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Biodiversity Policy & Practice
Seventh Trondheim Conference on Biodiversity - Ecology and Economy for a Sustainable Society

27-31 May 2013, Trondheim, Norway
 
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Daily highlights (click on the following links to see our daily web pages)
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Summary Highlights of the Meeting

Seventh Trondheim Conference on Biodiversity

Friday, 31 May 2013

On Friday, a session entitled “Our Future, Today’s Biodiversity,” was chaired by Alfred Oteng-Yeboah, National Biodiversity Committee, Ghana. Conference Co-Chair Ivar Baste, Norwegian Directorate for Nature Management, informed participants that the newly released report of the UN High-level Panel on the Post-2015 Development Agenda entitled “A New Global Partnership: Eradicate Poverty and Transform Economies Through Sustainable Development” includes a set of 12 goals: the ninth goal on managing natural resource assets sustainably makes reference to safeguarding ecosystems, species and genetic diversity.

Jane Smart, IUCN, presented on IUCN knowledge products for implementing the Aichi targets. Hossein Fadaei, Acting Secretary of UN Environment Management Group (EMG), UNEP, presented the work of the EMG noting its main function is to enhance coordination among UN agencies at the highest level. Marci Yeater, CITES Secretariat, called for strengthened involvement of CITES in future Trondheim conferences. Salvatore Aricò, UNESCO, stressed that multi-stakeholder cooperation is essential to mainstream biodiversity. Nancy Colleton, IUCN Commission on Education and Communication, offered insights on how to communicate the science and value of biodiversity in a way that motivates action.

Rapporteur Jerry Harrison, UNEP-World Conservation Monitoring Centre, presented the Co-Chairs’ report titled “Moment of Opportunity,” highlighting that the report attempted to capture the key messages arising from the different sessions and calling upon participants to communicate these messages and learn from them.

Yeon-chul Yoo, Ministry of Environment, Republic of Korea, recognized the contributions of the Trondheim Conference to the biodiversity agenda over the past twenty years, mentioning in particular the forthcoming CBD COP 12 to be held in October 2014, in Pyeongchang, Republic of Korea. Conference Co-Chairs Baste and Tone Solhaug, Norwegian Minsitry of the Environment, expressed their appreciation to speakers, participants, organizers and co-hosting organizations, paying special tribute to Peter Schei, founder of the Trondheim Conferences; and closed the Conference at 11.40 am.

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Trondheim Market Square at dusk. The towering monument is of the city's founder,
Olav Tryggvason by the sculptor Wilhelm Rasmussen.
 
 
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Alfred Oteng-Yeboah, Professor, National Biodiversity Committee, Ghana
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Jane Smart, Global Director, Biodiversity Conservation Group, IUCN
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Jane Smart, Global Director, Biodiversity Conservation Group, IUCN, presented IUCN knowledge products for implementating the Aichi targets
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Hossein Fadaei, Acting Secretary, UN Environmental Management Group (EMG), presented the UN system-wide support for the Aichi target capacities
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Hossein Fadaei, Acting Secretary, UN EMG
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Marci Yeater, Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora
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Salvatore Aricò, UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
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Nancy Colleton, Deputy Chair, IUCN Commission on Education and Communication
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Nancy Colleton, Deputy Chair, IUCN Commission on Education and Communication, talked about communicating the biodiversity challenge
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Christine Dawson, US
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Risa Smith, Canada
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Jessica Diaz, Argentina
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Rapporteur Jerry Harrison, UNEP-WCMC, presented the draft report
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Yeon-chul Yoo, Director-General, Korean Ministry of Environment, talked about the forthcoming CBD COP 12, to be held under the theme "biodiversity for sustainable development"
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Yeon-chul Yoo, Director-General, Korean Ministry of Environment
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L-R: Conference Co-Chairs Tone Solhaug, Ministry of Environment, Norway and Ivar Baste, Directorate for Nature Management, Norway; with Rapporteur Jerry Harrison, UNEP-WCMC. Conference Co-Chairs Solhaug and Baste, closed the meeting at 11:40 am (Trondheim time).
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Thursday, 30 May 2013

On Thursday, participants heard presentations on trajectories towards 2020. The session was chaired by Asghar Fazel, ECO Institute of Environmental Science and Technology, Iran, and former SBSTTA Chair.

Ines Verleye, Federal Public Service for the Environment, Belgium, presented on resource mobilization for the Aichi targets, highlighting the need for a structured, country-based approach to enable ministries of environment and other biodiversity actors to use nationally the information generated at the global level. Katia Karousakis, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), shared the results from an OECD study on “Scaling-up Finance Mechanisms for Biodiversity.” Claudia Ituarte-Lima, Resilience and Development Programme (SwedBio) at Stockholm Resilience Centre, Sweden, examined the state of safeguards for biodiversity. Brigitte Baptiste, Director General, Humboldt Institute, Colombia, presented on the ecological dimension in developing sustainable development goals, focusing on the understanding of “awareness.” Lucy Mulenkey, Director, Indigenous Information Network, said that while the Strategic Plan is crucial for mainstreaming biodiversity in government policy, indigenous peoples and local communities already have a long history of mainstreaming biodiversity in their own lives. David Cooper, CBD Secretariat, underscored that the post-2015 agenda and the discussions on sustainable development goals are major opportunities to mainstream biodiversity into sustainable development.

In the afternoon, participants took part in a second roundtable exercise, addressing questions on Aichi targets 3 (incentives) and 4 (sustainable production and consumption).

1ENB Summary of the meeting in English and French now available (in HTML and in PDF format).

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L-R: Trondheim Conference organizers, Ivar Baste, Directorate for Nature Management, Norway; Tone Solhaug, Ministry of Environment, Norway; and Nina Vik, Directorate for Nature Management, Norway.
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Lucy Mulenkey, Director, Indigenous Information Network
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Claudia Ituarte-Lima, International Environmental Law Officer, The Resilience and Development Programme (SwedBio) at Stockholm Resilience Centre, Sweden
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Katia Karousakis, OECD
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Brigitte Baptiste, Director-General, Humboldt Institute, Colombia
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Brigitte Baptiste, Director-General, Humboldt Institute, Colombia, presented on ecological and social dimensions in the development of sustainable development goals.
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Wednesday, 29 May 2013

On Wednesday morning, participants heard presentations on aligning policies, incentives and business within safe ecological limits. The session was chaired by Carina Malherbe, Department of Environmental Affairs, South Africa.

Rachel Kyte, Vice President for the Sustainable Development Network, World Bank, presented the World Bank’s view on the need to balance economic and environmental interests, focusing on the Wealth Accounting and Valuation of Ecosystem Services (WAVES) partnership. Paul Leadley, University of Paris, presented on systems ecology and the identification of safe ecological limits at different scales. Arne Geschke, University of Sydney, presented a study on trade and biodiversity, published in Nature, which aimed at assigning responsibility for threats to biodiversity driven by economic interest, in particular export of goods and services.

Edgard Hertwich, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, spoke about how the study of industrial ecology provides policy-relevant insights into the unintended environmental impacts caused by the production, transport, and consumption of natural resources. Rob Alkemade, Netherlands Environmental Assessments Agency (PBL), presented on the state of knowledge in the scenarios of the fourth edition of the Global Biodiversity Outlook (GBO-4).

Árni Mathiesen, Assistant Director-General, Fisheries and Aquaculture Department, FAO, introduced the parallel sector perspectives and the alignment of policy mixes for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity across scales. In the afternoon, three parallel sessions addressed: forest management and biodiversity; biodiversity in agriculture and food security; and biodiversity in fisheries and ocean management.


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Session Chair Carina Malherbe, Deputy Director of Resource Economics, Department of Environmental Affairs, South Africa
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Paul Leadley, University of Paris, France
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Arne Geschke, University of Sydney, Australia
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Rachel Kyte, Vice President for Sustainable Development Network, World Bank
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L-R: Charles Gbedemah, CBD, and Jan Busby, Norway
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Tuesday, 28 May 2013

On Tuesday, participants focused on trade-offs in national policies. In a session chaired by Valeria González Posse, Directorate General for Environmental Affairs, Ministry of External Relations of Argentina, Edward Barbier, Professor of Economics, University of Wyoming, US, presented on biodiversity, environmental economics and economic policies. He explained that policy needs to address market, institutional and government failures in order to improve economic policies for biodiversity and ecosystem services. Heidi Wittmer, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, launched the Guidance Manual for The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) Country Studies (TCS), which provides practical advice to anyone considering or undertaking a TEEB country study.

Moderating a panel session, Pavan Sukhdev, Founder and CEO, GIST Advisory, stressed the need to take into account a multi-stakeholder perspective. Bob Watson, Co-Chair of the UK National Ecosystem Assessment, explained that a crucial point in the UK National Ecosystem Assessment was to include the perspectives of several stakeholders. Sian Sullivan, Birkbeck College, UK, cautioned that the economic valuation of biodiversity can exacerbate economic inequality. Edgar Selvin Pérez, Director, National Council for Protected Areas, Guatemala, discussed the impact of ethics and state building for biodiversity conservation. Valerie Hickey, Wealth Accounting and the Valuation of Ecosystem Services (WAVES), World Bank, stated that "biodiversity remains invisible at the marketplace of ideas," and suggested embracing new partners, notably the private sector. Nik Sekhran, Principal Technical Adviser for Biodiversity, UNDP, stressed the need to understand what drives decision making in various sectors and distinguish between the need of business, consumers and the state, notably the finance minister in particular.

Anthony Cox, Head of the Climate, Biodiversity and Water Division, OECD, noted that OECD has developed an assessment framework that brings together policy makers and stakeholders to go through options for addressing trade-offs. Diego Pacheco, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Bolivia, presented on the Bolivian legal framework for management of environmental functions in balance and harmony with Mother Earth.

Stanley Asah, Assistant Professor, University of Washington, US, presented on the role of social sciences in achieving the Aichi targets, arguing that biodiversity conservation is about human enterprise. Alessandra Alfieri, UN Statistics Division, presented on the UN system of environmental economic accounting. Pushpam Kumar, UNEP, provided an overview of the Inclusive Wealth Report (IWR) 2012 report, a joint initiative of UNEP and the UN University International Human Dimensions Programme (UNU-IHDP). Anantha Duraiappah, UNU-IHDP, provided additional details on the theoretical basis of the report, which redefines wealth as the stock of productive capital that society can use to generate human well-being.

In the afternoon, participants took part in 14 parallel facilitated roundtables, considering a set of questions for Aichi targets 1 (awareness of biodiversity values) and 2 (integration of biodiversity values into national and local development and poverty reduction strategies and planning processes and incorporation into national accounting and reporting systems). The roundtables then submitted their findings and conclusions in real time to a team of facilitators via a web application.


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L-R: Pavan Sukhdev, Founder and CEO, GIST Advisory PVT LTD; Bob Watson, Co-Chair of the UK National Ecosystem Assessment; Sian Sullivan, Birkbeck College, UK; Edgar Selvin Pérez, Director, National Council for Protected Areas, Guatemala; Valerie Hickey, Wealth Accounting and the Valuation of Ecosystem Services, World Bank; Nik Sekhran, UNDP; Anthony Cox, Head of the Climate, Biodiversity and Water Division, OECD; and Diego Pacheco, Head of Delegation, Bolivia
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Conference participants discussing questions on the implementation of the Aichi Targets 1 and 2
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Jerry Harrison, UNEP-WCMC, synthesized the roundtable recommendations
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Bart Slob, Ethics at Work, moderated the roundtable
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L-R: Tone Solhaug, Ministry of Evironment, Norway; Jerry Harrison, UNEP-WCMC; Ivar Baste, Directorate for Nature Management, Norway; and Ines Verleye, Belgium
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Ivar Baste, Directorate for Nature Management, Norway, closed the day's session and invited participants to a reception at the Archbishop's Palace hosted by the City of Trondheim
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Monday, 27 May 2013

On Monday, the Trondheim Biodiversity Conference opened with a performance by Trondheim-based acapella group Apes & Babes. The opening session featured statements by: Bård Vegar Solhjell, Norway’s Minister of the Environment; Rita Ottervik, Mayor of Trondheim; and Jayanthi Natarajan, India’s Minister of Environment and Forests and President of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

During a session on Trondheim+20 perspectives, Bård Vegar Solhjel set the stage for the Conference, noting, among other issues, the need for improved knowledge as key to making better decisions and a step-wise approach to the valuation of natural capital. Professor Abdul H. Zakri, Chair of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), presented on ecology and human well-being, stressing the need to ensure the Aichi targets are fully taken into account during discussions on the post-2015 development agenda, and to develop a vision going beyond gross domestic product (GDP). Rebeca Grynspan, UN Under-Secretary General and Associate Administrator of the UN Development Programme (UNDP), presented on ecology in the post-2015 development agenda and proposed a series of actions in order to mainstream biodiversity concerns into the development agenda.

Árni Mathiesen, Assistant Director-General of the FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Department, presented on ecology and economy in food security. He highlighted food production systems’ pervasive impact on the environment, concluding that they are essential components of a transition toward a more sustainable future. Braulio Ferreira de Souza Dias, CBD Executive Secretary, presented on the Strategic Goal A of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 (addressing the underlying causes of biodiversity loss by mainstreaming biodiversity across government and society). Peter Gilruth, Director, Division of Early Warning and Assessment, UNEP, on behalf of UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner, presented on the interplay between ecology, economy and society, and recalled successful stories on sustainable development.

The afternoon session was co-chaired by Tone Solhaug, Norway’s Ministry of Environment, and Ivar Baste, Norway’s Directorate for Nature Management.

Simon Upton, Environment Director, OECD, presented on bridging economic and ecologic policies for a sustainable society. He identified four priorities for action: reforming or removing environmentally harmful subsidies; scaling up private sector engagement; improving data, metrics and indicators; and mainstreaming and integrating biodiversity into other policy areas and sectors of the economy. Prasad Menon, Chairman of Tata quality management services, Tata Group, presented on the alignment between public and private sectors for sustainability, including three case studies illustrating the use of education for environmental conservation. Peter Schei, Trondheim Conference founder, presented on the history, challenges and future of the Trondheim Conferences on Biodiversity. Pavan Sukhdev, Founder and CEO, GIST Advisory, discussed alignments of public policies and business strategies across sectors and scales, calling for global collaborative networks.

A panel moderated by Peter Schei then discussed participants’ questions on the day’s presentations.


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L-R: Dais during the opening session with Minister Jayanthi Natarajan, Ministry of Environment and Forests, India; Minister Bård Vegar Solhjell, Ministry of the Environment, Norway; and Rita Ottervik, Mayor of Trondheim, Norway
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Minister Jayanthi Natarajan, Ministry of Environment and Forests, India
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Minister Bård Vegar Solhjell, Ministry of the Environment, Norway
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Rita Ottervik, Mayor of Trondheim, Norway
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Peter Schei, Trondheim Conference Founder
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Peter Schei, Trondheim Conference Founder, provided a brief historical overview of the Trondheim Conference
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Delegates from Thailand, Malaysia, India, and the Maldives
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Trondheim Conference Secretariat
Related Links
Conference resources

*Conference website

*Conference program

*Conference themes

*Conference resources and issues briefs

*Conference background


IISD RS resources

*IISD RS coverage of the First meeting of the Plenary of the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES-1), 21-26 January 2013, Bonn, Germany

*IISD RS coverage of the Eleventh meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 11) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), 8-19 October 2012, Hyderabad, India

*IISD RS coverage of Selected Side Events at CBD COP 11, 8-19 October 2012, Hyderabad, India

*IISD RS coverage of the Second Session of the Plenary Meeting on the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), 16-21 April 2012, Panama City, Panama

*IISD RS coverage of the First Session of the Plenary Meeting of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), 3-7 October 2011, Nairobi, Kenya

*IISD RS coverage of the Sixth Trondheim Conference on Biodiversity, 1-5 February 2010, Trondheim, Norway

*IISD RS coverage of the Fifth Trondheim Conference on Biodiversity - Ecosystems and People - Development and Biodiversity - The Road to 2010 and Beyond, 29 October - 2 November 2007, Trondheim, Norway

*IISD RS coverage of the Norway/UN Conference on Technology Transfer and Capacity Building, 23-27 June 2003, Trondheim, Norway

*IISD RS coverage of the Third Trondheim Conference on Biodiversity, 6-10 September 1999, Trondheim, Norway

*IISD RS archive of meetings on biodiversity

*Biodiversity-L - A mailing list for news on biodiversity and wildlife policy

*Biodiversity Policy & Practice - A Knowledgebase of UN and Intergovernmental Activities Addressing International Biodiversity Policy

*Linkages Update - Bi-weekly international environment and sustainable development news
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