Experts

The National Action Plan for the implementation of the Protocol on Conservation and Sustainable Use of Biological and Landscape Diversity in Poland

The first ever draft National Action Plan in the history of the Carpathian Convention process, for the implementation of the “Biodiversity Protocol”, has been developed for Poland under the “Carpathians Unite” project in 2014-2016.

The added value of the draft NAP is that in response to the current Polish priorities and challenges the draft NAP includes a special separate strategic objective concerning the conservation, maintenance and restoration of Carpathian landscapes, which, due to several reasons, could not adequately be covered in the relevant thematic Protocol to the Framework Convention, concerning not only biological but also landscape diversity of the Carpathians.

A special working group was established in 2014 at the national level, in order to involve the main stakeholder groups from the Polish part of the Carpathians – regional authorities of the three administrative provinces (NUTS 2 level) concerned, Regional Directorates for Environmental Protection, Regional Directorates of the State Forests, national parks, landscape parks, as well as scientific institutions.

The main tasks of this working group included defining the desired thematic scope and structure of the document, and providing expert comments to the draft elaborated by UNEP/GRID-Warsaw Centre. The working group communicated via e-mail, and gathered at three meetings, organized under the “Carpathians Unite” project: in October 2014 (in Kluszkowce), in March 2015 (in Nowy Sącz) and in December 2015 (in Hoszów).

In 2015, on the request of the Ministry of Environment, the first draft of the NAP was made publicly available and became subject to consultations with the self-governmental authorities of 200 municipalities within the geographic scope of application of the Carpathian Convention in Poland, including online consultations launched in Sept. 2015 on the Carpathian Informatorium website.

The contents of the draft National Action Plan for the implementation of the “Biodiversity Protocol” in Poland includes:

• the introductory part explaining the reasons for its elaboration and justifying the need for its adoption;
• the brief diagnosis of the current state of biological and landscape diversity of the Polish part of the Carpathians;
• the analysis of present and foreseeable threats to the biological and landscape diversity;
• the NAP justification / legal basis;
• the formulation of the overall goal of the NAP, and the list of the NAP main strategic goals, corresponding NAP operational objectives, and actions recommended by the NAP;
• the analysis of the NAP correspondence with selected international agreements and strategic documents, incl. the Framework Carpathian Convention, the Biodiversity Protocol, the Biodiversity SAP, the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), Aichi Targets, the CBD Programme of Work on Mountain Biodiversity, the European Landscape Convention, the Bern Convention, the Århus Convention, the European Union biodiversity strategy to 2020, and the Technical Annex to the Communication from the Commission - Halting the loss of biodiversity by 2010 - and beyond;
• detailed descriptions of all 99 actions recommended for the accomplishment of seven strategic goals, each of them with a reference to the Convention documents as well as to the Polish national Programme of Conservation and Sustainable Use of Biological Diversity with the corresponding Action Plan for 2015-2020;
• the description of the roles of different stakeholders in the NAP implementation;
• the description of instruments available for the NAP implementation (incl. the list of relevant legal acts);
• the list of indicators proposed for monitoring and evaluation of the NAP implementation.

The overall goal of the NAP is the maintenance of the wealth of the biological and landscape diversity of the Polish part of the Carpathians.

The main strategic goals of the NAP, corresponding to particular Articles of the Protocol, are as follows:

Strategic Goal 1. Maintenance, protection, restoration and sustainable use of plant, animal and fungi species in the Carpathians (corresponding to Articles 11, 12, 15 and 17 of the Protocol)

Strategic Goal 2. Maintenance, protection, restoration and sustainable use of natural and semi-natural habitats in the Carpathians (corresponding to Articles 8, 10, 15 and 17 of the Protocol)

Strategic Goal 3. Maintenance, protection, restoration and sustainable use of landscapes in the Carpathians (added value compared to the Protocol and SAP, based on Article 4 of the Protocol)

Strategic Goal 4. Ensuring the continuity and connectivity of natural and semi-natural habitats, formation of the ecological network in the Carpathians (corresponding to Articles 9, 15 and 17 of the Protocol)

Strategic Goal 5. Mitigation of threats to the biological diversity of the Carpathians posed by invasive alien species and/or genetically modified organisms (corresponding to Article 13 of the Protocol)

Strategic Goal 6. Support for the conservation and sustainable use of the biological and landscape diversity of the Carpathians by enhancing cooperation networks and coordination of activities (corresponding to Articles 14, 16, 18 and 19 of the Protocol)

Strategic Goal 7. Support for the conservation and sustainable use of the biological and landscape diversity of the Carpathians through informative and educational activities (corresponding to Articles 6 and 24 of the Protocol)

Each of the first five strategic goals of the NAP (concerning: species, habitats, landscape, ecological continuity and connectivity, ecological networks, invasive alien species and GMOs) comprises three operational objectives, structured in the logical sequence:

• assessment of the state of maintenance and protection, identification of threats, development and/or updating inventories, databases etc.
• identification of priorities for interventions, planning activities for the protection, restoration and sustainable use,
• implementation of previously planned activities.

Strategic Goal 6. (concerning cooperation networks and coordination) comprises the following four operational objectives:

• Coordination of monitoring and scientific research (Operational objective 6.1.),
• Establishment of the information system on the biological and landscape diversity of the Carpathians (6.2.),
• Support for the cooperation under the Carpathian Network of Protected Areas (6.3.), and
• Coordination of measures undertaken in border areas (6.4).

 Strategic Goal 7. (concerning informative and educational activities) comprises the following three operational objectives:

• Informing the society and providing data on the biological and landscape diversity of the Carpathians (objective 7.1.),
• Raising public awareness on the need and available methods for the protection of the biological and landscape diversity of the Carpathians, and the possibility the possibility of active participation in the NAP implementation (7.2.),
• Ensuring public participation and support for initiatives undertaken by local communities towards the NAP implementation (7.3.).

The draft National Action Plan recommends undertaking 99 actions in total (under Strategic Goal 1 – 20 actions, Goal 2 – 20 actions, Goal 3 – 15 actions, Goal 4 – 15 actions, Goal 5 – 10 actions, Goal 6 – 13 actions, and Goal 7 – 6 actions).