Context
The State of Palestine is a state in the making and is under Israeli occupation. Yet, the Palestinian government has been concerned about the environment from its inception after the Oslo agreements. These agreements, while interim and proposed for five years transitional period (1994-1999), were essentially left in place without a final agreement that was supposed to be reached to cover final status issues like settlements, borders, Jerusalem, natural resources, and refugees. Nevertheless, the interim Palestinian government did incorporate issues of the environment from its beginnings promulgating section 33 of its basic laws related to that, an environmental law and a national strategy for the environment (both in 1999). In the past two decades, the government also signed a number of key international agreements related to the environment. These range from the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), to the Cartagena protocols, to the UNESCO convention on heritage sites and many others. There are both privileges and responsibilities for ratifying these agreements. But the main focus of the government remains sustainability (per UN Sustainable Development Goals) and a big part of this sustainability is our compliance with CBD including achievement of Aichi Biodiversity Targets (ABTs). While we have limited resources, our philosophy is we can still do a lot along these lines ensuring sustainable human and natural communities.
Palestine, despite its relatively small size, has enormous biodiversity. The State of Palestine is now recognized as a non-member State at the UN (United Nations, 2019). The State of Palestine has signed numerous international conventions and treaties, including conventions that are significant to biodiversity conservation (United Nations Treaty Collection, 2019; Convention on Biological Diversity, 2019). Palestine signed the International Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in 2015 and submitted an interim report (the first in Palestine the 5th for other signatories. see https://www.cbd.int/doc/world/ps/ps-nr-05-en.pdf ). In January 2021, the state signed an agreement with us (PIBS at Bethlehem University) to develop the fuller version (called the 6th National Report but actually is the second for the state). This is now completed and will be uploaded online first week of October 2021). The second part of the agreement for which work commenced 1 September 2021 is to revise and update the National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP) of the State of Palestine. According to the consolidated guidance set by COP decisions and other CBD guideline (see https://www.cbd.int/nbsap/guidance.shtml ) under mainly decision IX/8 and X/2 the NBSAP should consider the following issues to meet the objectives of the Convention:
a) Ensure that NBSAP is action-driven, practical and prioritized, and provide an effective and up-to-date national framework for the implementation of the three objectives of the Convention, its relevant provisions and relevant guidance developed under the Convention;
b) Ensure that NBSAP takes into account the principles in the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development adopted at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development;
c) Emphasize the integration of the objectives of the Convention into relevant sectoral or cross-sectoral plans, programmes and policies;
d) Promote the mainstreaming of gender considerations;
e) Promote synergies between activities to implement the Convention and poverty eradication;
f) Identify priority actions at the national level, including strategic actions to achieve the objectives of the Convention;
g) Develop a plan to mobilize national, regional and international financial resources in support of priority activities.
Public participation will be critical for this process to achieve these objectives. Mainstreaming is critical, especially taking in human well-being and bridging knowledge/science with policy and implementation.
