CBD/COP/DEC/XIII/4 Page 5 CBD Distr GENERAL CBD/COP/DEC/XIII/4 10 December

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CBD/COP/DEC/XIII/4
Page 5


CBD

Distr.
GENERAL
CBD/COP/DEC/XIII/4
10 December 2016
ORIGINAL: ENGLISH
CONFERENCE OF THE PARTIES TO THE CONVENTION ON BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY
Thirteenth meeting
Cancun, Mexico, 4-17 December 2016
Agenda item 10
DECISION ADOPTED BY THE CONFERENCE OF THE PARTIES TO THE CONVENTION ON
BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY
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XIII/4. Biodiversity and climate change
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The Conference of the Parties,
Reaffirming paragraph 8 of decision X/33,
Recognizing that cooperation among the biodiversity, climate change
adaptation, mitigation and disaster reduction communities results in a
greater ability to design interventions that deliver multiple
benefits,
Also recognizing the potential for synergies provided by the 2030
Agenda for Sustainable Development,1 the Sendai Framework for Disaster
Risk Reduction 2015‑2030,2 the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity
2011-2020 and the Paris Agreement,3
Further recognizing the need for the full and effective participation
of indigenous peoples and local communities including through prior
informed consent, and the need to pay particular attention to their
differentiated needs in order to avoid detrimental impacts on their
livelihoods and cultures,
Recognizing that gender-responsive approaches and engagement of the
youth are critical to ensure the success and sustainability of climate
change adaptation, mitigation and disaster risk reduction policies,
programmes and projects,
Also recognizing the need for improved scientific information
concerning the climate change adaptation of the protected areas
networks, their functionality and connectivity,
Noting resolution XII.11 of the Conference of the Contracting Parties
to the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance especially
as Waterfowl Habitat (the Ramsar Convention) at its twelfth session,
entitled “Peatlands, climate change and wise use: Implications for the
Ramsar Convention”, which highlights the role of peatlands in climate
change not only in adaptation but also in mitigation,4
Taking note of the following reports and the summary information
provided in the note by the Executive Secretary on biodiversity and
climate change:5
a.
Synthesis report on experiences with ecosystem-based approaches to
climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction;6
b.
Managing ecosystems in the context of climate change mitigation: A
review of current knowledge and recommendations to support
ecosystem-based mitigation actions that look beyond terrestrial
forests;7
c.
Relationships between the Aichi Targets and land-based climate
mitigation;8
d.
Guidance on enhancing positive and minimizing negative impacts on
biodiversity of climate change adaptation activities;9
e.
Voluntary guidelines to support the integration of genetic
diversity into national climate change adaptation planning;10
1. Welcomes the Paris Agreement,Error: Reference source not found in
particular the articles related to biodiversity;11
2. Encourages Parties and other Governments, when developing their
Nationally Determined Contributions and, where appropriate,
implementing associated domestic measures, to fully take into account
the importance of ensuring the integrity of all ecosystems, including
oceans, and the protection of biodiversity, and to integrate
ecosystem-based approaches, involving the national focal points to the
Convention on Biological Diversity in this work and ensuring that
information and tools and guidance developed under the Convention on
Biological Diversity are used, as appropriate;
3. Recognizes that ecosystem-based approaches can be technically
feasible, politically desirable, socially acceptable, economically
viable and beneficial and that implementation and investment into
these approaches are, in general, increasing at the international and
national levels;
4. Encourages Parties, other Governments and relevant organizations to
integrate ecosystem-based approaches to climate change adaptation and
mitigation, and disaster risk reduction, into their strategic planning
across sectors;
5. Emphasizes the importance of marine protected areas, inland waters
protected areas, coastal resource management and marine spatial
planning in protecting and building the resilience of marine and
coastal ecosystems, communities and infrastructure against the impacts
of climate change;
6. Takes note of policy approaches and positive incentives for
activities relating to reducing emissions from deforestation and
forest degradation, and the role of conservation, sustainable
management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks in
developing countries, as well as alternative policy approaches, such
as joint mitigation and adaptation approaches for the integral and
sustainable management of forests, and the potential role of these
approaches in the conservation of biological diversity and disaster
risk reduction;
7. Also takes note of the potential for synergies between climate
change adaptation and mitigation measures in the conservation of
biological diversity and disaster risk reduction in all ecosystems;
8. Encourages Parties, other Governments and relevant organizations:
a.
To address the degradation of, loss of, and impacts on
biodiversity and, where appropriate, related social,
environmental and economic impacts associated with climate
change and disasters, considering the costs of inaction, and the
value of investing in actions in a timely manner in order to
reduce biodiversity loss and other negative impacts;
b.
To take into consideration the status of biodiversity and its
vulnerability to current and future climate change impacts when
planning and implementing ecosystem-based approaches to climate
change adaptation, mitigation and disaster risk reduction
activities, and to minimize and, where possible, avoid
activities that may increase the vulnerability and reduce the
resilience of biodiversity and ecosystems;
c.
To consider, in the development and implementation of
ecosystem-based approaches to climate change adaptation and
mitigation, and disaster risk reduction, potential multiple
benefits and trade-offs;
d.
To develop and implement education and training curricula and
awareness-raising programmes for the general public on the
importance of the ecosystem functions and services provided by
biodiversity for climate change adaptation, mitigation and
disaster risk reduction;
e.
To raise awareness, particularly among decision makers in
relevant sectors and at different levels of government, about
ecosystem-based approaches to climate change adaptation,
mitigation and disaster risk reduction;
(f) To recognize the role of protected areas and other effective
area-based conservation measures as cost-effective instruments for
climate change adaptation and mitigation as well as disaster risk
reduction, and that increased investment for management and
conservation will have positive economic, social and environmental
effects;
(g) To develop and implement ecosystem-based approaches to climate
change adaptation, mitigation and disaster risk reduction that are
based on available science and take into account the traditional
knowledge and practices of indigenous peoples and local communities;
(h) To promote the wide use of ecosystem-based approaches where
appropriate, including in marine and coastal and urban areas, in oases
systems, and in agricultural landscapes;
(i) To systematically assemble and analyse evidence to assess the
effectiveness of ecosystem-based approaches to climate change
adaptation and mitigation, and disaster risk reduction, including
through development of improved monitoring and evaluation methods,
noting that such methods are best developed and applied early in the
planning phase;
(j) To make use of existing tools and guidance on ecosystem-based
approaches to climate change adaptation, mitigation and disaster risk
reduction and, where appropriate, to further develop and refine these
tools and guidance;
(k) To ensure that ecosystem-based approaches to climate change
adaptation, mitigation and disaster risk reduction activities maximize
co-benefits to people and biodiversity;
(l) To promote platforms, such as those established under the United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, for the exchange of
experiences and sharing of best practices, including those of
indigenous peoples and local communities on ecosystem-based approaches
to climate change adaptation and mitigation, and disaster risk
reduction, in a holistic and integrated manner;
(m) To promote the integration of climate change adaptation best
practices, strategies and methodologies into conservation planning
frameworks, in consideration of species and ecosystems responses, and
vulnerability to past and future anthropogenic climate change;
(n) To share and disseminate knowledge and experiences on matters
referred to in the present paragraph through, inter alia, the
clearing-house mechanism;
9. Recalls paragraph 5 of decision IX/16, in which it encouraged
Parties, other Governments, donors and relevant organizations to
provide financial and technical support to capacity-building
activities, including through raising public awareness, so as to
enable developing countries, especially least developed countries,
small island developing States and countries with economies in
transition, to implement activities related to the impacts of climate
change, and of the positive and negative impacts of climate change
mitigation and adaptation activities on biodiversity;
10. Requests the Executive Secretary to prepare, subject to the
availability of resources, in collaboration with relevant
organizations, in particular the United Nations Framework Convention
on Climate Change and the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk
Reduction, voluntary guidelines for the design and effective
implementation of ecosystem-based approaches to climate change
adaptation and disaster risk reduction, for consideration by the
Subsidiary Body on Scientific Technical and Technological Advice prior
to the fourteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties;
11. Also requests the Executive Secretary to ensure that the voluntary
guidelines consider existing guidance, including that developed under
the Convention on Biological Diversity, the United Nations Convention
to Combat Desertification and the United Nations Framework Convention
on Climate Change, and include information on:
a.
Tools for assessing the effectiveness of ecosystem-based
approaches to climate change adaptation and disaster risk
reduction while safeguarding biodiversity at various scales;
b.
The design and implementation of ecosystem-based approaches to
climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction at
different scales, including at the subnational and local levels;
c.
Trade-offs in the provision of various ecosystem services and
limits to ecosystem-based approaches for climate change
adaptation and disaster risk reduction;
d.
Tools and indicators for monitoring the effectiveness of
ecosystem-based approaches to climate change adaptation and
disaster risk reduction;
(e) Options for integrating alternative policy approaches into
ecosystem-based approaches to climate change adaptation and disaster
risk reduction;
(f) Integrating knowledge, technologies, practices and efforts of
indigenous peoples and local communities related to addressing and
responding to climate change and impacts on the biodiversity;
(g) Methods making use of ecosystem-based approaches to climate change
adaptation and disaster risk reduction in combination with hard
infrastructure;
12. Further requests the Executive Secretary to further promote
synergies with the Secretariat of the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk
Reduction 2015-2030Error: Reference source not found and the 2030
Agenda for Sustainable Development,Error: Reference source not found
ensuring that this includes increasing knowledge and sharing of
information, guidance and tools developed under the Convention on
Biological Diversity relating to the impacts of climate change on
biological diversity and the role of ecosystems for climate change
adaptation, mitigation and disaster risk reduction, with a view to
identifying possible solutions;
13. Requests the Executive Secretary to further enhance synergies
between the work of the Convention on ecosystem restoration,
ecosystem-based approaches to climate change adaptation and mitigation
and the work on land degradation neutrality and sustainable land
management under the United Nations Convention to Combat
Desertification and ensure coherence with relevant approaches under
other United Nations bodies.
__________
1 General Assembly resolution 70/1, annex.
2 General Assembly resolution 69/283, annex II.
3 Adopted under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change (United Nations, Treaty Series, Registration No. I-54113.
4 See
http://www.ramsar.org/sites/default/files/documents/library/cop12_res11_peatlands_e.pdf.
5 UNEP/CBD/SBSTTA/20/10.
6 UNEP/CBD/SBSTTA/20/INF/2.
7 UNEP/CBD/SBSTTA/20/INF/3.
8 UNEP/CBD/SBSTTA/20/INF/29.
9 UNEP/CBD/SBSTTA/20/INF/1.
10 UNEP/CBD/SBSTTA/20/INF/4.
11 The reference to the importance of ensuring the integrity of all
ecosystems as contained in the preamble of the Paris Agreement;
Article 5, which calls upon Parties to take action to conserve and
enhance sinks and reservoirs of greenhouse gases; Article 7, which
recognizes the role of adaptation in protecting livelihoods and
ecosystems; Article 8 relating to loss and damage, including
resilience of livelihoods, communities and ecosystems.