On January 26, 2018, within the premises of the Restaurant la Détente in Bujumbura, a workshop was held to validate a concept note on the establishment of an interministerial platform, a draft decree for its operation and a note on the national position on biodiversity for its integration during the formulation of the Strategic Framework for Combating Poverty (third generation). In this workshop, there were officials from different ministries who could play an important role in the protection of biodiversity. These ministries include the Ministry of Environment, Water, Land Management and Urban Development (MEEATU), the Ministry of Energy and Mines, the Ministry of the Interior and Patriotic Training, the Ministry of Public Health and the Fight against AIDS, the Ministry of Public Health and the Fight against AIDS, the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism, the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock as well as a framework of the Second Vice Presidency. In addition to the executives of these ministries, university professors as well as a representative of an association working to protect biodiversity (APRN/BEPB) were also present.

The workshop was opened by the Director General of the Burundian Office for Environmental Protection (OBPE), Honorable Dr. Samuel NDAYIRAGIJE, who delivered the speech for the occasion. In his speech, he spoke about the project “Integrating biodiversity into national and sectoral development policies in Burundi” that Burundi received from the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity and executed by OBPE. The overall objective of this project is the integration of biological diversity into national, sectoral and local strategies, plans and programmes for development and the fight against poverty, he said. He said that the issue of integration has its origins in the Convention on Biological Diversity, which Burundi has ratified, and that the above-mentioned ministries are requested to integrate the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity into their sectoral plans, programmes and policies. He then recommended integrating conservation considerations and avoiding activities that have significant adverse effects on biological diversity.

He recalled that although the Parties have adopted a large number of decisions and resolutions since the entry into force of the Convention, “it is impossible to achieve its objectives until biodiversity issues are fully integrated into the highly concerned sectors, from where Burundi has revised the former National Strategy and Action Plan on Biodiversity (SNPA), which has not been implemented due to the lack of coordination of all ministries in order to be involved in concerted and coordinated manner in the management of biodiversity. This new SNPA, developed in a participatory manner, will last from 2013 to 2020, he stressed. The Director General subsequently indicated that if decision-making measures are not taken and increased awareness is not carried out, it is obvious that this national strategy will not also be implemented in a satisfactory manner. This is why this workshop will propose an interministerial platform for the sectoral integration of biological diversity and a national position on the issue of biodiversity, he said.

He ended his remarks by thanking the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity for their financial support in the development of integration tools and the workshop participants while inviting them to give constructive contributions.

After the speech, the participants followed the first presentation in relation to the national position on biodiversity for its integration during the formulation of the new Strategic Framework for Combating Poverty. This presentation was made by the National Expert on the “Biodiversity” project in the person of Mr. Alphonse FOFO. He first spoke about the various achievements of Burundi in terms of environmental management in general and natural resources in particular. He then spoke about the serious factors that currently threaten biodiversity (mainly anthropogenic actions), the various constraints of biodiversity management (insufficient human, material and financial resources allocated to the conservation of biodiversity, increasing pressure on natural resources due to the poverty and growing demographics of populations), low level of involvement of decision-makers and communities for the conservation of biodiversity, ignorance and the low level of valorization of natural resources due to the growing poverty and demographics of populations, low level of involvement of decision-makers and communities for the conservation of biodiversity, ignorance and the low level of valuation of benefits derived from biodiversity and ecosystem services, lack of a framework for participatory planning, knowledge management and capacity building, low level of preservation of a representative set of the country's ecosystems, species and genes, and the absence of a structure for coordinating all actions carried out in favor of biodiversity).

 

Then, the presenter then addressed the national position on biodiversity, starting with Burundi's commitments to the conservation of biodiversity through the improvement of the living conditions of populations when Burundi subscribed to the Millennium Development Goals. Thus, he added, referring to article 6 of the CBD, Burundi then developed its first National Strategy and Action Plan on Biodiversity (SNPAB) which unfortunately was not implemented effectively. All these shortcomings led Burundi to review the SNPAB, this time with the participation of all the key actors involved in the field of biodiversity, he stressed. He continued his presentation by saying that this SNPA is a unique reference instrument for biodiversity management planning in Burundi, where 22 national objectives refer to the Aichi targets of the CBD and whose objective 2 states that by 2016, the values of biological diversity should be integrated into national, sectoral and local strategies, plans and programmes for development and the fight against poverty, and incorporated into national accounts, by 2016, the values of biological diversity be integrated into national, sectoral and local strategies, plans and programmes for development and the fight against poverty. To implement this objective, Burundi has made a commitment to develop six sectoral biodiversity integration plans for 6 key sectors identified as more fundamental in terms of biodiversity management, unfortunately this objective is far from being reached 2 years later, said the presenter.

 

He said that it is in the SNPAB that the national vision for biodiversity derives and that is formulated as follows: “by 2030, biological diversity is restored, conserved and used rationally by all actors, ensuring the maintenance of ecosystem services and ensuring essential benefits for current and future generations.” He took this opportunity to talk about the guiding principles and national priorities for biodiversity that are also well formulated in the SNPA. These priorities include: encouraging the involvement and commitment of all stakeholders, including decision-makers, to action for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity; establishing and using effective knowledge, tools and techniques to stop pressures on biodiversity; defending a set of ecosystems representative of national biodiversity; defending a range of ecosystems representative of national biodiversity; maximizing the benefits derived from biodiversity and the services provided by ecosystems; and establishing a frame of participatory planning, knowledge management and capacity building.

 

He ended his presentation by proposing actions to be taken to ensure that this national vision on integration is achieved. These actions are:

 

Establish a solid and functional consultative framework to trigger the process of integrating biodiversity into the various national policies;

Make operational the National Environmental Commission like other commissions such as the CNTB;

Raise the awareness of all decision-makers and senior sectoral officials to raise awareness of the value of biodiversity;

Incorporate sectoral plans to integrate biodiversity into the sectoral policies of key ministries;

Strengthen intersectoral coordination mechanisms so that biodiversity is taken into account in national agendas;

Strengthen the capacities of the Information Exchange Mechanism (CHM) in order to collect and disseminate sectoral information on biodiversity with the participation of key sectors but also to assess the situation of the implementation of the SNPAB;

Establish innovative financing mechanisms for the long-term preservation of biodiversity.

Subsequently, two presentations concerning respectively the establishment of an interministerial platform and the Order proposing the implementation of this platform were presented by Mr. Masabo Onesphore. In his presentation, he first defined biodiversity mainstreaming as ensuring that biological diversity and the services it provides are appropriately taken into account in policies and practices that have an impact on them. Thus, at the international level, Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) have made efforts to integrate biodiversity, but the fourth edition of the Global Perspectives and other analyses have concluded that integration is an important action that requires attention if the Convention is to be implemented and the Strategic Plans for Biological Diversity implemented. He added that many of the articles in the convention focus on the integration of biodiversity. For example, Article 6 (b) of the CBD requires Parties “to integrate, as far as possible and as appropriate, the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity into their relevant sectoral or cross-sectoral plans, programmes and policies” and Article 10 (a) calls on Parties to “integrate considerations relating to the conservation and sustainable use of biological resources into the national decision-making process”.

Talking about integration at the national level, the presenter showed that Burundi has a new National Strategy and Action Plan on Biodiversity (2013-2020), which is a policy document with firm commitments around a realistic and integral national vision as well as clear and concise priorities developed in a participatory and concerted manner with all actors in control of biodiversity. He took the opportunity to point out that this new strategy was developed because the very first one was not implemented due to the lack of sectoral integration of biodiversity issues. Indeed, there was a lack of consultation and coordination among the ministries involved in the management of biodiversity and this was one of the weak points that handicapped its implementation. He added that each ministry has its own mission and develops its own sectoral policy and its own national strategy documents very often in isolation and that in implementing their policy documents, several ministries make interventions without measuring their environmental impact. Thus, he noted, following the lack of a framework for consultation and coordination, several actions that degrade biodiversity are carried out by various ministries. The presenter also specified that various Burundian legal tools stipulate that all stakeholders must be involved in biodiversity issues. He then cited the strategic axis of the national vision, which aims to encourage the involvement and commitment of all stakeholders, including decision-makers, to action for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity.

The second presentation focused on the draft Decree on the establishment of an interministerial platform for the sectoral integration of biodiversity. During this presentation, the presenter reviewed all the chapters of the draft Order with particular emphasis on articles 2, 3, 4 & 5. He first spoke about the Platform, which is a functional consultative framework to consolidate the coordination of actions to integrate biodiversity issues into sectoral policies. It is the gateway to the First and Second Vice-Presidencies to ensure the effective integration of biodiversity issues and to raise the awareness of decision-makers on biodiversity issues (Article 2). He continued his presentation on the mandate of the Platform as referred to in article 3. The mandate of the Interministerial Platform is to:

• guide the integration of biodiversity issues into development policies, plans and programs;
• encourage the integration of biodiversity into national policies, programmes, strategies and action plans in various sectors;
• prepare interministerial reports to monitor the integration and implementation of the National Strategy and Action Plan on Biological Diversity;
• take decisions where appropriate on the report of the Technical Committee on Biodiversity.

After talking about the mandate of the Platform, the presenter spoke about the components of the Platform and the missions of the Platform Secretariat as mentioned in articles 4 and 5 of this draft Order. Article 4 says that The interministerial platform brings together the Ministers involved in the management of biodiversity, namely:

• The Minister of Water, Environment, Land Use Planning and Urbanism
• the Minister of Agriculture and Livestock,
• the Minister of Transport,
• the Minister of Public Works and Equipment,
• the Minister of the Interior and Patriotic Education;
• the Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Industry and Tourism

The Minister responsible for the environment ensures the secretariat of the platform.

Article 5 defines the missions of the Secretariat of the Interministerial Platform, which are:

1° Organize the work and meetings of the Interministerial Platform;

2° Prepare and make available working documents;

3° Ensure the implementation of the decisions of the Interministerial Platform;

4° Write annual reports for the Interministerial Platform;

5° Monitor, on a daily basis, the implementation of the missions of the Interministerial Platform.

He ended his presentation with the functioning of the Platform mentioned in article 7, the existence of the regulatory texts of the Platform (Internal Regulations) mentioned in article 6 and the final provisions.

After these three presentations, participants both asked questions (appendix) and gave general remarks to the presenters.

The participants in turn gave clarifications on the concerns of the participants supported by the Jurist NINDORERA Damien for interventions relating to the Order on the establishment of an interministerial platform.

The interventions of the presenters were followed by group work. Two groups were formed on the basis of the 1-2 counting system and the first group had the task of analysing the note on the national position on biodiversity for its integration into the new formulation of the strategic framework to combat poverty and the second group was responsible for analysing the Decree for the establishment of an interministerial platform.

This group work session was followed by a presentation of the results by the representatives of each group.

At the end of the workshop, the two documents were validated by integrating the observations made by the participants.

During this mini-workshop, the following recommendations were made:

• Since concrete actions to preserve biodiversity are being carried out by the Government, it was recommended that the various achievements of decision-makers be taken into consideration;
• Given that biodiversity in Burundi is in critical condition, decision makers were recommended to become more involved in the conservation of biodiversity;
• Considering that the preservation of biodiversity requires strategies and skills, it was recommended to create a national environmental commission;
• It was also recommended to issue a decree instead of an order for the establishment of this interministerial platform.