1 February 2016: During its annual meeting, the Biodiversity Indicators Partnership (BIP) discussed, among other issues, how to respond to growing demands for biodiversity information and monitoring arising from the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), assessments under the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), and other international and national processes.

Hosted by the UN Environment Programme – World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC), the meeting aimed to take stock of progress on biodiversity monitoring, indicators and information systems, and to plan the future work of the BIP.

The meeting also provided an opportunity for biodiversity experts to discuss the need to respond to multiple demands for biodiversity reporting from a growing number of multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) and other international processes including the SDGs, as well as a growing number of national and regional initiatives.

In a news post, Hilary Allison, Head of UNEP-WCMC’s Ecosystem Programme, reports that participants welcomed growing demands for indicators as an indication “that biodiversity is being increasingly recognized as a key component of global environmental reporting,” noting that these demands also create new challenges that the BIP needs to address.

Participants discussed, among other issues: options for reshaping the partnership to meet new indicator requirements; suggestions for filling gaps in global indicators, including possible contributions of other processes such as the Biodiversity Observation Network of the Group of Earth Observations (GEO-BON); and ways to support the further harmonization of biodiversity reporting.

Mandated by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the BIP promotes and coordinates development and delivery of biodiversity indicators in support of the CBD and other MEAs, IPBES, national and regional governments, and a range of other sectors. The annual meeting was held at the UNEP-WCMC offices in Cambridge, UK. [UNEP-WCMC News Post] [BIP Website]