24 July 2018
OECD Report Explores Biodiversity Mainstreaming
Photo by Arturo Rivera
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An OECD report draws on experiences from 16 predominantly megadiverse countries, highlighting examples of good practices and remaining challenges in four key areas related to biodiversity mainstreaming.

It recommends that governments prioritize actions that underwrite a strong business case for biodiversity.

12 July 2018: To support dialogue at its Global Forum on the Environment, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) launched a report titled, ‘Mainstreaming Biodiversity for Sustainable Development.’ The Forum took part in three sessions focused on mainstreaming biodiversity: at the national level; in agriculture, forestry, fisheries and tourism sectors; and in the energy, mining, infrastructure and manufacturing sectors.

Drawing on experiences from 16 predominantly megadiverse countries, the report highlights examples of good practices and remaining challenges in four key areas related to biodiversity mainstreaming. These include: at the national level, including national development plans and national budgets; in the agriculture, forestry and fisheries sectors; in development co-operation; and the monitoring and evaluation of biodiversity mainstreaming. The analysis examines countries that span all income groups, from high-income economies such as Australia and France to lower-income economies such as Ethiopia and Madagascar.

The report notes that, for biodiversity mainstreaming to be effective, it should occur across all levels of government and include all relevant stakeholders, as entry points interact and are located at different levels of governance. To support implementation, the publication points out that mainstreaming initiatives need to be accompanied by budgetary allocations.

The report recommends, inter alia, that governments prioritize actions that underwrite a strong business case for biodiversity. These include: conducting a national assessment of biodiversity and ecosystem services outlining the key pressures on biodiversity and incorporating, where possible, the full social benefits that ecosystems and ecosystem services provide, including monetary values where feasible. These also include integrating biodiversity-related considerations into sector-level resource assessments – for instance, agriculture, forestry, fisheries – and identifying key pressures in each case. Other actions to be prioritized include: investing in statistical and/or data systems to establish an evidence base on the drivers, pressures and state of biodiversity; and developing targeted messages that support collaborative solutions.

The Forum, organized in collaboration with the European Commission, Mexico, Egypt, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Secretariat, was held at the margins of the second meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Implementation SBI 2 under the CBD. [Publication: ‘Mainstreaming Biodiversity for Sustainable Development’] [Policy Highlights][OECD Global Forum on the Environment Website]


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