic report on forest ecosystems submitted in 2001, [4]/ voluntary report on progress of implementation of the expanded programme of work in 2003. [5]/);

(d)                 “Country profiles” produced by the Commission for Sustainable Development as well as national reports;

(e)                 Relevant information on progress made in National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans and National Forest Programmes;

(f)                  Questionnaires to international organizations to gauge implementation at the international level. [6]/

(g)                 Review of implementation by non-governmental organizations dealing with indigenous communities (e.g., Global Forest Coalition review of the forest-related clauses in the Convention; [7]/ Forest People’s Programme on indigenous people’s experiences of biodiversity conservation activities funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF); [8]/ reports to the United Nations Forum on Forests; [9]/ summary Report of the Expert Meeting on Traditional Forest-Related Knowledge and the Implementation of Related International Commitments [10]/ ); and

(h)                 International/global forest assessments, including the FAO Forest Resources Assessment and Yearbook of Forest Products, the FAO State of the World’s Forests reports, the FAO regional outlook studies, the FAO national forest programme updates, the ITTO annual review and assessment of the world timber situation, [11]/ the ITTO upcoming review on the status of sustainable forest management, review by the United Nations Forum on Forests of progress made on the proposals for action put forward by the Intergovernmental Panel on Forests (IPF)/Intergovernmental Forum on Forests (IFF), [12]/ assessment reports under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)/Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, the Global Biodiversity Outlook, the 2003 report on the state of Europe’s forests of the Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe (MCPFE), and the upcoming MCPFE report on sustainable forest management in Europe.

B.           Technical components of the review

2.                   The review of implementation of the expanded programme of work on forest biological diversity shall carry out, whenever feasible and relevant, the following activities as they relate to the section on forest biodiversity within the third national report to the Convention, and other relevant sources as mentioned in paragraph 5 of the note by the Executive Secretary on advice on the review of the expanded programme of work on forest biological diversity (UNEP/CBD/SBSTTA/11/15), taking into account annex 3 to the recommendation 1/8 of the Working Group on Review of Implementation of the Convention;

3.                   A background report will be prepared by the Executive Secretary in collaboration with the forest AHTEG on status and trends in forest biological diversity and the expanded programme of work on forest biodiversity. The report will cover:

(a)            Analysis and presentation of the information in a regional context, including maps;

(b)            Analysis and synthesis of the information submitted in written form in the third national report (as opposed to only reporting frequency of compliance for a given question), including information arising from the implementation of activities contained in paragraph 19 of decision VI/22;

(c)            Assessment of the adequacy of the expanded programme of work on forest biological diversity in addressing national priorities;

(d)            Identification of information gaps by clustering those questions with poor responses, including the possibility of communicating back to Parties on the reason why a particular question remained unanswered;

(e)            Consideration of options for analysing, synthesizing, presenting, and publishing the information submitted, including through the clearing house mechanism,  in order to provide feedback to Parties and enhance the value and ownership of the reported information;

(f)            Analysis of the information by identifying, developing, and/or elaborating on (but not limited to): 

                                                (i)            Major global and regional benefits and problems in implementing the programme of work;

                                              (ii)            Most implemented goals and/or objectives;

                                             (iii)            Least implemented goals and/or objectives;

                                            (iv)            Not implemented goals and/or objectives;

                                              (v)            Conclusions on a regional basis;

                                            (vi)            Conclusions on a global basis;

                                           (vii)            Suggestions for improvement to the forest work programme and ways forward;

                                         (viii)            Lessons learned and best practices;

                                            (ix)            Identification of barriers to implementation in the context of priorities for capacity?building.

(g)            An overall assessment on:

                                       (x)                   If and how the forest work programme has been a helpful tool in reducing the loss of forest biodiversity;

                                      (xi)                   How the forest work programme has been helpful in addressing the three objectives of the Convention.

4.                   There are a number of technical limitations to the review of the information contained in the forest biodiversity section of the third national report.  These limitations need to be noted in the introduction to the review and taken into account when conducting this review. Some specific examples of limitations to the information include:

(a)            The inability to assess status and trends directly, because most of the questions were not designed for this purpose;

(b)            Different interpretations and hence different answers to questions;

(c)            Often the absence of baseline data.

5.                   Assessment and identification of successes, challenges, and obstacles to implementation, as well and on the effects of the types of scientific and technical measures taken and tools used in implementing the expanded programme of work on forest biological diversity will be drawn from the third national reports and other sources of relevant information as appropriate;

6.                   Taking into account limitations identified in paragraph 4 above the review will address status and trends in forest biological diversity, effectiveness and constraints of the expanded programme of work on forest biological diversity and matters requiring further consideration arising from paragraph 19 of decision VI/22. The review will provide recommendations on subject matters associated with the work programme and possible ways and means to develop, design and/or refine the future programme of work on forest biological diversity.