EPA takes part in the ECOWAS coordination meeting on protected areas

The Environment Protection Agency participates in the ECOWAS Coordination Meeting on Expanding and Strengthening Protected Areas at the Johnwood Hotel in Attendees included Protected Areas Management Authorities, Focal Points, and ECOWAS Member Countries to the Convention on Biological Diversity, as well as experts from the United Nations Development Programme, Food and Agriculture Organization, USAID-WABILED, High Ambition Coalition for Nature and People, GEF, CBD-Secretariat, and IUCN. The Coordination Meeting aligns with the implementation of the Kunming Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework that was adopted in December 2022 by parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). The Kunming Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KM-GBF), with its four core goals, seeks to support the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), lays out an ambitious path to achieve the global vision of a world living in harmony with nature by 2050, and serves as a global response to the continued alarming loss of biodiversity and the threat it poses to nature and human well-being. Undertaking a preliminary assessment of gaps in the regional network of protected areas, launching the development of regional guidance on spatial planning for the expansion of protected areas and the development of a short-term and medium-term action plan instrumentalizing regional recommendations, developing mechanisms for monitoring and funding the expansion of protected areas, providing targeted support and guidance for updating and harmonizing relevant sections of the National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs) and launching the development of an ECOWAS Biodiversity Strategy were the four complementary objectives of the meeting. Joseph Turay, the CBD National Focal Point for #SierraLeone, presented the Strategic Areas of Intervention and Priority Recommendations to Combat the West African Biodiversity Crisis. Expanding the ECOWAS protected area network, developing a multilateral consultation, improving management and governance of existing protected areas, developing a mechanism for prioritization, eliminating illegal exploitation of resources in protected areas, building capacities, and ensuring appropriate resources for protected area management, formulating a regional strategy, and setting a budget to satisfy basic needs, were among the highlights of his presentation. The Meeting concluded with a declaration requesting that ECOWAS Member States develop an #ECOWAS Biodiversity Strategy as an #RBSAP and secure its adoption by ECOWAS by 2025, thereby leveraging the ECOWAS call for an ambitious global response to the biodiversity crisis and mainstreaming the development and updating of National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs) across the ECOWAS region.