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UNESCO Chair: Sustainable heritage and environmental management
COP15

The UNESCO Chair group contributes to COP15 discussions on the Convention on Biological Diversity

As the negotiations in Montreal draw to a close, headlines are announcing the big Targets agreed to by nearly 200 countries pledging to put a stop to biodiversity loss.

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UNESCO

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The UNESCO Chair group is happy to have contributed to the discussions in this one-a-decade event, on ways forward to implement the Global Biodiversity Framework. Together with the Man and Biosphere UNESCO Secretariat, the group has produced a Policy Brief on UNESCO designated biosphere reserves and their role in the implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity.

Led by Alicia Barraclough, the policy brief explores the potential of Biosphere Reserves as sites for the implementation of the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework. Intentionally established as sites for combining biodiversity conservation with sustainable economic and social development, UNESCO biosphere reserves are relevant sites for holistic and cross-sectoral implementation of biodiversity conservation with people.

In the brief the potential of Biosphere Reserves as sites for the implementation of both area-based (the famous “30 by 30”) and non-area based targets. The Brief ends with Policy recommendations to Member States, which include recommendations to strengthen national level biosphere reserve research, monitoring and  reporting infrastructures, supporting biosphere reserve capacity to track biodiversity benefits and Global Biodiversity Framework target implementation. Thus, governments should support the development of biosphere reserve monitoring and reporting programs that connect diverse knowledge systems and locally relevant indicators, and inform the development of national Targets and monitoring frameworks.

Read the policy brief here.

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Global Biodiversity Framework Action Targets

Photo:
Alicia Donellan Barraclough