Biodiversity action plans
Biodiversity Action Plans (BAPs), also referred to as National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs), are frameworks designed to protect and restore threatened species and their ecosystems. These plans gained international prominence following the 1992 United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. While many nations have ratified the CBD, only a few, including the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom, have developed comprehensive BAPs. A robust BAP typically includes detailed inventories of species and habitats, conservation targets, funding strategies, and collaborative partnerships among various stakeholders.
Despite their importance, the creation and implementation of BAPs face significant challenges. Many countries struggle with the costs and complexities involved, particularly in conducting thorough species inventories, as only a fraction of global species have been documented. Criticism arises from developing nations, which often view BAPs as prioritizing biodiversity over industrial growth and food production, with some opting for minimal compliance rather than substantive efforts. However, regional initiatives, like the European Union's biodiversity strategy for 2030, illustrate alternative approaches to incorporating biodiversity into economic policies. The global dialogue on biodiversity continues, with recent efforts, such as the Accelerated Partnership initiated at the 2022 UN Biodiversity Conference, aimed at enhancing support for countries in developing their biodiversity strategies.
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Biodiversity action plans
DEFINITION: Government-devised plans for protecting and restoring threatened ecological systems and biological species
Biodiversity action plans are important tools that governments use in protecting and restoring threatened ecosystems. These plans seek to implement the 1992 United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, which demonstrates worldwide recognition that biodiversity is intrinsically valuable and deserves to be protected or restored through careful planning.
The schemes for protecting and restoring of plants and animals and their ecosystems known as action plans (BAPs; also known as national biodiversity strategies and action plans, or NBSAPs) gained worldwide recognition with the signing of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1992. BAPs represent the steps that nations are taking to implement the provisions of the convention. However, although most of the world’s nations have ratified the CBD, only a handful have actually developed substantive BAPs. Among those that have are the United States, Australia, New Zealand, St. Lucia, the United Kingdom, Tanzania, and Uzbekistan. The European Union has also implemented a biodiversity strategy for 2030 to protect its ecosystems, though slightly different from BAPs.
A well-conceived BAP includes several components: plans for the carrying out of inventories and documentation of selected species and specific habitats, with particular emphasis placed on distribution and conservation status within certain ecosystems; realistic targets or indicators for conservation and restoration; plans covering funding and timelines for the achievement of specific goals; and plans for the establishment of partnerships among private and public institutions and agencies that will work together to achieve the goals set.
Obstacles and Criticisms
To implement a BAP effectively, a nation must overcome a number of obstacles; the difficulty of the process may explain, in part, why so few countries have attempted to develop such plans. In some parts of the world, for example, undertaking complete inventories of plant and animal species is not realistic. Scientists have estimated that only about 14 percent of the world’s species have been characterized and documented; most of those still unknown include plants and lower animals such as insects. An ideal BAP includes the assessment of species population estimates over time so that the variability and degree of vulnerability of species can be determined; it also includes descriptions of species’ ranges, habitats, behaviors, breeding practices, and interactions with other species. The collection of such fundamental information can be a daunting task. Another factor preventing some nations from developing BAPs is the cost involved. Depending on the size of the country, the cost of preparing a solid BAP can easily come to the equivalent of millions of US dollars, with about 10 percent of the initial cost factored in for annual maintenance. It is, therefore, not surprising that the call for BAPs has been criticized by some developing countries.
In addition to the difficulty and expense involved in the implementation of BAPs, many developing countries are unwilling to create such plans because, they have argued, the plans obviously favor the consideration of wildlife and plant protection over food production and industrial growth; in some cases, BAPs may even represent impediments to population growth. Most Middle Eastern countries and many African nations have shown little interest in participating in a substantive way in such plans. Others have simply opted to create pro forma plans that expend little on research and even less on the management of natural resources. In contrast, the European Union has chosen to divert the purpose of BAPs, instead implementing the CBD through a set of economic development policies while paying special attention to the protection of certain ecosystems.
It has become increasingly clear that what is at stake is the very definition of “biodiversity” itself. According to the CBD, biodiversity is the variation of life forms within a given ecosystem; it is a combination of structure and function as well as components (species, habitat, and genetic resources). The CBD states:
In addressing the boundless complexity of biological diversity, it has become conventional to think in hierarchical terms, from the genetic material within individual cells, building through individual organisms, populations, species, and communities of species, to overall. . . . At the same time, in seeking to make management interventions as efficient as possible, it is essential to take a holistic view of biodiversity and address the interactions that species have with each other and their nonliving environment, i.e., to work from an ecological perspective.
At the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002, delegates adopted the objectives of the CBD and designated 2010 the Year of Biodiversity. Because of the slow progress on BAPs globally, the UN offered further help and an action plan. In December 2022, twenty-three countries and organizations, led by Colombia and supported by Germany, met at the UN Biodiversity Conference in Montreal, Canada. There, they signed a declaration beginning the Accelerator Partnership. The purpose of the Accelerator Partnership was to implement the newly adopted Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework to help fast-track countries in their creation and implementation of NBSAPs. Financial and technical support was provided to help reach biodiversity goals by 2050. By the time of the 2024 UN Biodiversity Conference, forty-four countries had submitted NBSAPs.
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