UK Post-2010 Biodiversity Framework
The UK Biodiversity Action Plan, published in 1994, was the UK Government’s response to signing the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit. The new UK post-2012 Biodiversity Framework replaces the previous UK level Biodiversity Action Plan.
In July 2012 Defra and the devolved administrations jointly published the new UK Post-2010 Biodiversity Framework
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The UK Post-2010 Biodiversity Framework covers the period 2011 – 2020. It forms the UK Government’s response to the new strategic plan of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), published in 2010 at the CBD meeting in Nagoya, Japan. This includes 5 internationally agreed strategic goals and supporting targets to be achieved by 2020. The 5 strategic goals agreed were:
Strategic Goal A: Address the underlying causes of biodiversity loss by mainstreaming biodiversity across government and society
Strategic Goal B: Reduce the direct pressures on biodiversity and promote sustainable use
Strategic Goal C: To improve the status of biodiversity by safeguarding ecosystems, species and genetic diversity
Strategic Goal D: Enhance the benefits to all from biodiversity and ecosystem services
Strategic Goal E: Enhance implementation through participatory planning, knowledge management and capacity building.
The UK Post-2010 Biodiversity Framework constitutes the UK’s response to these new ‘Aichi’ strategic goals and associated targets. The Framework recognises that most work which was previously carried out under the UK Biodiversity Action Plan (UK BAP) is now focussed on the 4 individual countries of the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland, and delivered through the countries’ own strategies.
Following the publication of the new Framework the UK BAP partnership no longer operates but many of the tools and resources originally developed under the UK BAP still remain of use, for example, background information on UK BAP priority habitats and species which still form the basis of much biodiversity work at country level.
In England the focus is on delivering the outcomes set out in the Government’s Biodiversity 2020 Strategy published in August 2011.
Biodiversity 2020: a strategy for England’s Wildlife and Ecosystem Services sets out how the quality of our environment on land and at sea will be improved over the next ten years and follows on from policies contained in the Natural Environment White Paper, published in June 2011.
Links to the other UK country strategies:
Scotland: Scotland's Biodiversity: it's in your hands is currently under review. Further information
Northern Ireland: Northern Ireland Biodiversity Strategy
Wales: Environment Strategy for Wales
Related articles
UK list of priority habitats and species
Integrating the needs of England's priority species into habitat management
Reporting Biodiversity Delivery in England and Across the UK
The Biodiversity Action Reporting System was re-launched in April 2012 and is the preferred mechanism for capturing information regarding biodiversity action and delivery in England and across the UK. The new version of BARS is very different to the old one, it is a spatially literate system that is being populated with significant additional datasets including Higher Level Stewardship (HLS) data that will help partners better plan local delivery. In England BARS will be a key mechanism for recording Biodiversity 2020 priority habitat and species delivery.
