On 26 April 2022 UNU-IAS co-organised two online workshops to gather feedback on a manual designed to guide policy administrators in integrating landscape approaches into national biodiversity strategies and action plans (NBSAPs). The event engaged Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and related organisations, which provided comments and suggestions to refine the draft manual. The manual has been developed jointly by UNU-IAS and the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) with the support of the CBD Secretariat.
Participants highlighted the need to address knowledge and capacity gaps at the local level, and proposed recommendations on community incentives to actively monitor landscapes and to make resources available in different languages and dialects. They also suggested including guidelines that would illustrate how landscape approaches could help to achieve the goals and targets of the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, which is due to be adopted at the upcoming UN Biodiversity Conference (CBD COP15).
NBSAPs are the main instruments for the implementation of the CBD. Created by each Party, NBSAPs lay out a roadmap to fulfil the objectives of the CBD in their countries. Since 2016 the Secretariat of the International Partnership for the Satoyama Initiative, hosted by UNU-IAS, has been conducting a research project on the applicability of landscape approaches for NBSAPs, with the support of the CBD Secretariat and the Ministry of the Environment, Japan.
The consultation workshops were part of the project’s final phase, focusing on capacity development research. The manual will be finalised following the adoption of the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework at COP15.