Supporting the Global Biodiversity Agenda

Roles and contributions of the UN system during the 2011-2020 Decade for Biodiversity The 10th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the CBD, held in Nagoya, Japan, in 2010, adopted the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020, comprising twenty Aichi Biodiversity Targets that set aspirations for achievement at the global level, and a flexible framework for national target setting and implementation.

This Strategic Plan was subsequently broadly endorsed and supported throughout the UN system. The same year, the UN General Assembly declared 20112020 the UN Decade on Biodiversity35 as a contribution to the implementation of the Strategic Plan across the entire UN system. The biodiversity-related conventions have contributed to the preparation of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 and ensured that their own strategic plan targets were fully aligned or compatible with the Aichi Biodiversity Targets and the SDGs. UN entities have responded in various ways to the biodiversity agenda in their planning and programming. Examples include: the work of FAO and IFAD in relation to biodiversity, food and agriculture systems36 and nutrition; UNCCD’s spatially explicit national targets on conservation, sustainable use and restoration of land resources under land degradation neutrality targets; the work of UNDP recognizing the role of biodiversity in underpinning development and poverty reduction; UNCTAD’s work on promoting trade with biodiversity-friendly sourced products and services through the BioTrade Initiative; the important cultural and religious benefits of biodiversity considered by UNESCO; the Statistics Division of UN DESA (UNSD’s) work on incorporating natural capital into systems of national accounts; the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment’s work on human rights and biodiversity37; 35 UN General Assembly Resolution 65/161.

36 Under agriculture, FAO includes crop and livestock agriculture, forestry, fisheries and aquaculture.

37 https://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Environment/SREnvironment/ Pages/Biodiversity.aspx; https://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Environment/SREnvironment/Pages/HealthyEcosystems.aspx ------- 22 -------