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Eight conventions make up the biodiversity cluster of multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) that provide the critical international legal framework for the conservation and sustainable use of nature. However, concerns about the rate of implementation of the conventions at the national level have triggered discussions about the effectiveness of these MEAs in halting the loss of biodiversity. Two main concerns have emerged: lack of capacity and resources and lack of coherence in implementing multiple conventions. We focused on the latter and considered the mechanisms by which international conventions are translated into national policy. Specifically, we examined how the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011–2020 and the associated Aichi Biodiversity Targets have functioned as a unifying grand plan for biodiversity conservation. This strategic plan has been used to coordinate and align targets to promote and enable more effective implementation across all biodiversity‐related conventions. Results of a survey of 139 key stakeholders from 88 countries suggests streamlining across ministries and agencies, improved coordination mechanisms with all relevant stakeholders, and better knowledge sharing between conventions could improve cooperation among biodiversity‐related conventions. The roadmap for improving synergies among conventions agreed to at the 13th Convention on Biological Diversity's Conference of Parties in 2016 includes actions such as mechanisms to avoid duplication in national reporting and monitoring on conventions and capacity building related to information and knowledge sharing. We suggest the scientific community can actively engage and contribute to the policy process by establishing a science‐policy platform to address knowledge gaps; improving data gathering, reporting, and monitoring; developing indicators that adequately support implementation of national plans and strategies; and providing evidence‐based recommendations to policy makers. The latter will be particularly important as 2020 approaches and work to develop a new biodiversity agenda for the next decade is beginning.

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The remnants of old-growth cedar forests in Lebanon are currently protected since they are taken to represent relic ecosystems sheltering many endemic, rare and endangered species. However, it is not always obvious how “natural” these forest relics are, and how the past use, conservation and management history have affected their current structural properties and species community composition. Even though Integrated Monitoring Programs have been initiated and developed, they are not being implemented effectively. The present research studied the effect of forest stand structure and the impacts of the anthropogenic activities effects on forest composition and floristic richness in four cedar forests in Lebanon. Horizontal and vertical structure was assessed by relying on the measurement of the physical characteristics and status of cedar trees including diversity and similarity indices. Two hundred and seventeen flora species were identified, among which 51 species were found to have biogeographical specificity and peculiar traits. The species composition seems not to be correlated with stand age structure; however, the occurrence of multiple age cedar stands favors floristic richness and variability in species composition as observed in one of the stands where the variation in diversity indices was high. In conclusion; to conserve biodiversity across landscapes, it is necessary to maintain a collection of stands of different vertical structure; an effect produced both by natural and anthropogenic disturbances since they both create a mosaic of different aged succession stands

The signature and ratification of the convention on biological diversity by the Lebanese government has boosted the declaration of nature reserves. Cedar forests formed the pilot ecosystems, using international funds, for the implementation of a conservation programme and development of management plans. Although different in their attributes, all recent nature reserves have the same basic management objectives and goals but they ignore the idea of taking into account the difference in specific site features and assets that could boost the success of any management plans. Twelve cedar forests flourish in the Mount Lebanon chain. These forests are either protected by the forestry law or are declared as nature reserves by the Ministry of Environment. The results reveal, through Participatory Rural Appraisals and Rapid Rural Appraisals, that religion, geographical location and land ownership play, to a certain extent, a role in adopting successful management practices of cedar forests. The RRAs and PRAs spell out the origins of woodcraft, old stories memorized by elderly people and ethnobotanical knowledge. The 4Rs tools method adopted highlighted the need for more collaboration and synergy of effort between various institutions. The social, ecological and economic aspects of the regions play a major role in defining the backbone of management plans for cedar forests in Lebanon. The present paper proposes guidelines for the establishment of a network of cedar nature reserves in Lebanon adopting collaborative management and assigning a separate role for each reserve; the details rely on the site's natural features, as well as socio-economic and cultural characteristics.Readers should send their comments on this paper to BhaskarNath@aol.com within 3 months of publication of this issue