English-ConventiononBiologicalDiversity.docVIP

CBD Distr. GENERAL UNEP/CBD/SBSTTA/16/INF/16 11 April 2012 ENGLISH ONLY SUBSIDIARY BODY ON SCIENTIFIC, TECHNICAL AND TECHNOLOGICAL ADVICE Sixteenth meeting Montreal, 30 April-5 May 2012Item 6.3 of the provisional agenda* Background on the Development of Voluntary Guidelines for the Consideration of Biodiversity in Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) and Strategic Environmental Assessments (SEAs) in Marine and Coastal Areas Note by the Executive Secretary In paragraph 50 of decision X/29, the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity requested the “Executive Secretary to facilitate the development of voluntary guidelines for the consideration of biodiversity in environmental impact assessments (EIAs) and strategic environmental assessments (SEAs) in marine and coastal areas using the guidance in annexes II, III and IV to the Manila workshop report (UNEP/CBD/SBSTTA/14/INF/5), provide for technical peer-review of those guidelines, and submit them for consideration to a future meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA) prior to the eleventh meeting of the Conference of the Parties, recognizing that these guidelines would be most useful for activities that are currently unregulated with no process of assessing impacts”. Pursuant to this request, the Secretariat of the Convention commissioned, with the financial support from the Government of Spain, the development of draft voluntary guidelines for the consideration of biodiversity in environmental impact assessments (EIAs) and strategic environmental assessments (SEAs) in marine and coastal areas as well as a background study. Drafts of the voluntary guidelines (UNEP/CBD/SBSTTA/16/7/Add.1), together with a background study report contained in this note, were circulated to Parties, other Governments and organizations for technical peer-review through CBD Notification SCBD/STTM/JM/JLe/rg/78095 (issued on 7 November 2011). The comments fr