National level use of International Union for Conservation of Nature knowledge products in American National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans and National Reports to the Convention on Biological Diversity

Abstract

The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) currently serves as the multilateral environmental framework for protecting biodiversity. Parties to the CBD are required to develop and submit National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs) and National Reports. These documents serve as the instruments used by governments and stakeholders to identify their priorities, implement, and track progress to the CBD. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has produced biodiversity and conservation knowledge products that are fundamental for tracking the progress of targets such as the Aichi Biodiversity Targets. We examined if countries in the Americas are using knowledge products based on IUCN standards to help construct their documents; 234 documents were analyzed for knowledge product keywords. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species was mentioned in 91.8% of keyword-coded segments. IUCN publications, Protected Areas Categories, Key Biodiversity Areas, the Red List of Ecosystems and World Database on Protected Areas had 8.2% of the remaining segments. Further studies should investigate awareness of knowledge products among national focal points for the CBD to determine their limited use in document development. IUCN knowledge products should continue to form an integral part of future indicators during this critical moment for biodiversity conservation.

Using Red List Indices to monitor extinction risk at national scales

“…Further, the assessments for species A and B will contribute less to South Africa's disaggregated global than national RLI because they will be downweighted by the proportion of their ranges occurring in the country the Aichi Biodiversity Targets (CBD, 2016) and was available for reporting national progress toward Aichi Target 12 for all countries. However, notwithstanding the frequent reference to the IUCN Red List in national reporting (McCay & Lacher, 2021), there was relatively little uptake of the RLI in National Reports submitted to the CBD as of October 14, 2020 (Figure 2, see Supplementary Information for methods). Only six of 136 nations (4%) that submitted reports produced their own national RLIs, and three of these (Sweden, Finland, and South Africa) followed the recommended IUCN methodology (see Bubb et al, 2009).…”