Development of the monitoring framework for the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework

To help to reach the 2050 Vision for Biodiversity, negotiations are underway for the development of a new biodiversity framework under the Convention on Biological Diversity. This framework, currently know as the “post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework” is expected to be adopted by the Convention on Biological Diversity in December this year during the fifteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP-15) which will be convened from 5 to 17 December in Montreal, Canada and hosted by the government of China.

As part of the negotiations for the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, the Convention is also working to identifying means of monitoring its implementation, including through the use of indicators, metadata and associated reporting. The current draft of the monitoring framework, among other things, contains a possible set of headline indicators. These headline indicators are intended to represent a set of indicators which are currently or soon to be available, have been or are likely to agreed through a scientific or intergovernmental process, are globally and national relevant and which can be used to measure progress towards the goals and targets of the framework. The headline indicators could also be complimented by component or complimentary indicators which allow for more detailed or thematic analysis of progress in implementation. Several of the indicators currently proposed in the draft of the framework are developed and maintained by the United Nations Statistics Division work on the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA). 

To help inform the further development of the monitoring framework for the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework an expert workshop on indicators was held from June 29 to 1 July 2022 in Bonn Germany. The outcomes from the meeting, which will be accessible here, along with the other documentation for the meeting, will be conveyed to COP-15.

Among the workshops outcomes where a set of suggested indicators for possible inclusion in the monitoring framework, building on the work undertaken during the twenty fourth meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA) as well as suggested possible revisions to those indicators which had previously identified by the SBSTTA. For Goals A and B and targets 9 and 11 of the post-2020 global biodiversity framework some of the suggested indicators could be produced using SEEA accounts as the underlying data sets. The workshop also made recommendations for how gaps in the monitoring framework could be addressed, capacity needs associated with the use of the suggested indicators, suggestions for the further development of component and complimentary indicators and suggestions for how the Convention’s national reporting process could be used to assess progress in implementation.

The next steps in the process for the development of the monitoring framework will be the discussions at COP-15. Once the post-2020 global biodiversity framework has been adopted, the focus will shift to implementation and depending on the form the framework and its monitoring mechanisms take national statistics offices and the work supported by the UNSD are likely to be highly relevant.

For more information on this process and relevant documents see https://www.cbd.int/conferences/post2020.