Responding to the profusion of challenges at our doorstep, world leaders have been stepping up – and making ambitious commitments. The 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Aichi Biodiversity Targets and the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework 2050 Vision encompass some of the goals that need to be achieved in order to realize the healthy, equitable and sustainable future we want.
But anyone who has used a map knows that to reach your destination, you first need to know where you are. Moving toward global goals requires determination of baselines, agreement on quantifiable indicators and regular documentation of progress.
To date, Parties to multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) have been challenged to access information, share data and gain a comprehensive overview of a global movement toward shared goals.
Efficient reporting and information-sharing
“We need much stronger monitoring and review of the implementation of the post-2020 global biodiversity framework,” explains Anne Theo Seinen, Policy Officer at the European Commission Directorate-General for Environment.
The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Data Reporting Tool (DaRT) allows Parties to MEAs to gather and record data in a single space, for convenient sharing across Ministries and for national reporting; and to facilitate monitoring of progress toward the global goals and targets to which National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans are mapped. DaRT also brings together information from other tools and information sources – such as the Biodiversity Indicators Partnership – synthesizing information, bridging gaps and ultimately improving efficiency.
Reporting through DaRT says Seinen, “helps achieving this in the most practical and efficient way, and greatly facilitates the reporting of data generated across MEAs.”
At Cameroon’s Department of Conservation and Management of Natural Resources at the Ministry of Environment, Protection of Nature and Sustainable Development, the use of the system is helping to facilitate data collection and reduce related costs – as well as addressing inconsistencies in reporting.
According to Stanislaus Lebaga Killa Gwankobe, “Conflicting national data submitted by the different Focal Points of the numerous MEAs is progressively becoming a story of the past.”
Moving toward global goals requires determination of baselines, agreement on quantifiable indicators and regular documentation of progress.
The big picture
More broadly, DaRT is a way to collate national indicators and strategic plans and to gain an overview of global trends.
“DaRT is the living room in the common house of the biodiversity family,” explains Norbert Baerlocher, Head Rio Conventions (Climate Change, Biodiversity) at the Federal Office for the Environment in Switzerland. In this space, he says, all Parties can “come together, exchange and celebrate our achievements in implementing the new Global Biodiversity Framework. This framework needs to be a comprehensive set of targets for all MEAs. If the parties use DaRT, all the relevant information on actions taken under different processes is united on one platform, offering an overall view of our progress towards the new Kunming Targets and the SDGs.”
In its current phase, interoperability is being established, enabling Parties to send information electronically from their national working spaces, to accommodate the different formats of various conventions.
Next steps
Since its launch in March 2019, DaRT has been adopted by 13 countries, including Belgium, Benin, Burundi, Cameroon, China, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, Rwanda, South Africa, Switzerland and Tanzania. However, more uptake is required – particularly as a means to coordinate national efforts for the collective achievement of the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, to be adopted by the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP-15) in October, this year.
