Regional Workshop for Eastern Africa on Updating National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs)
Kigali, Rwanda
27 – 30 June 2011
The Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (SCBD) is currently facilitating a series of regional workshops to facilitate the review of their Parties’ national biodiversity strategies and action plans (NBSAPs). This was the second of such workshops which focused on the east African Countries. Delegates from Ethiopia, Kenya, Mauritius, Rwanda, Comoros, Seychelles, Sudan, Burundi, Djibouti, and Uganda attended this workshop. Delegates were appointed by their countries’ CBD focal point. About 40 delegates attended and participated in the workshop.
- Delegates are shown a site where the government is protecting the environment and striving to ensure that the fishery in the lake is sustainable.
Following the valuable involvement of André Mader of ICLEI’s (Local Governments for Sustainability) at the inaugural workshop in Kasane, Botswana in March of this year, the CBD again extended an invitation to ICLEI to send a resource person from local government to attend the workshop. ICLEI extended this invitation to the City of Cape Town’s Cliff Dorse who is intimately involved with implementing a Local Biodiversity Strategic Action Plan (LBSAP) within the City of Cape Town, South Africa. The concept of realising NBSAP objectives through local implementation is critical and thus very significant for all Parties. A presentation detailing the importance of Cities and local governments was given at the workshop. The City of Cape Town example was used to show how local action can contribute to national objectives. From the report backs of the participating countries it was clear that the main challenges of all NBSAPS remain mainstreaming biodiversity into all spheres of government and the lack of implementation.