This technical note focuses on spatial planning for wind and solar development with respect to biodiversity. It is intended primarily for government planners responsible for the longterm sustainable roll out and/or expansion of renewable energy and associated infrastructure (e.g. grid infrastructure and facilities such as ports) at regional, national, and sub-national levels. For developers and lenders/investors, this technical note could also help illustrate how these actors could play a role in spatial planning in certain contexts (e.g. emerging markets, providing resources, and supporting governments to identify appropriate areas for development).

As the leading global body addressing cetacean science, conservation and management, the IWC has the capacity to play a significant role in global efforts to address bycatch and in 2016, endorsed a new Bycatch Mitigation Initiative (BMI). In collaboration with other organisations, national governments and fishing communities, this aims to develop, assess and promote effective bycatch prevention and mitigation measures world-wide.

The initiative is currently focused on addressing gillnet bycatch in small-scale fisheries, although some work continues on bycatch in other gears and fisheries.

The concepts of collaboration and co-ordination underpin the BMI.  Bycatch is an issue that needs to be tackled on several different scales, from fishing communities to national governments and intergovernmental fishery bodies.

The BMI works closely with the Global Whale Entanglement Response Network (GWERN), a pioneering initiative which actively addresses welfare, conservation and human safety impacts of large whale entanglement in fishing gear and marine debris.

KBAs are sites ‘contributing significantly to the global persistence of biodiversity in terrestrial, freshwater, and marine ecosystems’. The KBA Partnership is composed of 13 leading international organizations including IUCN. It maintains a KBA Committee, KBA secretariat, a KBA Technical Working Group, a KBA Community, a KBA Consultative Forum, and the World Database of Key Biodiversity Areas. An independent KBA Standards and Appeals Committee is established under the authority of the elected SSC and WCPA Chairs. The KBA Global Standard lists the criteria for identification of KBAs. There are five criteria and 11 subcriteria all with quantitative thresholds. KBAs are identified on the basis of ecosystems or species.

KBAs can be identified by a KBA National Coordination Group (KBA NCG). If an individual or small group has an interest in proposing a KBA in a country with an existing KBA NCG they are encouraged to work with that KBA NCG to make the proposal. Where a KBA NCG has not yet been established, proposers are encouraged to consider helping form such a group but if that is not possible they can put together a proposal for a site and submit it directly. KBAs should be reviewed and updated nationally every 8-12 years to also confirm they still meet KBA status for the species or ecosystems that trigger KBA status for the site. The KBA identification process is inclusive, consultative and nationally driven. Anyone with appropriate data may propose a site as a KBA, although consultation with relevant stakeholders at the local and national level is required when identifying the site and needs to be documented in the proposal. A proposer must apply the KBA criteria to data on biodiversity elements (species and ecosystems) at the site and delineate the site clearly. The formal proposal is then made through a process that ensures independent review before a site is incorporated in the World Database of KBAs.

How to use

• To download the KBA Standard, criteria, and guidelines, and for further information: https://www.keybiodiversityareas.org/home
• To explore maps and site details on the World Database of KBAS: https://wdkba.keybiodiversityareas.org
• For guidance on the role of KBA National Coordination Groups and how to establish them: https://www.keybiodiversityareas.org/working-with-kbas/programme/national-coordination-groups

WWF’s global site-based conservation programs cover vast areas of countries and continents and, via its landscape approach, invariably has large programs that transcend national boundaries be it for species conservation, forest and habitat protection, or to maintain environmental f lows and sustainable use. Past global studies have looked at guidelines and criteria for successful transboundary conservation programs, but a review of practical lessons from the field is lacking. This report reflects on the strengths and challenges of transboundary conservation programs, illustrated by a compilation of lessons from over two decades of work on the ground, and builds on previous knowledge, fills some knowledge gaps, and draws on firsthand practitioners’ experiences from 16 of WWF’s transboundary landscapes across Europe, Africa, Central America and Asia.

As an environmental treaty of the United Nations, CMS provides a global platform for the conservation and sustainable use of migratory animals and their habitats. CMS brings together the States through which migratory animals pass, the Range States, and lays the legal foundation for internationally coordinated conservation measures throughout a migratory range.

As the only global convention specializing in the conservation of migratory species, their habitats and migration routes, CMS complements and co-operates with a number of other international organizations, NGOs and partners in the media as well as in the corporate sector.

Migratory species threatened with extinction are listed on Appendix I of the Convention. CMS Parties strive towards strictly protecting these animals, conserving or restoring the places where they live, mitigating obstacles to migration and controlling other factors that might endanger them. Besides establishing obligations for each State joining the Convention, CMS promotes concerted action among the Range States of many of these species.

Migratory species that need or would significantly benefit from international co-operation are listed in Appendix II of the Convention. For this reason, the Convention encourages the Range States to conclude global or regional agreements.

In this respect, CMS acts as a framework Convention. The agreements may range from legally binding treaties (called Agreements) to less formal instruments, such as Memoranda of Understanding, and can be adapted to the requirements of particular regions. The development of models tailored according to the conservation needs throughout the migratory range is a unique capacity to CMS.

The IWC Southern Ocean Research Partnership (IWC-SORP) was established in 2009 as an integrated, collaborative consortium for cetacean research, which aims to maximise conservation-orientated outcomes for Southern Ocean cetaceans through an understanding of the post-exploitation status, health, dynamics and environmental linkages of their populations, and the threats they face.

Task Teams aim to provide rapid and targeted responses to situations where significant and swift population decline is happening, and a real threat of extinction exists at either global or individual population level.

As an environmental treaty of the United Nations, CMS provides a global platform for the conservation and sustainable use of migratory animals and their habitats. CMS brings together the States through which migratory animals pass, the Range States, and lays the legal foundation for internationally coordinated conservation measures throughout a migratory range.

As the only global convention specializing in the conservation of migratory species, their habitats and migration routes, CMS complements and co-operates with a number of other international organizations, NGOs and partners in the media as well as in the corporate sector.

Migratory species threatened with extinction are listed on Appendix I of the Convention. CMS Parties strive towards strictly protecting these animals, conserving or restoring the places where they live, mitigating obstacles to migration and controlling other factors that might endanger them. Besides establishing obligations for each State joining the Convention, CMS promotes concerted action among the Range States of many of these species.

Migratory species that need or would significantly benefit from international co-operation are listed in Appendix II of the Convention. For this reason, the Convention encourages the Range States to conclude global or regional agreements.

In this respect, CMS acts as a framework Convention. The agreements may range from legally binding treaties (called Agreements) to less formal instruments, such as Memoranda of Understanding, and can be adapted to the requirements of particular regions. The development of models tailored according to the conservation needs throughout the migratory range is a unique capacity to CMS.

Bonn, 23 March 2021 – The AEWA Action Plan requires the Secretariat and the Technical Committee (TC) to develop a series of Conservation Guidelines to help the Parties implement the Agreement. As part of this series, guidelines on how to avoid, minimise or mitigate the impact of infrastructure developments and related disturbance affecting waterbirds have been produced. They were endorsed by the 5th Meeting of the AEWA Standing Committee in June 2008 and approved by the 4th Session of the Meeting of the Parties (September 2008, Antananarivo, Madagascar).

Infrastructure developments can have a range of potentially significant impacts on waterbirds and their habitats. It is therefore recommended that each Party should take steps to avoid, minimize or mitigate such potential impacts by applying Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) and project Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) as part of a robust and transparent system for planning and implementing sustainable development.

These guidelines are setting out two sets of steps that may need to be followed. Each country should apply the appropriate steps according to the planning stage that has been reached in the development process. However, the steps should be seen as components of a partly iterative process, such that if necessary steps are returned to and revised in response to new information and decisions. Consultations with stakeholders should also take place throughout the SEA and EIA processes as necessary.

The Guidelines, published as AEWA Technical Series No. 26, were produced by Ecological Solutions and Treweek Environmental Consultants and funded by The Agency for Nature and Forests, Ministry of the Flemish Community (ANF), Belgium.

A new collaborative report from WWF and partners provides the first truly comprehensive look at whale migrations and the threats they face across all oceans, highlighting how the cumulative impacts from industrial fishing, ship strikes, pollution, habitat loss, and climate change are creating a hazardous and sometimes fatal obstacle course for the marine species.

Protecting Blue Corridors visualises the satellite tracks of over 1000 migratory whales worldwide. The report outlines how whales are encountering multiple and growing threats in their critical ocean habitats – areas where they feed, mate, give birth, and nurse their young – and along their migration superhighways, or ‘blue corridors’.

CMS has strengthened its engagement in Central Asia to conserve migratory mammals, their habitats and the vital role they play in preserving intact ecosystems. The Central Asian Mammals Initiative (CAMI) (Resolution 11.24 (Rev.COP13)) and its associated Programme of Work were adopted by CMS Parties at the Eleventh Meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP11) and revised at COP13 in Ghandinagar, India (February 2020). With an initiative to strengthen the conservation of Central Asian migratory mammals, CMS aims to provide a common framework to coordinate conservation activities in the region and to coherently address major threats to migratory species. It is based on activities focused on single species (including existing MOUs/Action Plans and those in development) and activities to address urgent and major threats faced by all or most of the species.

CMS provides an international policy framework to facilitate close collaboration amongst stakeholders. Priority areas for action under CMS include the removal of barriers to migration, the maintenance and restoration of transboundary ecological networks and the preservation of animal migrations in the Central Asian region as one of the last global “migration hotspots”. By developing an initiative for Central Asian mammals, the treaty is acting as a catalyst to foster collaboration between all stakeholders, with the aim of harmonizing and strengthening the implementation of CMS and its instruments targeting large mammals.