Checklist
checklist
2-way integration guidelines for national, subnational, and local authorities to implement NBSAPs
Successful implementation of NBSAPs at subnational and local levels requires vertical integration of strategic planning and implementation, coordination and cooperation or collaboration between the various levels of authority.
Here are the steps your region can take:
- Specifying and institutionalising collaboration and coordination in policy and strategy: The role of subnational and local authorities can be set out and reported on in policy and strategy documents and reports related to biodiversity, including NBSAPs and National Reports.
- Clarifying mandates, institutional roles, and responsibilities: Roles and responsibilities of subnational and local authorities on biodiversity can also be established through basic legal frameworks at all levels of governance, as well as norms, regulations, and corporate strategies and policies for public agencies and bodies.
- Establishing institutional coordination and cooperation mechanisms and forums: Whether or not the roles of different levels of government are codified in formal documents, subnational implementation can be strengthened through appropriately designed councils, agencies, permanent or regular consultative bodies, and even informal forums.
- Coordinating strategies to ensure alignment with NBSAP and Aichi Biodiversity Targets: Each level of government can define an appropriate strategy and action aligned to relevant guidance of the CBD, such as its programmes of work and cross-cutting issues, its tools and guidelines, its COP decisions, and its Strategic Plan and Aichi Biodiversity Targets.
- Planning for action together: When Parties plan their national strategies and action plans in coordination with subnational and local authorities or their representative bodies, institutional capacity is built for coordination. Agreeing on indicators appropriate to the different levels can help to coordinate decision-making between all levels.
- Cross-sectoral planning and cooperation: Mainstreaming biodiversity into the planning of sectoral programmes and projects, particularly those with potential biodiversity impacts, and cooperation among sectoral agencies at the operational level, offers indirect yet effective opportunities for joint implementation of NBSAPs.
- Cooperation across political borders: Because ecosystems and nature do not follow political borders, cooperation between national, subnational, and local authorities on common assets such as wetlands, river basins, and forests, or protection of migratory or charismatic species, is necessary for managing and reducing the ecological footprint impact across borders and effective coordination of trans-boundary actions in achieving NBSAP targets.
- Facilitating consultation and participation: Independent of other aspects of coordination and collaboration, actions by national authorities to ensure consultation and involvement of subnational and local authorities, or their representative bodies, will encourage and support implementation at all levels.
- Financial support and incentives: Very often, subnational and local authorities do not have access to dedicated financial resources to work on biodiversity, and even less to coordinate with other levels of government. National governments are encouraged to identify funding avenues and incentives towards supporting subnational and local authorities in the implementation of NBSAPs. Financial support and incentives provide a direct and effective way to ensure coordination and collaboration at all levels.
- Technical support and non-financial incentives: The provision of technical support and other non-financial forms of recognition (awards, competitions, acknowledgement through media or visibility, etc.) by national authorities or other relevant organizations also facilitates action by subnational or local authorities for biodiversity.
- Capacity building and sharing lessons learned: Many Parties and their national authorities already offer web-based or in-person training opportunities, or compilations of effective practices, for subnational and local authorities on the implementation of NBSAPs, whether of their own production or by contracting appropriate institutions or bodies.
- Cooperation on science, information, monitoring, and evaluation: Effective NBSAPs and related plans or programmes require a solid scientific base of data in order to define goals and targets, and to develop a system for monitoring and evaluating their implementation. Subnational and local authorities often possess valuable information and can contribute with scientific and technical data. With a common scientific basis, vertical coordination is naturally easier and more effective.
- Communication and awareness raising: Coordination across levels of government in implementing NBSAPs requires specific messaging, joint positioning, and production of communication materials, so that all levels of government are represented, with their concerns and contributions acknowledged.