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CHAPTER TWO HOW BIODIVERSITY POLICIES HAVE DEVELOPED

International biodiversity policies

2.1 In 1992, over 150 nations assembled at the Rio Earth Summit and agreed that it was time for action. They recognised the need to protect biodiversity and help sustain human life on our planet, and signed the UN CBD.

2.2 A key part of the CBD was Article 6A. Each contracting government was obliged:

"to develop national strategies, plans or programmes for the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity, or to adapt for this purpose existing strategies, plans or programmes which shall reflect, inter alia, the measures set out in this Convention relevant to the Contracting Party concerned."

2.3 Article 6B added the obligation to:

"integrate, as far as possible and as appropriate, the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity into relevant sectoral or cross-sectoral plans, programmes and policies."

2.4 Articles 7 and 8 obliged signatories to identify and monitor special components of biological diversity (particularly diverse, wild, unique or special habitats; threatened or special species, and genomes of social, scientific or economic importance). Activities likely to threaten these were to be identified and monitored, and a system of protected areas was required for in-situ nature conservation. Article 9 provided for ex-situ research and conservation, and Article 10 for the sustainable and cultural use of biological resources. In degraded areas, support was required for local populations to develop and implement remedial action. Signatories were required to develop incentives for the conservation and sustainable use of components of biodiversity, establish research and training, promote public awareness, and carry out environmental impact assessments of public policies and projects.

2.5 Article 15 accepted that while ownership of a natural resource rests with the sovereign right of States, access to genetic resources could be shared on mutually agreed terms, and signatories were required to take legislative, administration or policy measures to ensure that the results and financial benefits of such research were fairly shared. Article 16 required signatories to allow developing countries which held the genetic resource the access to biotechnology using that resource, including technology protected by patent rights and by private companies.

2.6 Articles 17, 18 and 19 concerned the exchange of information, scientific co-operation and research, particularly to ensure that developing countries were given a fair deal, and Article 20 required developed countries to provide financial support to developing countries for biodiversity conservation.

2.7 Annex 1 of the CBD indicates the key elements of biodiversity:

• Ecosystems and habitats: containing high diversity, large numbers of endemic or threatened species, or wilderness; required by migratory species; of social, economic or scientific importance; or which are representative, unique or associated with key evolutionary or other biological processes;
• Species and communities which are: threatened; wild relatives of domesticated or cultivated species; of medicinal, agricultural or other economic value; or social, scientific or cultural importance; or importance for research into the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity, such as indicator species; and
• Genomes and genes of social, scientific or economic importance.

Recent developments abroad

2.8 In the last few years, there has been increased recognition of the potential impacts of global climate change on biodiversity (for example, on vulnerable arid and semi-arid zones, mountains, low lying areas and small islands), and there have been international moves to link the United Nations CBD with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (the Kyoto Protocol). For example, the United Nations Environment Programme recommended in May 2001 that the two conventions should co-operate, and that it was important at a national level that policies relating to climate change and biodiversity should be co-ordinated.

2.9 The European Commission states that existing measures have been insufficient to reverse the dramatic acceleration of the loss of biodiversity. While emphasising "we have an ethical responsibility to preserve biodiversity for its intrinsic value", the Commission notes that biodiversity is also essential for maintaining the viability of agriculture and fisheries, and necessary for sustainable social and economic development. The European Community Biodiversity Strategy led to the publication of four European Biodiversity Action Plans in 2001: Conservation of Natural Resources, Agriculture, Fisheries, and Development and Economic Co-operation. These will be used as a foundation for the 6th Environmental Action Programme.

2.10 The European Biodiversity Action Plans depend partly upon using non-biodiversity specific instruments (such as the Water Framework Directive), partly on decentralised measures (such as agri-environment schemes), partly on common policies (such as Common Agriculture and Fisheries Policies), and partly on co-operation and the adoption of guiding principles (such as the ecosystem approach, stakeholder participation, and policy integration). The European plans favour a coherent, cross-cutting approach, with biodiversity indicators being identified locally, by Member States, on a biogeographical basis, but being analysed and monitored at a European level.

2.11 The European Community facilitates public access to biodiversity information via an internet web site. At an international level, the Global Biodiversity Information Facility is being developed. Both of these link to the UK's National Biodiversity Network(NBN), which is used to help report and monitor the UK Species and Habitat Action Plans.

UK biodiversity policies

2.12 The UK signed the Convention in June 1992, and put into place policies to ensure that biodiversity would be protected in the UK. To do this, the UK government drew together a group of experts, and in 1994 published a UK biodiversity strategy. This was one of the first national strategies to be produced, enhancing the UK's international reputation for leadership in nature conservation, planning, and science. The strategy's aim was to conserve biodiversity by identifying ways in which society could work sustainably with nature, and to ensure that consideration for biodiversity would be integrated into all sectors of economic and social activity.

2.13 After the strategy was published, a UK Steering Group was set up, drawing together people from public, private and voluntary sectors. Sub-groups were set up to manage targets, data requirements, public awareness and local action.

2.14 In 1995, the UK Steering Group took the strategy a stage further and published a list of species and habitats which are important to the UK, and which needed to be protected. The list aimed to generate funding and action to save certain species, but it also aimed to help people recognise the importance of wildlife, and to realise that maintenance of biodiversity is an indicator of sustainable development. The report also established criteria for the selection of species and habitats to be protected, and provided Action Plans for each species and habitat on the list.

2.15 Since then the list has grown, and by October 1999 there were 391 species and 45 habitats to be protected. Each has its own costed Action Plan, and is co-ordinated by an organisation with the relevant scientific and practical knowledge: a Lead Partner. The process of making and delivering the UKBAPs became known as the Biodiversity Process. The UK BAPs aims are known as the 59 steps (Appendix 1), a series of actions against which future biodiversity progress could be monitored.

2.16 In 1996 the UK government published its wholehearted welcome of the 1995 report, and accepted its main recommendations. The Steering Group evolved into the UK Biodiversity Group (UKBG), and was asked to report back to the government every five years. At the same time, steering groups were established in Scotland (the Scottish Biodiversity Group) and in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

2.17 Devolution in 1999 meant that although the UK as a whole is bound to the UN CBD, Scotland is responsible for delivering those actions which need to be taken in Scotland. The workload is managed by the SBG. The SBG is therefore also responsible for identifying directions and policy instruments relevant to biodiversity which may need to be taken in Scotland.

2.18 In 2000 the England and Wales Countryside and Rights of Way Act introduced a new duty on UK Government Ministers and Departments and the National Assembly of Wales to have regard to the purpose of the conservation of biological diversity in the exercise of their functions. The duty was related specifically to the obligations of the CBD, and included a requirement for the continuation of the lists of species and habitats which were of principal importance for the conservation of biodiversity; i.e. the new Act supported the continuation of the Biodiversity Process in England and Wales. It also obliged the UK Ministers and Departments to take steps to further the conservation of listed habitats and species, and to promote the taking of such steps by others.

Scottish biodiversity policies

2.19 Scotland's biodiversity strategies were originally developed by the SBG as an integral part of the UK's commitment to international biodiversity, and have formed a part of the UK strategy. Work to meet UK and international obligations in Scotland is delivered through the SBG.

2.20 The SBG's aims have evolved during the last five years. Originally, its remit was to guide the development of the Biodiversity Process in Scotland. This involved liaising with other groups within and beyond Scotland, promoting action within Scotland, and monitoring that action. More specifically, it was charged with co-ordinating the second tranche of UK Action Plans for species and habitats which occur wholly or mostly in Scotland, encouraging good practice in the preparation of LBAPs and promoting public awareness and involvement in Scotland.

2.21 The SBG under SEERAD's leadership developed into a broad partnership including public, private and voluntary sectors. Lead Partners formed Action Plan Groups in order to produce UK Action Plans for the conservation of particular species and habitats in Scotland. Lead Partners include Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA), Forestry Commission (FC), Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE), National Trust for Scotland (NTS), Cairngorms Partnership, Plantlife and the Scottish Wildlife Trust (SWT), and each group comprises a number or relevant organisations and specialists.

2.22 The SBG also created Sub-groups charged to address particular issues: Agriculture, Action Plans, LBAPs, Education, Public Awareness and Business, led by SEERAD, SNH Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (CoSLA), Scottish Landowners Federation (SLF), RSPB, and the Scotch Whisky Association respectively. Each Sub-group developed its own way to meet the aims of the SBG.

2.23 By 1999, many of the original objectives had been met: Action Plans had been written, the Local Biodiversity Process was underway, and the Sub-groups had enhanced public awareness of biodiversity in various ways (as described in Action For Scotland's Biodiversity, and outlined later in this report). The SBG then began considering its direction to reflect Scotland's post-devolution requirements.

2.24 Following a series of meetings and internal reports, there was recognition that the biodiversity agenda needed to be broadened and that a more formal set of objectives would be required. The SBG moved into a second phase: encouraging integration of biodiversity-friendly policies into Scottish policy, and encouraging more action to protect biodiversity. The SBG agreed a Ten Point Programme, which is effectively a new set of policy objectives against which to judge success. The Ten Point Programme was endorsed by Scottish Ministers, setting biodiversity firmly within the Government's overall policies for sustainable development in Scotland. The Ministerial Group on Sustainable Scotland stressed the need for the SBG to be relevant, producing biodiversity action as well as plans.

Table 3: SBG's Ten Point Programme

2.25 Most recently, in 2001, Scotland's Minister for the Environment proposed a new duty for Scottish Ministers to have regard to the conservation of biodiversity, the richness and variety of our species and habitats. This was welcomed by many of Scotland's nature conservation bodies and was also, in fact, formally recognised at UK level by the UKBG.

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