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Capacity Building in Biodiversity and Impact
Assessment- CBBIA
Principles for best practice in biodiversity and impact
assessment
Principles for Assessing Biodiversity Impacts of
Trade
IAIA Guiding Principles for
Biodiversity and Impact Assessment
Precautionary principle
presumption in favour of biodiversity protection where risks and
uncertainty are high, where knowledge is lacking to ensure effective
mitigation or where it is impossible to confirm ‘no significant impact’.
‘No net loss’ principle
requires status quo to be maintained or enhanced in terms of
quantitative and qualitative aspects of biodiversity in line with
international agreements and obligations.
‘Ecosystem approach’, advocated by CBD and Ramsar Convention to
ensure sustainable use. Biodiversity depends on healthily functioning
ecosystems and processes that have to be assessed and managed in an
integrated way.
IAIA Principles for Assessing
Biodiversity Impacts of Trade
IA of trade policies and agreements can help
to ensure that the potential benefits of trade
are accompanied by effective conservation
and sustainable use of biodiversity.
IAIA Principles for Assessing
Biodiversity Impacts of Trade
Use IA to protect and promote sustainable
use of biodiversity, so that yields/harvests
can be maintained over time. Recognise the
benefits of biodiversity in providing
essential life support systems and ecosystem
services such as water yield, water
purification, flood control, soil
conservation….. And also the costs of
replacing these services.
CBBIA-IAIA
Aim
To develop and promote Impact
Assessment as an effective
instrument for addressing
biodiversity considerations in
decision making and the execution
of projects, programmes, plans and
policies.
CBBIA-IAIA
Outputs
– A network of trained professionals
– Capacity-building activities eg workshops and
training, based on needs assessment and review of
current practice in participating regions and countries
– Guidance on biodiversity-inclusive EIA and SEA
– Tested training materials
– Case study material based on country-experience for
the further development of existing international
guidelines on the integration of biodiversity
considerations in EIA and SEA
Capacity Building in Biodiversity and Impact Assessment
PARTNERSHIPS
Working with:
Governments, organisations, and individuals - to build capacity
Professionals - to build expertise and knowledge
Governments - to strengthen laws and institutions
Biodiversity-related Conventions (CBD, Ramsar, CMS) - to promote ‘biodiversityinclusive impact assessment
Partner Organisations - to implement regional workplans in Southern Africa, S/SE Asia,
Central America and Small Island States, including IUCN, SAIEA
Individuals - to help their professional development
For Further Information, contact:
Jo Treweek, Technical Program Manager
[email protected]
Biodiversity resources
People need
biodiversity.
It is the basis for food
security and for a
variety of ecosystem
services on which
people depend for
their livelihoods.
It is an insurance
policy on which many
lives and futures
depend.
It is increasingly
threatened.
Use of biological resources for human livelihoods
is often unsustainable, and many human
activities totally ignore (externalize) any
consideration of biodiversity, at a high cost to
human development.
The objective of mainstreaming biodiversity is to internalize the goals of biodiversity
conservation and the sustainable use of biological resources into economic sectors and
development models, policies and programmes, and therefore into all human behaviour.
“The most important lesson of the last ten years is that the objectives of
the Convention on Biological Diversity will be impossible to meet until
consideration of biodiversity is fully integrated into other sectors. The
need to mainstream the conservation and sustainable use of biological
resources across all sectors of the national economy, the society and the
policy-making framework is a complex challenge at the heart of the
Convention.”(Hague Ministerial Declaration from COP VI to WSSD, 2002)
Most biodiversity struggles
to co-exist with human
development. This frog is
only found on Cape Town’s
city race course
Less than 10% of the world’s
area is ‘protected’
“Impact Assessment is an important mainstreaming tool, ensuring that biodiversity
values are built into decision-making, from the strategic to the local level”
Agriculture can promote or destroy biodiversity, depending
on how it is managed.
Agricultural biodiversity: food, wealth,
livelihood, culture and tradition,
diversity of crops and livestock, rich
agro-biodiversity
Invasion by non-native species, conversion of
forests and other habitats, pollution, nitrogen
enrichment, soil erosion and damage, overexploitation of water resources
Photo Roel Slootweg
Many damaging activities do not
require consent and are not subject
to IA
Many of these are influenced by
trade-related policies
The science-part…
Level:
Bioregion
Landscape
Ecosystem
Habitat
Community
Species
Population
Individual
Gene
• Composition: what, how
abundant
• Structure: how units are
organised in time and space
• Function: role of units in
maintaining natural processes
Does the intended activity cause an
imbalance in any biological, physical or
chemical components of the ecosystem,
or in their interactions, which maintain the
ecosystem and its products, functions
and attributes?
What are the key drivers for the sector?
Values, needs and uses
• The variety of ways in which people need
and use biodiversity
• Key dependencies
• Implications for MDGs, poverty alleviation
• Ecosystem services and the costs of fixing
or substituting them..
• Opportunities associated with biodiversity,
now and for future generations
Biodiversity benefits: ecosystem
goods and services
Restored vegetation
stabilises soils and
reduces expenditure on
soil erosion management
Piping water from a
forest reserve in Kenya
reduces grazing
pressure and makes
cattle more productive
Work on Indicators
•Sustainable trade needs sustainable
production
•Sustainable production needs sustainable
biodiversity.. It depends fundamentally on
functioning ecosystems
•Policy (and indicators) must be sciencebased, value-driven
•what doesn’t get measured doesn’t get
managed
The Indicator is….Biodiversity
• Biodiversity is.. Protected areas.. Or it is very
complicated
• Pressure/ State/ Response
[threats associated with agriculture…current
condition of biodiversity… outcomes for
biodiversity and people who use it
• Risk-based approaches
• Critical indicators of change, thresholds
• Early warnings
Listings and designation procedures
lag behind rates of loss
Biodiversity State or condition..
•
•
•
•
•
•
Extinction risk, endangerment
Endemism
Centres of agricultural endemism
Biodiversity hotspots
Areas of high species richness
Ecosystem health
Pressure/ threats
•
•
•
•
Forest conversion
Increased area under intensive use
Population growth
Alien invasives…
Responses
• Outcomes for biodiversity: degree of threat,
vulnerability
• Outcomes for people who need and use
biodiversity: who is affected, what impacts on
household income, employment and economic
opportunity?
• Changes in productivity of ecosystems, their
viability…
• Changes in value from ecosystems, services
provide
All plant species
~24 000
Threatened
species ~ 2000
Endemic spp ~12000
¬ 100% of
Habitat
Loss
ecosystem intact
• Least threatened
¬
• Vulnerable
¬ 60% Threshold for
conserving
ecosystem
functioning
• Endangered
¬ 12-32% Point beyond
which most species
may be lost
• Critically
endangered
No natural habitat left;
¬ ecosystem ceases to exist
Threatened ecosystems
80% If habitat loss
continues, ecosystem
functioning will be
compromised