22nd meeting of the CBD Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA)
On 2-7 July 2018, the Fisheries Experts Group of the IUCN Commission of Ecosystem Management (IUCN/CEM/FEG) participated in the 22nd meeting of the CBD Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA), that took place in Montreal, Canada.
Represented by Serge Garcia, Jake Rice and Despina Symons, FEG members as part of the IUCN Delegation contributed in the CBD process related to marine issues. In this regard FEG, under an agreement with CBD Secretariat, produced the background documents to the key agenda items listed below and in relation to the implementation of AICHI Target 6 (sustainable fisheries) and 11 (MPAs).
On the updated scientific assessment of progress towards selected Aichi Biodiversity Targets and options for accelerating progress, the discussions focused on the general decline of ecosystem conditions referred to in the Global Biodiversity Outlook and IPBES reports. On Target 6, FEG supported the need to enhance fisheries’ governance and create better forms of fishing activity, including small-scale/artisanal and IUU fishing. On Target 11, FEG highlighted the importance of regional co-operation in transboundary conservation initiatives, alongside the need to promote and better use the protected areas governed by indigenous people and local communities. The full background document produced by Serge Garcia and Jake Rice is available online via this link.
In relation to Aichi Target 11 on protected areas and other measures for enhanced conservation and management (OECMs), FEG had produced the background document for the CBD Montreal Expert Meeting in February 2018. The outcomes of this expert meeting and the guidance on OECM were rather smoothly accepted with minor modifications. See Part III of the full background document here.
On ecologically or biologically significant marine areas (EBSA), the meeting discussed the process for updating existing descriptions of areas meeting EBSA criteria, and either adding new EBSAs in areas, where regional workshops have already been held, or removing EBSA description from their repository if an area was found to no longer meet the criteria.
In addition to the above, there was a joint side-event on ‘Fisheries and Biodiversity—A Review of Progress Towards the Achievement of Aichi Target 6 and the Role of Fisheries Management in Contributing to Aichi Target 11’, co-organized by the CBD Secretariat, FAO and IUCN-CEM-FEG in collaboration with EBCD.
Click here for the event flyer and feel free to have a look at the presentations below:
1-Garcia-Rice. 2018. Progress on Target 6-SBSTTA
2-Garcia-Rice. 2018. Biodiversity Outcomes of ABFMs