We have eagerly awaited the presentation of Norway’s new national biodiversity strategy and action plan (NBSAP). However, NINA believes that much is missing if Norway aims to achieve the ambitious and knowledge-based targets in the Global Biodiversity Framework adopted in Montreal.
In December 2022, the Norwegian Government was central in achieving an ambitious global agreement under the UN Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD), and in recent years Norway has also invested internationally in building good structures to ensure the countries' follow-up of the Convention.
The world is facing a nature crisis and there is a great need for broad societal effort to implement the transformative changes, as recommended by the world's foremost natural scientists in IPBES, needed to stop the current negative development.
Must acknowledge and make use of existing knowledge
- The White Paper to the Parliament (NBSAP) includes important topics and sets out to obtain more knowledge, which is good, says research director Christian Steel at NINA.
- However, NINA believes the report does not propose measures that take the knowledge we already have concerning the negative development in Norwegian nature sufficiently into account. We lack concrete, knowledge-based goals for nature restoration, goals that ensure representative conservation of Norwegian nature, as well as more sustainable land management.
The overall goal of the Global Biodiversity Framework is to immediately halt and reverse the loss of biodiversity. The four main goals and 23 thematic goals are global, but in the global landscape, Norway is in a position to be able to set effective goals nationally.
Applauds establishment of center for sustainable nature
The NBSAP sheds light on important topics and highlights some important priority areas that will take us in the right direction to improve our knowledge of the state and loss of biodiversity. We applaud further clear ambitions to strengthen knowledge on nature, including the development of projections, data infrastructure and capacity, and the establishment of a center arrangement for research on sustainable nature and land use under the Research Council of Norway. The center arrangement should have a comprehensive strategy for research and innovation to ensure long-term knowledge and technology development in the field of biodiversity, restoration, nature-based solutions and the interaction between nature and climate change.
We also applaud that the work with natural capital accounting and digital map solutions has gained momentum in recent years and will be prioritized in the years to come.
Nevertheless, we lack a direction and an effort at a level that will set a new course for how we make good choices on behalf of nature and biodiversity going forward. We lack particularly clear targets for nature restoration, conservation and sustainable land management.
Read the new NBSAP for Norway here (only in Norwegian)
Contact person in NINA: Christian Steel, Research Director