Conducting National Biodiversity Assessments Caribbean Week of Agriculture 13 th October 2012, Antigua Maurice Rawlins Program Manager, The Cropper Foundation mrawlins@thecropperfoundation.org 868-626-2628
Wha you come fi tell we? Important considerations in undertaking national biodiversity assessments
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
Process: What is the purpose of the assessment? Take stock of biodiversity resources Information to inform policy and decisionmaking Annual reports/ reporting to conventions
Process: Convene a Steering Committee Major stakeholders Government ministries and agencies/ departments Civil society Private sector Experts in the particular field Champions
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 1990 2012 Resources available for assessment Technical capacity Financial resources
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
Process: Methodology for the Assessment Use a Conceptual framework ensure relevance, credibility and legitimacy of methodology
Process: Methodology for the Assessment ensure relevance, credibility and legitimacy of methodology
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
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
Process: Peer Review Ensures credibility and legitimacy Important for gathering missing information
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
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
Key Challenges Saying something meaningful, without data to back it up
Proposed Biodiversity Management Framework, T&T
Financing the Assessment NBATT TT $500,000 (US $78,200) Majority of funds for technical consultants Some funds for workshops/ seminars/ consultations
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
Thank you Wha question you ha fi me?