Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)

In international negotiations, especially on biodiversity, local ecological knowledge has been often limited to issues relating to indigenousness. Based on the concepts of heritage and the terroir, approaches have been developed in France, thus making it possible to better understand, conserve and exploit ecological knowledge and associated biodiversity.

This document provides information on how implementing forest landscape restoration (FLR) at the jurisdictional and national level can offer countries a way to recover degraded forests and bring back key forest ecosystem functionalities in a way that will increase biodiversity levels in a landscape while contributing to achieving several Aichi Biodiversity Targets.

Global Biodiversity Outlook 2 assesses the current status and trends of biodiversity and the key drivers of biodiversity loss. It provides a powerful case for the importance of biodiversity to human well-being. The report contains a succinct overview of the status of the implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity, progress towards the 2010 Biodiversity Target and its contribution to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.

Published almost at the halfway point of the 2011–2020 Strategic Plan for Biodiversity, this fourth edition of the Global Biodiversity Outlook (GBO-4) provides a timely report: on progress towards meeting the 20 Aichi Biodiversity Targets and potential actions to accelerate that progress; on prospects for achieving the 2050 Vision on ‘Living in Harmony with Nature’; and on the importance of biodiversity in meeting broader goals for sustainable human development during this century.

International trade rules have significant impacts on environmental law and policy, at the domestic, regional and global levels. At the World Trade Organization (WTO), dispute settlement tribunals are increasingly called to decide on environment- and health-related questions. Can governments treat products differently based on environmental considerations? Can they block the import of highly carcinogenic asbestos-containing products or genetically modified crops?

The Protected Planet Report series, launched in 2012, helps track international progress towards achieving Aichi Biodiversity Target 11 - a target for the global protected area network and for other related targets. One of the key messages of the 2012 Protected Planet Report was that a better understanding and more complete overview of each element of Target 11 would be helpful.