Why the Mitigation & Conservation Hierarchy?

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Efforts to conserve biodiversity comprise a patchwork of international goals, national-level plans, and local interventions that, overall, are failing.

The current global strategic framework for nature conservation (the Aichi Targets (CBD 2010)) suffered from several difficulties:

  • Wording of targets made it difficult to translate global goals into tangible conservation actions
  • It was unclear how National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs), scaled-up to global outcomes
  • It was unclear how to incorporate contributions of local and non-State actors, such as individuals and businesses

A new approach is required to drive transformative change for the post-2020 framework, which can:

  • Act as a universal framework for action on biodiversity, linking different elements (e.g. outcomes, actions and enabling conditions) and scales towards aspirational and measurable global targets
  • Support the strengthening of National Biodiversity Strategy Action Plans (NBSAPs), as a key instrument for implementing the post-2020 framework, whilst also fostering strong ownership amongst stakeholders beyond the biodiversity community
  • Focus on creating tangible action, with an effective monitoring and review process to improve transparency and accountability
  • Mainstream biodiversity – across all sectors and in to every stage of policy development, planning and project cycles – regardless whether international organizations, businesses or governments lead the process.

The Mitigation and Conservation Hierarchy can meet these needs, because it:

  • Focuses on identifying actions
  • Is flexible, allowing for differentiated pathways towards common goals
  • Aids transparency and monitoring
  • Is founded on a strong evidence-based and a wealth of practical experience
  • Supports aspirational goals for nature