Improving measurement and reporting of progress for the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification
A notably successful example of an evidence-based approach is the fight against stratospheric ozone depletion. The international, peer-reviewed ozone assessments (Watson et al. 1988), conducted as part of an intergovernmental process, provided the scientiďŹ c and technical basis for the Vienna Convention to Protect the Ozone Layer and the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, to eliminate the production and use of ozone-depleting chlorine- and bromine-containing chemicals (UNEP 1999). The findings of these assessments linked human activities to ozone depletion, resulting in increased levels of ultraviolet radiation at ground level, which in turn leads to an increase in the incidence of skin cancer (UNEP 1999). The solid scientific evidence resulted in governments being willing to make stringent decisions to eliminate the consumption and production of ozonedepleting substances (Watson 2005). This is very similar to the process of review undertaken under the UNFCCC with regards to Greenhouse Gas (GHG) inventories and National Communications. UNFCCC’s GHG inventories are based on guidelines approved by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), thus representing best available scientific knowledge at certain points in time. Such examples offer useful lessons for the UNCCD, and it is worthwhile that these processes share not only their outcomes but also their lessons learned in terms of continually improving their evidence management systems.
22
The United Nations Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) is the biodiversity assessment and information arm of UNEP. UNEP-WCMC is a supplier of environmental information, increasingly concerned with mainstreaming biodiversity and ecosystem-related information into development processes. The Centre supports partners to set up systems that generate their own continuous sources of management information on these topics. One notable example is the Biodiversity Indicators Partnership, which has provided information to track the achievement of targets set by the CBD and is assisting countries to set their own nationally-relevant targets to combat biodiversity loss. Acknowledging that the loss of biodiversity and degradation of ecosystems persists despite the established evidence base documenting this trend, UNEP-WCMC is increasingly concerned with mainstreaming, or integrating, information about biodiversity and ecosystem management into other kinds of information and decision making systems, for example in the land, development and agricultural sectors.