The European Commission and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) have issued a joint statement outlining priority areas for cooperation for the years 2011-2013, which include several items on biodiversity.
As part of the cooperation, the EU, UNEP, and the Government of Kenya announced the launch of a restoration project for the Mau forest complex, one of Sub-Saharan Africa's largest closed canopy forests.
23 February 2011: The European Commission (EC) and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) issued a joint statement to signal the renewal of their political will to consolidate, develop and increase their cooperation and effectiveness to achieve their common goals and objectives. The cooperation outlined in this statement, for the period 2011-2013, builds on the EC’s and UNEP’s work together for the environment under a Memorandum of Understanding agreed in 2004.
On biodiversity, priority areas for cooperation include: policy dialogue on biodiversity issues so as to contribute to the achievement of global biodiversity commitments; early and urgent actions to achieve the global 2020 biodiversity targets, by integrating the value of biodiversity into national plans and incorporating it into national accounting by applying the findings of the Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) report; joint efforts to support countries in identifying resource needs and ways to mobilise additional resources for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity from domestic and other sources, including through the promotion of innovative financial mechanisms; further support for the establishment and inception phase of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES); and a cross-sectoral, integrated approach to ecosystem management to reverse the decline in ecosystem services and to improve ecosystem resilience, with respect to such external impacts as habitat loss and degradation, invasive species, climate change, pollution and overexploitation, including through international trade. As to the latter, special attention is expected to be placed on ensuring the conservation and sustainable management of marine and forest species and the productivity and resilience of those ecosystems.
As part of this cooperation, the EU, UNEP and the Government of Kenya announced the launch of a multi-million-Euro project to assist in the restoration of the northwestern part of the Mau forest complex in Kenya. The project, supporting Kenya’s strategy to rehabilitate one of Sub-Saharan Africa’s largest closed canopy forests, will contribute to maintaining nature-based assets worth an estimated US$1.5 billion a year to the Kenyan economy, contributing to the protection of biologically important sites such as designated Important Bird Areas.
The EU and UNEP are expected to announce the precise funding arrangements and other projects to be started under the new strategic cooperative partnership in the coming months. [UNEP Press Release] [Publication: EU-UNEP Joint Statement]