for a beautiful Europe Kristijan Čivić, ECNC Expert Workshop on Biodiversity indicators, 4-5 June 2013, Tirana, Albania STREAMLINING BIODIVERSITY INDICATORS IN THE WEST BALKANS SUPPORT FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY ACTIVITIES AND CAPACITY BUILDING

What am I going to say? Outline of the project Workshop – goals and outline of the agenda

»The EEA is cooperating with the seven West Balkan countries: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo under UNSCR 1244/99, FYRo Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia. »All countries participate in the European Environment Information and Observation Network (Eionet) on a similar basis as the 32 EEA member countries. »The EEA work programme has been extended to include wider coverage of West Balkan countries according to their state of development »EEA project, funded by IPA, executed by ETC/BD STREAMLINING BIODIVERSITY INDICATORS IN THE WEST BALKANS

»The SEBI (Streamlining European Biodiversity Indicators) process was initiated in 2005 to stimulate cooperation between countries in the pan-European region around the issue of streamlining a set of biodiversity indicators to support the achievement of the 2010 biodiversity target. »countries in the West Balkan region in particular could be more involved in the process than they currently are. Some countries developed/ are developing indicator sets at national level - not clear to what extent these are streamlined with the European set STREAMLINING BIODIVERSITY INDICATORS IN THE WEST BALKANS

Project objectives: »Review the current state of play regarding development and implementation of biodiversity indicators in the West Balkans »Identify possible gaps and needs in order to streamline existing indicators in the region with European indicators »Develop, in a participative way, an action plan that aims at filling possible gaps »Begin the implementation of the action plan by holding a capacity building training session to produce/update indicator fact sheets STREAMLINING BIODIVERSITY INDICATORS IN THE WEST BALKANS

»Project activities: 1)Identify current state of play (consult national experts) 2)Compile an overview of existing indicators and compare this with the SEBI set 3)Identify gaps in indicator development and prioritize needs for improved streamlining, in consultation with experts a)Gaps in connection to process (stakeholders, communication, data access…) b)Gaps in connection to content (data selected, year of collection, geographical coverage…) STREAMLINING BIODIVERSITY INDICATORS IN THE WEST BALKANS

»Project activities: 4)Hold workshop to jointly draw up an action plan 5)Finalise the action plan, including a priority list of actions and an assessment of their feasibility 6)Hold a capacity building workshop (1 st week of November?) focus on hands on training to stimulate countries to use real data to create/improve indicator fact sheets STREAMLINING BIODIVERSITY INDICATORS IN THE WEST BALKANS

»Objective of the workshop: »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

»Outline of the agenda: »Day 1: »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 »Practical exercise:  Identify gaps and needs in work on biodiversity indicators in the region (in connection to process and content) EXPERT WORKSHOP ON BIODIVERSITY INDICATORS

»Day 2: »Contextual information:  Setting the SMART objectives and action planning; »Practical exercises:  Identifying issues, bottlenecks, challenges in connection with trying to fill the gaps  Drafting action plans for 3 priority issues  Selecting indicators to be completed in the next workshop EXPERT WORKSHOP ON BIODIVERSITY INDICATORS

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION! Project SEBI in West Balkan: