In August 2000, Burundi adopted its first National Strategy and Action Plan on Biological Diversity (SNPA-DB). The development of the SNPA-DB was an application of article 6 of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and was perceived as a contribution to the development of Burundi, in accordance with the spirit of this Convention, which the country ratified on 15 April 1997. Indeed, the formulation of the SNPA-DB was aimed at correcting the dysfunction in the conservation of biodiversity, the rational use of biological resources and the fair and equitable sharing of the resulting benefits. The purpose of establishing the SNPA-DB was therefore to establish harmonious development that ensures the best compromise between the goods and services that populations need and the sustainable management of biological resources.

Since the development of the SNPA-DB, Burundi has been able to produce and submit 4 national reports to the CBD Conference of Parties. The Fourth Report was produced in March 2009, about 10 years later, and focused on assessing the implementation of this biodiversity policy document. In this report, Burundi highlighted the need to review its National Biodiversity Strategy for the following three important reasons:

- The SNPA-DB was developed long before the establishment of various thematic programmes and cross-cutting issues of the CBD. It was therefore not appropriate to address the various issues of biological diversity;

- Policy documents from other sectors did not incorporate biodiversity issues;

- Burundi has not yet established a funding mechanism to support the implementation of this Strategy. It is therefore for all these reasons that Burundi started in May 2012 the process of revising the National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan under financing from GEF/UNEP. In this process, it was important that the SNPA-DB be reviewed and adopted by all relevant stakeholders. To do so, the process of revising this document should be open, participatory and transparent. Thus, this review followed four main steps.

First, three studies were launched to assess the status of biodiversity and assess the causes and consequences of biodiversity loss, and to highlight the value of biodiversity and ecosystem services and their contribution to human well-being.

Second, there was the identification of key stakeholders with control over biodiversity. They were thus invited to a national awareness-raising workshop held on 21 August 2012. It was in this workshop that a list of all stakeholders was completed and validated and that their role in the development of the National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (SNPAB) was specified. Based on the threats and causes of biodiversity degradation, participants were also invited to identify the sectors most concerned, thus marking the first step in identifying integration sectors.

Thirdly, six sectoral consultations were organized and targeted: (i) actors in protected areas; (ii) actors in the agrobiodiversity sector; (iii) actors in the environmental sector; (iv) local and indigenous communities; (v) local and indigenous communities; (v) civil society, national associations, non-governmental organizations; (vi) decision makers and donors. The consultations aimed to identify and validate all the causes of biodiversity degradation and to define the national objectives, principles, and main priorities of the SNPAB. These national objectives were thus validated during a national workshop on 11 November 2012.

Finally, it was necessary to formulate the SNPAB on the basis of studies prepared, national objectives and the results of consultations and submit it to the national workshop for validation in February 2013 before being submitted to the Council of Ministers for adoption. Thus, this SNPAB is based on three important points, namely a summary presentation of Burundi, an inventory of biodiversity and finally a strategy and action plan.