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Governments agreed to the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 and its Aichi Biodiversity Targets in Nagoya, Japan, in October 2010
at the tenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity. This plan establishes an overarching framework
for biodiversity management and policy development, not only for biodiversity-related conventions, but for the entire United Nations system and
all other partners involved in biodiversity management and policy development. In this article, we will discuss the AICHI Biodiversity Targets
which will be helpful for UPSC exam preparation.

Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020

The Biodiversity Strategic Plan aims to put the Convention on Biological Diversity into action (CBD). CBD's three goals are as follows:
Biological diversity preservation.
The long-term utilisation of biological diversity components.
The equitable and fair distribution of the benefits derived from the use of genetic resources.
The Strategic Plan serves as a flexible framework for the establishment of national and regional targets and promotes the coherent and
effective implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity's three objectives.
The Biodiversity Strategic Plan 2011-2020 includes a vision for 2050, five strategic goals, and twenty ambitious yet achievable
targets known as the Aichi Biodiversity Targets.
To generate support and momentum for this critical task, the United Nations General Assembly declared 2011-2020 the "United Nations
Decade on Biodiversity," with the goal of contributing to the implementation of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity for the period 2011-2020.
The goal of the United Nations Decade on Biodiversity is to support the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity's implementation and to promote its
overall vision of living in harmony with nature.

Vision “By 2050, biodiversity is valued, conserved, restored and wisely used, maintaining ecosystem services, sustaining a
healthy planet and delivering benefits essential for all people.”

Mission “Take effective and urgent action to halt the loss of biodiversity in order to ensure that by 2020 ecosystems are
resilient and continue to provide essential services, thereby securing the planet’s variety of life, and contributing to
human well-being, and poverty eradication.”

Strategic 1. Address the underlying causes of biodiversity loss by mainstreaming biodiversity across government and society.
Goals
2. Reduce the direct pressures on biodiversity and promote sustainable use.
3. To improve the status of biodiversity by safeguarding ecosystems, species and genetic diversity.
4. Enhance the benefits to all from biodiversity and ecosystem services.
5. Enhance implementation through participatory planning, knowledge management and capacity building.

Other Relevant Links

Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Nagoya—Kuala Lumpur Supplementary Protocol

Nagoya Protocol Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety to the Convention on

Kigali Agreement Agenda 21

Rio+5 Rio +20

Ramsar Convention On Wetlands CITES

Traffic: The Wildlife Trade Monitoring Network Convention On The Conservation Of Migratory Species (CMS)

Coalition Against Wildlife Trafficking (CAWT) The International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO)

United Nations Forum On Forests (UNFF) IUCN

The Global Tiger Forum (GTF) The Stockholm Convention On POP

Basel Convention Rotterdam Convention

United Nations Conference On Environment and Development International Whaling Commission

Vienna Convention Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems

Kigali Agreement Minamata Convention

AICHI Biodiversity Targets

The Strategic Plan includes 20 headline targets (Aichi Biodiversity Targets), which are organised under the five strategic goals listed below:

Strategic Goals Targets

Address the Target 1: People should be aware of the value of biodiversity and the steps they can take to conserve and
underlying use it sustainably by 2020. Target 2: By 2020, biodiversity values should have been integrated into
causes of national and local development and poverty reduction strategies and planning processes, as well as
biodiversity national accounting and reporting systems, as appropriate. Target 3: By 2020, at the latest, harmful
loss by incentives, including subsidies, are eliminated, phased out, or reformed in order to minimise or avoid
mainstreaming negative impacts, while positive incentives for biodiversity conservation and sustainable use are developed
biodiversity and implemented in accordance with the Convention and other relevant international obligations, taking
across into account national socioeconomic conditions. Target 4: Governments, businesses, and stakeholders at
government all levels must have taken steps to achieve or have implemented plans for sustainable production and
and society. consumption by 2020, with the impacts of natural resource use well within safe ecological limits.

Reduce the Target 5: By 2020, the rate of loss of all natural habitats, including forests, is at least halved and, where
direct possible, brought close to zero, with significant reductions in degradation and fragmentation. Target 6: By
pressures on 2020, all fish and invertebrate stocks, as well as aquatic plants, will be managed and harvested in a
biodiversity sustainable, legal, and ecosystem-based manner, so that overfishing is avoided, recovery plans and
and promote measures for all depleted species are in place, fisheries have no significant adverse impacts on threatened
sustainable species and vulnerable ecosystems, and fisheries impacts on stocks, species, and ecosystems are within
use. safe ecological limits. Target 7: Agriculture, aquaculture, and forestry areas will be managed sustainably by
2020, ensuring biodiversity conservation. Target 8: Pollution, including excess nutrients, had been
reduced to levels that were not detrimental to ecosystem function and biodiversity by 2020. Target 9: By
2020, invasive alien species and pathways will have been identified and prioritised, priority species will
have been controlled or eradicated, and measures to manage pathways to prevent their introduction and
establishment will be in place. Target 10: By 2015, the multiple anthropogenic pressures on coral reefs
and other vulnerable ecosystems impacted by climate change or ocean acidification will be reduced in
order to preserve their integrity and function.

To improve the Target 11: By 2020, at least 17% of terrestrial and inland water areas, as well as 10% of coastal and
status of marine areas, will be conserved through effectively and equitably managed, ecologically representative,
biodiversity by and well-connected systems of protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures, and
safeguarding integrated into larger landscapes and seascapes. Target 12: By 2020, the extinction of known threatened
ecosystems, species has been avoided, and their conservation status has been improved and sustained, particularly for
species and those most in decline. Target 13: By 2020, the genetic diversity of cultivated plants, farmed and
genetic domesticated animals, and wild relatives, including other socioeconomically and culturally valuable
diversity. species, has been maintained, and strategies for minimising genetic erosion and safeguarding their genetic
diversity have been developed and implemented.

Enhance the Target 14: Ecosystems that provide essential services, including water services, and contribute to health,
benefits to all livelihoods, and well-being are restored and protected by 2020, with a focus on the needs of women,
from indigenous and local communities, and the poor and vulnerable. Target 15: By 2020, ecosystem resilience
biodiversity and biodiversity's contribution to carbon stocks will have been improved through conservation and
and ecosystem restoration, including the restoration of at least 15% of degraded ecosystems, thereby contributing to
services. climate change mitigation and adaptation as well as combating desertification. Target 16: The Nagoya
Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Resulting from
Their Use will be in force and operational by 2015, in accordance with national legislation.

Enhance Target 17: Each Party must have developed, adopted as a policy instrument, and begun implementing an
implementation effective, participatory, and up-to-date national biodiversity strategy and action plan by 2015. Target 18:
through By 2020, indigenous and local communities' traditional knowledge, innovations, and practises relevant to
participatory biodiversity conservation and sustainable use, as well as their customary use of biological resources, will
planning, be respected, subject to national legislation and relevant international obligations, and fully integrated and
knowledge reflected in the implementation of the Convention with the full and effective participation of indigenous and
management local communities at all relevant levels. Target 19: By 2020, knowledge, the scientific foundation, and
and capacity technologies relating to biodiversity, its values, functioning, status, and trends, as well as the
building. consequences of its loss, will have been improved, widely shared and transferred, and applied. Target 20:
The mobilisation of financial resources for effectively implementing the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity
2011-2020 from all sources, in accordance with the consolidated and agreed-upon process in the
Strategy for Resource Mobilization, should increase significantly from current levels by 2020, at the latest.
This target may change depending on resource needs assessments developed and reported by Parties.

Significance of AICHI Biodiversity Targets

These targets include raising awareness about the value of biodiversity, incorporating biodiversity values into local and national
development and poverty reduction strategies, eliminating harmful incentives and subsidies, promoting sustainable production and
consumption, and so on.
These targets were developed with the underlying drivers of biodiversity loss in mind, with the goal of establishing benchmarks for
improvements across drivers, pressures, the state of biodiversity, the benefits derived from it, and the implementation of relevant policies
and enabling conditions.
Meeting the Aichi Biodiversity Targets would make a significant contribution to the broader global priorities addressed by the post-2015
development agenda, which include reducing hunger and poverty, improving human health, and ensuring a sustainable supply of energy,
food, and clean water.
However, achieving these common goals will necessitate societal changes such as much more efficient use of land, water, energy, and
materials, rethinking our consumption habits, and, in particular, major transformations of food systems.

Why the AICHI Targets Failed?

According to the CBD's Global Biodiversity Outlook 5 report, none of the 20 'Aichi Biodiversity Targets' agreed upon by national governments
through the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) have been met. At the global level, none of the 20 targets have been fully
achieved, with six targets partially achieved.

The previous failures are attributed to a general lack of investments, resources, knowledge, and accountability for biodiversity conservation.
The national goals adopted by each participating country did not always align with the Aichi targets, and the sum of national successes was
insufficient to meet the overall global targets.
The Aichi targets did not fail solely because they could not be measured. They also failed because countries were not required to report on
their progress.
A lack of accountability was always there. Committing to the Aichi targets is voluntary and non-mandatory, and results are self-reported to
the CBD by each party.
As these agreements are not legally binding, it is unclear how to translate and implement targets into national legislation.
There were gaps in scientific knowledge at the national and regional levels.
The Aichi target review mechanisms have been criticised as it is difficult to link pledged national commitments to actual implementation in
the absence of transparent and rigorous review systems.

Conclusion

The Aichi Biodiversity Targets represent an innovative and visionary approach to biodiversity that integrates biodiversity with the social and
economic drivers at the heart of the problem, and thus the key to the solution.

Other Relevant Links

Environment Notes International Conventions

Important Wildlife Institutions List of environmental acts

Environment Issues and Health Effects Institutions and Measures to save the Environment

FAQs

Question: What were the strategic goals of the Biodiversity Strategic Plan 2011-2020? ➕

Question: How many Aichi Biodiversity Targets were there? ➕

Question: What was the significance of Aichi Biodiversity Targets? ➕

Question: With reference to India, consider the following Central Acts: (UPSC 2011)

1. Import and Export (Control) Act, 1947

Which of the above Acts have relevance to/bearing on the biodiversity conservation in the country?

(a) 1 and 3 only

(b) 2, 3 and 4 only

(c) 1, 2, 3 and 4

(d) None of the above

Answer: (c) See the Explanation ➕

Question: How does National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) help in protecting the Indian agriculture? (UPSC 2012)

1. NBA checks the biopiracy and protects the indigenous and traditional genetic resources.
2. NBA directly monitors and supervises the scientific research on genetic modification of crop plants.
3. Application for Intellectual Property Rights related to genetic/biological resources cannot be made without the approval of NBA.

Which of the statements given above is /are correct?

(a) 1 only

(b) 2 and 3 only

(c) 1 and 3 only

(d) 1, 2 and 3

Answer: (c) See the Explanation ➕

Other Relevant Links

Indian Polity Notes Indian Economy Notes

Art and Culture Notes Governance Notes

Ancient India History Notes Medieval India History Notes

Modern India History Notes Geography Notes

Science And Technology Notes Environment And Ecology Notes

Post Independence Notes Society Notes

Internal Security Notes Ethics Notes

Disaster Management Notes World History

International Relations Social Justice Notes

CSAT Notes Government Scheme Notes

*The article might have information for the previous academic years, please refer the official website of the exam.
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