The document discusses mainstreaming biodiversity at the national level. It recommends establishing clear objectives and targets in National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans and transposing relevant elements into other national strategies. Countries should define institutional roles and responsibilities, collect robust policy-relevant data, and mobilize adequate finance for biodiversity, including through economic instruments that generate revenue. Mainstreaming biodiversity across government is key to achieving sustainable development goals.

1. MAINSTREAMING
BIODIVERSITY AT NATIONAL
LEVEL
Katia Karousakis, PhD
Biodiversity Team Leader
OECD Environment Directorate
CBD SBI-2, Montreal, Canada
OECD & Partners side-event series on Mainstreaming Biodiversity for Sustainable
Development

2. • Mainstreaming biodiversity across
relevant strategies and plans
• Clear institutional mandates and roles
• Policy-relevant data
• Mainstreaming biodiversity in national
budgets
• National-level policy instruments
National-level (horizontal) mainstreaming
Content:

3. • NBSAPs can be a key starting point:
– Clear objectives
– SMART targets
– Relevant indicators
• Transpose most relevant elements in other
strategies and plans:
– National Development Plans
– National Sustainable Development Plans
– Green Growth Strategies
– Development co-operation strategies.. etc
Mainstreaming biodiversity across
relevant strategies and plans

4. • Who is responsible for what?
– Ethiopia and India
• Inter-ministerial committees
– At least 9 of the 16 countries have some form
of biodiversity-relevant inter-ministerial
committee in place
Clear institutional mandates and roles

5. • Data needs to be robust, policy-relevant and readily
available
– Australia (identifies need to better align research priorities
and improve knowledge exchange)
– Brazil (satellite-based def0restation monitoring system has
enabled enforcement of policy)
– Mexico (automated mapping system allows evaluation of
national subsidies/incentives)
• National Ecosystem Assessments
– South Africa (spatially explicit data informs policy-making,
including in mining, water, and infrastructure sectors)
• TEEB, WAVES, among others
Policy-relevant data

6. • Need sufficient finance for effective
mainstreaming
– What are biodiversity expenditures?
– What are financing needs?
– How to fill the gap?
• UNDP BIOFIN
• New initiative: Paris Collaborative for
Green Budgeting (convened by OECD in
collaboration with France and Mexico)
Mainstreaming biodiversity in national
budgets

7. Regulatory approaches
(command & control)
Economic instruments Information and
voluntary approaches
Restrictions or prohibitions
on use
Price-based instruments
- taxes, charges/fees
- subsidies
Eco-labelling & certification
Access restrictions or
prohibitions
(e.g. protected areas)
Reform of environmentally
harmful subsidies
Green public procurement
Permits & quotas
(e.g. logging/fishing)
Payments for Ecosystem
Services
Voluntary approaches
(negotiated agreements)
Quality, quantity, and
design standards
Biodiversity
offsets/biobanking
Corporate environmental
accounting
EIA, SEA and Spatial
planning
Tradable permits (e.g. ITQs
for fisheries)
Non-compliance fines
National-level policy instruments
Source: OECD (2013) Scaling Up Finance Mechanisms for Biodiversity

8. Finance mobilised
(Handle with care - complete data not available!)
Biodiversity-
related taxes
Total revenue from environmentally-related taxes in OECD countries in 2014:
more than USD 700 billion
Of this, total revenue from biodiversity-related taxes ~ USD 2 billion
(OECD, 2018)
Payments for
Ecosystem
Services
5 national programmes alone channel > USD 6 billion p.a. (OECD, 2010)
Payments for watershed services > USD 9 billion in 2008 (Parker &
Cranford, 2010)
…More than 300 PES programmes worldwide
Biodiversity
offsets
USD 4.8 billion in 2016 (Genevieve et al, 2017)
~ 45 programmes worldwide
Compared to…
Biodiversity in
international
development
finance
Bilateral biodiversity-related ODA estimated at USD 8.3 billion per
year over 2015-2016
(OECD, 2018)
8
Economic instruments also generate
revenue…
Source: Based on OECD (2013) Scaling Up Finance Mechanisms for Biodiversity with updated statistics
from OECD PINE and CRS databases

9. Biodiversity-relevant taxes
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
Numberofcountries
OECD Policy Instruments for the
Environment (PINE) database:
 80+ countries
 Instruments covered:
 taxes
 fees and charges
 subsidies
 tradable permits
 voluntary instruments
 All countries welcome to report
to the OECD PINE database
Number of biodiversity-relevant taxes: 97
Amount of revenue mobilised: ~USD 2 billion per year
Source: OECD PINE database

10. Biodiversity-relevant bilateral ODA
Source: OECD CRS database

11. Trends in potentially environmentally
harmful agricultural support
Source: OECD Secretariat calculations based on OECD PSE/CSE database, 2016
OECD agricultural support to farmers by potential environmental impact
0
50000
100000
150000
200000
250000
300000
USD mn Most harmful Least harmful Other
Potentially most environmentally harmful support

12. Establish a strong social and business case
for biodiversity
Align biodiversity mainstreaming policies
for sustainable development
Develop monitoring and evaluation
systems for biodiversity mainstreaming
Strengthen institutions and capacity
Mobilise adequate finance for biodiversity
Key messages

13. • OECD (2018), Mainstreaming Biodiversity for Sustainable Development
• OECD (forthcoming 2018), “Evaluating the effectiveness of policy instruments for
biodiversity”
• OECD (2018), Biodiversity-related Development Finance 2016
• OECD (2017), The Political Economy of Biodiversity Policy Reform
• OECD (2017), Marine Protected Areas: Economics, Management and Effective Policy Mixes
• OECD (2017), Towards a G7 target to phase out environmentally harmful subsidies
• OECD (2016), Biodiversity Offsets: Effective Design and Implementation
• OECD (2013), Scaling Up Finance Mechanisms for Biodiversity
OECD work in 2019-2020:
• The implications of the post-2020 biodiversity framework: Targets, indicators and
measurability at global and national level
• Tracking economic instruments and finance for biodiversity
• National guidance to identify and assess harmful subsidies to biodiversity
Contact: katia.karousakis@oecd.org
Visit: http://www.oecd.org/environment/resources/biodiversity
Relevant OECD work