for a beautiful Europe Capacity Building Workshop on Biodiversity Indicators 5-6 November, Dubrovnik, Croatia Kristijan Čivić, ECNC STREAMLINING BIODIVERSITY INDICATORS IN THE WEST BALKANS Support for biological diversity activities and capacity building Summary and main results of the 1 st workshop

»Objective of the workshop were: »To get a common understanding of biodiversity indicator development at the level of the EEA region »To get an overview of activities regarding biodiversity indicators in the Western Balkan region »To identify gaps and issues faced by the region in developing and producing biodiversity indicators »To develop an action plan for developing national biodiversity indicators EXPERT WORKSHOP ON BIODIVERSITY INDICATORS 4-5 JUNE 2013, TIRANA, ALBANIA

PRESENTED CONTEXTUAL INFORMATION: »Contextual information:  About the project;  EEA work on biodiversity indicators  UNEP work on biodiversity indicators;  Progress in national level work on biodiversity indicators (Albania, Macedonia, Serbia)  Country overview report  Indicator fact sheet – introduction and example  Setting the SMART objectives and action planning;

»Identify gaps and need in the work on biodiversity indicators in the region (in connection to process and content)  Main gaps identified in connection to the process: Problems of cooperation/communication between institutions/sectors/stakeholder Problems of expertise within some institutions Much more data exist than what is available: scattered data, problem of ownerships of data Lack of human capacity for data collection Lack of: legislation; capacity (human resources, etc.); financing; defined indicator set; exchange of experience with other countries; public awareness PRACTICAL EXERCISES:

 Main gaps identified in connection to the contents: No national monitoring system or monitoring system not efficient enough Data not well balanced between the countries Some data are specific at country level and not relevant for European level Data not equally distributed through the whole country (protected areas well covered vs. rest of the territory not) PRACTICAL EXERCISES:

»To define the objectives that should be achieved in order to resolve the identified gaps  Functional monitoring programme/framework, that covers whole territory, in place [8]  Financing mechanisms (from the state budget) improved [8]  Harmonisation of biodiversity indicators in/between Western Balkans [7]  Communication between stakeholders improved [6]  Public awareness about ecosystem services increased [6]  Harmonised Biodiversity indicators set with SEBI [3]  Biodiversity indicators used for public awareness [1]  Make existing data public/available  To make uniform legislation for development of indicators  Full set of biodiversity indicators defined PRACTICAL EXERCISES:

»Develop action plans to solve three priority objectives  1) Action/target  2) How/Means by which that objective will be achieved  3) Who will do it  4) When it will be achieved  5) Which stakeholders to involve  6) Optional/later: Cost and source of funding. PRACTICAL EXERCISES:

»Agreed on the set of indicators for which the fact sheets will be elaborated at the following workshop:  Based on the availability of information it was agreed that all countries will compile data on the indicator SEBI 07 Nationally designated protected areas  another three indicators were selected from which each country to choose one additional to prepare for the next workshop: SEBI 14 Fragmentation of river systems SEBI 2 Red list index for national red list species SEBI 1 Abundance and distribution of selected species »Tasks to be completed by the participants before the 2 nd Workshop »Tasks for the Project Team AGREED ON FOLLOWING ACTIONS

EXPECTATIONS FROM THE WORKSHOP »Thank you for your attention »Hvala na pažnji »Faleminderit për vëmendjen tuaj »Ви благодариме за вашето внимание