Convention on Biological Diversity

About: Convention on Biological Diversity is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 2232 publications have been published within this topic receiving 65599 citations. The topic is also known as: CBD & United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity.

Conservation as if Biological Diversity Matters: Preservation versus Sustainable Use in India

Abstract: DEBATES OVER THE rationale for conservation are now fast being consigned to history. More people and governments than ever before recognise the need to conserve biological diversity, with over 180 countries now having become signatories to the International Convention on Biological Diversity (UNEP 1992). With the dawn of such a broad consensus, conservation debates have now focused more narrowly on the means of attaining the goal of conserving biological diversity (Gadgil 1992; IUCN et al. 1980; IUCN et al. 1991; Kramer et al. 1997; Terborgh 1999; Terborgh et al. 2002; Wells and Brandon 1992). The conservation community in India, as in other regions in the tropics, stands polarised between two forceful conservation paradigms: preservationism and sustainable use (Rangarajan 1995, 2001; Saberwal et al. 2001). Preservationism— hitherto the most common approach to conservation—entails the earmarking of state-administered ‘wildlife reserves’ within which extractive human activity is either greatly restricted, or completely halted using coercive means (Saberwal et al. 2001). It holds that, given India’s socio-economic and demographic milieu,

Global biodiversity indicators reflect the modeled impacts of protected area policy change

Abstract: Global biodiversity indicators can be used to measure the status and trends of biodiversity relating to Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) targets. Whether such indicators can support decision makers by distinguishing among policy options remains poorly evaluated. We tested the ability of two CBD indicators, the Living Planet Index and the Red List Index, to reflect projected changes in mammalian populations in sub-Saharan Africa in response to potential policies related to CBD targets for protected areas (PAs). We compared policy scenarios to expand the PA network, improve management effectiveness of the existing network, and combinations of the two, against business as usual. Both indicators showed that more effective management would provide greater benefits to biodiversity than expanding PAs alone. The indicators were able to communicate outcomes of modeled scenarios in a simple quantitative manner, but behaved differently. This work highlights both the considerable potential of indicators in supporting decisions, and the need to understand how indicators will respond as biodiversity changes.

Managing Peatland Ecosystem Services: Current UK Policy and Future Challenges in a Changing World

Abstract: Sustainable peatland management has recently risen up the UK political agenda as links between peatland ecosystem services and key political priorities, such as rural livelihoods, agricultural production, biodiversity conservation, and carbon emissions, have become established. By adopting an ecosystem approach, something that has become internationally advocated through the Convention on Biological Diversity, to understanding the objectives and sustainability of UK peatland management, this paper reviews contemporary policies relating to three broad categories of peatland ecosystem service (provisioning; regulating and cultural), developed at multiple levels (global to local). We highlight problems associated with incomplete knowledge about complex peatland ecosystem processes and disconnected policies and strategies. The review concludes by discussing the kinds of integrated land use policies that are beginning to emerge in the UK and may shape future peatland management.

Philippine protected areas are not meeting the biodiversity coverage and management effectiveness requirements of Aichi Target 11.

Abstract: Aichi Target 11 of the Convention on Biological Diversity urges, inter alia, that nations protect at least 17 % of their land, and that protection is effective and targets areas of importance for biodiversity. Five years before reporting on Aichi targets is due, we assessed the Philippines' current protected area system for biodiversity coverage, appropriateness of management regimes and capacity to deliver protection. Although protected estate already covers 11 % of the Philippines' land area, 64 % of its key biodiversity areas (KBAs) remain unprotected. Few protected areas have appropriate management and governance infrastructures, funding streams, management plans and capacity, and a serious mismatch exists between protected area land zonation regimes and conservation needs of key species. For the Philippines to meet the biodiversity coverage and management effectiveness elements of Aichi Target 11, protected area and KBA boundaries should be aligned, management systems reformed to pursue biodiversity-led targets and effective management capacity created.