Conducting National Biodiversity Assessments

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Ralph Lawrence
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1 Conducting National Biodiversity Assessments Caribbean Week of Agriculture 13 th October 2012, Antigua Maurice Rawlins Program Manager, The Cropper Foundation

2 Wha you come fi tell we? Important considerations in undertaking national biodiversity assessments

3 Lessons - Considerations Defining purpose of the assessment Convening a steering committee Defining the scope of the assessment Identifying users of the assessment Methodology for assessment Assessing Data Peer review Communicating Findings Financing

4 Process: What is the purpose of the assessment? Take stock of biodiversity resources Information to inform policy and decisionmaking Annual reports/ reporting to conventions

5 Process: Convene a Steering Committee Major stakeholders Government ministries and agencies/ departments Civil society Private sector Experts in the particular field Champions

6 Process: Scope of the Assessment Guided by Steering Committee Guided by Policy relevant questions Set priority, e.g. focus on economically-important resources (Ecosystems, ecosystem services, species, genetic resources) Determine data and information that needs to be collected Time-bound, e.g. NBATT focuses on Resources available for assessment Technical capacity Financial resources

7 Process: Who will use the Assessment? Important for assessment to be user-relevant Influence the presentation of the Assessment highly technical vs. bite-size, politician-speak Will influence the assessment products

8 Process: Methodology for the Assessment Use a Conceptual framework ensure relevance, credibility and legitimacy of methodology

9 Process: Methodology for the Assessment ensure relevance, credibility and legitimacy of methodology

10 Process: Methodology for the Assessment Use a Conceptual framework ensure relevance, credibility and legitimacy of methodology Collect new information vs. using available data and information (1 yr for NBATT used available data) Establish methods for triangulating information Two or three data sources (e.g. 72% forest cover, Helmer et al. 2012, vs. 33% forest cover FAO 2010) Expert consultation

11 Process: Assessing data Quantitative data best for statistically robust trends Data availability is a major Iimitation Heavy reliance on qualitative assessments Expert judgments Scientifically accepted terminology: High, medium, low certainty

12 Process: Peer Review Ensures credibility and legitimacy Important for gathering missing information

13 Process: Communicating Findings Users of assessment influence the products/ outputs National assessments likely will have a mixed audience Executive summary for policy-makers Technical report for technocrats Summary for public

14 Key Challenges Data collection General data scarcity Data not collected on national scale requires stitching together of available data One off data sets Good for status Bad for establishing trends Lack consistency Incomplete data sets No access to data

15 Key Challenges Saying something meaningful, without data to back it up

20 Proposed Biodiversity Management Framework, T&T

21 Financing the Assessment NBATT TT $500,000 (US $78,200) Majority of funds for technical consultants Some funds for workshops/ seminars/ consultations

22 Financing the Assessment ABS Capacity Development Initiative is a multi-donor initiative that aims to support relevant stakeholders in the ACP countries in developing and implementing national ABS regulations, in particular to ratify and implement the Nagoya Protocol on ABS. GEF Funding for CBD Reporting/ NBSAP development and revision

23 Thank you Wha question you ha fi me?

The Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES)

The Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) LESSONS LEARNED FROM SOUTH AFRICA S PARTICIPATION IN IPBES SA scientists and Policy Makers influential and globally competitive