096 - Strengthening national spatial planning to ensure the global persistence of biodiversity
096 - Strengthening national spatial planning to ensure the global persistence of biodiversity
CONCERNED that biodiversity is declining across the world despite a decade in which governments have signed up to specific targets for biodiversity conservation;
NOTING that governments, businesses and civil society generally want to see development happen with minimal negative impacts on biodiversity;
RECOGNISING the efforts of the systematic conservation planning (SCP) community to advance the science and practice of spatial conservation planning;
VALUING the development of spatially explicit maps of important sites for biodiversity and their ability to not only guide conservation investment but also guide development of infrastructure, agriculture and industry such that it avoids and minimises impacts on biodiversity;
RECOGNISING that spatial planning tools such as the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Mapping Biodiversity Priorities guidance, are available for governments and local authorities to follow a step-by-step process for how to develop spatial plans and include key components such as ensuring representation of all species and ecosystem types;
RECALLING Resolution 5.036 Biodiversity, protected areas, and Key Biodiversity Areas (Jeju, 2012) which welcomed the efforts of the World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) and Species Survival Commission (SSC) Joint Task Force on Biodiversity and Protected Areas in consolidating standards for the identification of Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) as sites contributing significantly to the global persistence of biodiversity;
FURTHER RECALLING Resolution 6.041 Identifying Key Biodiversity Areas for safeguarding biodiversity (Hawai‘i, 2016), which encouraged the conservation community, governments and business to identify and safeguard KBAs;
NOTING Resolution 6.087 Awareness of connectivity conservation definition and guidelines (Hawai‘i 2016) which encouraged the raising of awareness around the guidelines for ecological corridors and their implementation to develop, designate, plan and manage ecological networks of connectivity;
FURTHER NOTING Resolution 5.037 The importance of nature conservation criteria in land-use planning policies (Jeju, 2012), which recognised the value of land-use planning and encouraged its application at national level; and
WELCOMING the efforts countries have made in developing their National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs), which have guided national efforts in conservation over the past decade;
1. CALLS UPON governments at all levels to:
a. develop or update spatially explicit conservation plans to incorporate sites and areas of importance for the global persistence of biodiversity across multiple taxa and ecosystems (KBAs), along with the connectivity required to ensure biodiversity persistence, and use these to inform plans to expand networks of protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures; and
b. incorporate these plans into National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs), and integrate them through cross-sectoral planning across government and non-governmental institutions, using them prior to, and at all stages of, national land- and sea-use planning, to avoid or otherwise minimise negative impacts on biodiversity;
2. REQUESTS the Director General and Commissions and their Specialist Groups to:
a. support the development or updating of spatial conservation plans at national level, specifically by:
i. identifying and mapping sites of significance for the global persistence of species and ecosystems (KBAs), for multiple taxonomic groups and ecosystems;
ii. incorporating these and existing KBAs, plus other important sites identified with tools such as Spatial Biodiversity Planning, or sites important for regionally/nationally red listed species;
iii. identifying corridors linking these sites, to provide the required connectivity where appropriate;
iv. incorporating climate change models to predict the future of KBAs and identify where corridors are needed to allow for migration and adaptation; and
v. identifying socio-political and cultural factors of importance in proposed protected areas and other sites of conservation value to ensure successful implementation, while protecting and strengthening the rights of indigenous and local communities in the landscape;
b. raise funding to train national-level individuals and organisations in spatial planning, with the deliberate inclusion of indigenous, local, and youth leaders;
c. continue to support implementation of Resolution 6.041 (cited in the preamble) to identify KBAs for safeguarding biodiversity; and
d. coordinate spatial conservation plans across national boundaries, working with relevant IUCN Commissions and governments to apply best practice, and supporting transboundary collaboration to ensure regional conservation is incorporated in national plans; and
3. ENCOURAGES Members and the donor community to:
a. support existing KBA National Coordination Groups, and encourage the establishment of new KBA National Coordination Groups, to update national KBA inventories through applying the global KBA standard to multiple taxonomic groups and ecosystems;
b. apply guidelines for connectivity, such as the IUCN “Guidance for Safeguarding ecological corridors in the context of ecological networks for conservation”, to identify vital corridors;
c. work with local, regional, and national governments to support the integration of these plans into multi-sectoral spatial land-use plans; and
d. monitor species and ecosystems for which sites are identified and corridors established, and adapt plans where necessary based on measures of success.
