Alpine Biodiversity Board

Chair: Italy

The Alps house a rich diversity of nature and landscapes, offering a living place to numerous plants and animals. Biological diversity is the foundation for our food, quality of life, and health. The XV Alpine Conference recognised this key role by establishing an Alpine Biodiversity Board. During its 2019-2021 mandate, the aim of the Board was to perform a stock-taking analysis of relevant biodiversity and landscape strategies, guidelines, and policy recommendations for Alpine countries, including the Convention on Biological Diversity and relevant EU legislation and biodiversity strategies, as well as the results of recent research. Furthermore, the Board was entrusted with developing a system of priorities and targets for joint action, including in the field of ecological connectivity.

Over the next two years until the XVIII Alpine Conference, the Alpine Biodiversity Board proposes to consider the following objectives for its work agenda:

• Contribute to the awareness on, and knowledge of, mountain biodiversity and its specificity at the international and national level, and support its integration in international and national policies.
• Contribute to the achievement of the European biodiversity targets in the Alps and to the implementation of the EU Biodiversity Strategy 2030 in the Alps, also making use of the monitoring of mountain biodiversity, and facilitate the exchange of information, knowledge, experiences and the lessons learned between the Parties and Observers of the Alpine Convention and other experts and interested parties.
• Contribute to implementing the two Biodiversity Pathways of the Climate Action Plan 2.0, elaborated between the ABB and the ACB: 1) “Protection and management of vulnerable and Alpine-specific landscapes and ecosystems” and 2) “Enhance transboundary cooperation and ecological connectivity”.
• Support the global ecosystem restoration efforts in the Alps and raise the profile of the Alps as a model region in this field.

The Alpine Biodiversity Board serves as a platform to, inter alia, bring together different stakeholders and facilitate dialogue between them.

Contact:
Paolo Angelini, Italian Ministry for the Environment and Energy Security
angelini.paolo@mase.gov.it