The Rio Convention and Global Biodiversity
Targets
In June 1992, the
Convention
of Biological Diversity
was signed by 159 governments at the Earth Summit, which took place in
Rio de Janeiro (it is also referred to as the Rio Convention.). It entered into
force on 29 December 1993 and it was the first treaty to provide a legal
framework for biodiversity conservation. It called for the creation and
enforcement of national strategies and action plans to conserve, protect and
enhance biological diversity.
UK Biodiversity Action Plan (UK BAP)
In 1993, the UK government consulted over three hundred organisations
throughout the UK and held a two day seminar to debate the key issues raised at
the Convention of Biological Diversity. The product of this was the launch of
Biodiversity: the UK Action Plan
in 1994 which outlined the UK Biodiversity Action Plan for dealing with
biodiversity conservation in response to the Rio Convention.
UK Biodiversity Steering Group
The UK Biodiversity Steering Group was created in 1994 and published
Biodiversity: the UK Steering Group Report – meeting the Rio challenge. This established the framework and criteria for identifying species (1250 in
number) and habitat types of conservation concern. From this list, action plans
for 391 species and 45 habitats (116 species and 14 habitats in Tranche 1 and
the balance in the six volumes of Tranche 2) were eventually published.
As well as having national priorities and targets, action was also taken at a
local level. The Steering Group drew up as set of guidelines that were
discussed with the Local Authority Association and the Local Government Board.
Today there are about 188 Local Biodiversity Action Plans (LBAPs) in
all four UK countries.
In May 1996, the Government issued a formal response to the Steering Group
report entitled
The Government Response to the UK Steering Group Report on Biodiversity.
The government endorsed the Steering Group's recommendations and established
the UK Biodiversity Group in place of the UK Biodiversity Steering Group to
advise Government on the process. In 1996, the
UK BAP comprised the UK Biodiversity Group supported by the
Biodiversity Information Group, the Targets Group and the Biodiversity Research
Working Group.
Reporting
To measure progress on the 436 action plans a three to five yearly reporting
cycle was established. The first, in 1999, was called the
Millennium Biodiversity Report
. In addition to reporting on progress, the Millennium Biodiversity Report also
made recommendations to government about changes to the UK BAP structure to
reflect the evolving responsibilities and progress of the UK BAP.
The second Reporting Round was conducted in 2002 and the
UK Biodiversity Action Plan - tracking progress - results of 2002 reporting was
published in May 2003 at the first meeting of the UK Biodiversity Partnership
in Perth. The third Reporting Round started in October 2005 and a
summary report was published at the Belfast UK Partnership meeting in
June 2006. The 2008 Reporting Round ran from September 2008 to
November 2008 and these results will be published in the second half of 2009 and will contribute to the UK Biodiversity Indicators and will feature in the CBD 4th National Report.
Devolution
The Scotland Act (1998), the Government of Wales Act (1998) and the Northern
Ireland Act (1998) introduced schemes of devolution to Scotland, Wales and
Northern Ireland. Under these changes, relations with the European Union and
obligations arising out of Treaties and Conventions remain the responsibility
of the UK government but the devolved administrations are responsible for
implementing obligations that concern devolved matters. Powers on environmental
regulation are among the policy areas devolved.
The four countries have published
country strategies to help guide the implementation of biodiversity
conservation, sustainable development and environmental concerns. In 2002 the
Northern Ireland Biodiversity Strategy was published and England
followed with
Working with the Grain of Nature in the same year. In 2004, Scotland
published
Scotland's Biodiversity It's in Your Hands and the Environment Strategy for Wales was published in 2006.
This conservation work in the four countries is guided by the following country
groups with representation from a range of stakeholders:
After the UK List of Priority species and Habitats was published in 2007, responsibility for implementing conservation of these priorities was devolved to a country level. During 2008, the four countries set up a number of groups to reflect this responsibility and to start planning how best they could conserve these species and habitats.
Current UK BAP structure
The recommendations from the Millennium Biodiversity Report were accepted by
government and the new UK BAP structure was implemented in late 2002. The UK
Biodiversity Partnership, comprising all involved in the UK BAP,
replaced the UK Biodiversity Group
. A UK Biodiversity Partnership Standing Committee was established to manage
the business of the UK Biodiversity Partnership. It is assisted in this role by
two advisory groups the Biodiversity Reporting and Information Group (BRIG) and
the Biodiversity Research Advisory Group (BRAG).
Soon after its formation,
BRIG set up four groups to deal with immediate work. In 2006 The
Targets Group published revised targets for the old list of species and habitats and a complete review of the UK BAP species and habitats was published in August 2007. In early 2008, a list of the priority conservation actions (signposting) was published. Reports on this work can be found on the home page of the
UK BAP or at the BRIG home page
http://www.ukbap.org.uk/BAPGroupPage.aspx?id=1
In addition, and partly in response to the publication of the country strategies
and progress with the UK BAP, a refreshing of the UK BAP and of ways of
delivering conservation was initiated. The conclusion of this work,
"Conserving Biodiversity - the UK Approach", was published at the fifth UK BAP
Partnership Conference in Aviemore, Scotland and can be found here
Conserving Biodiversity - the UK Approach.