Monday 12 May 2008

BAP’s: A brief summary

A Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) is an internationally recognized program which addresses threatened species and habitats and is designed to protect and restore biological systems

The convention of Biological diversity was signed In June 1992by 159 governments at the Earth Summit, which took place in Rio de Janeiro (it is also known as the Rio Convention.). This entered into force on 29 December 1993 and it was the first treaty to provide a legal framework for biodiversity conservation, It called for the creation and enforcement of national strategies and action plans to conserve, protect and enhance biological diversity.

In 1993, following on from the Rio convention, the UK government consulted over three hundred organisations throughout the UK and held a two day seminar to debate the key issues raised at the Convention. The product of this was the launch of Biodiversity: the UK action plan in 1994 which outlined the UK Biodiversity Action Plan for dealing with biodiversity conservation in response to the Rio Convention.

The principal elements of a BAP typically include:

1)Preparing inventories of biological information for selected species or habitats.

2)Assessing the Conservation status of species within specified ecosystems

3)A creation of targets for conservation and restoration

4)Establishing budgets, timelines and institutional partnerships for implementing the BAP.

The United Kingdom biodiversity action plan covers not only Terrestrial species associated with lands within the UK, but also marine species and Migratory birds, which spend a limited time in the UK or its offshore waters. The UK plan encompasses 391 Species Action Plans, 45 Habitat Action Plans and 162 Local Biodiversity Action Plans with targeted actions.

For more information about BAP’s click here

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