Target 1:
Plan and Manage all Areas to Reduce Biodiversity Loss

Introduction

Policy Proposals for National Implementation

• Amend national legislation regulating spatial planning to ensure that biodiversity is highlighted as one of the most important considerations and premises that must be safeguarded.
• Develop clear national targets and guidelines for how participatory, integrated and biodiversity inclusive spatial planning and/or effective management processes addressing land and sea use change should be implemented, including the legal establishment of a mitigation hierarchy showcasing, in prioritised order, different measures to limit the negative impact on biodiversity.
• Ensure that a good ecological condition is achieved in all ecosystems, prioritising the most vulnerable ecosystems both on land and at sea.
• Direct development of renewable energy to areas with the lowest environmental footprint, both on land and at sea, and impose on developers the use of best practices for mitigating impacts on ecosystems and biodiversity. Achieving this necessitates thorough ecological mapping and strict requirements for location and mitigation measures in the licensing systems.
• Establish a governmental monitoring system for ecosystems and qualities, improving the available knowledge to contribute to avoiding the gradual loss of biodiversity due to short-term motivated decisions not taking into account biodiversity risks.
• Enable and facilitate citizen science and citizen generated data in the monitoring of ecosystems.
• Adopt landscape ecology as a basic premise for sustainable, long-term area planning.
• Develop a clear national strategy within the National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAP), focusing on areas of high biodiversity importance - including red listed habitats, areas with occurrences of multiple red listed species, migration routes - while respecting the rights of Indigenous Peoples and of local communities.
• Identify, protect and restore areas and ecosystems that can be integrated in larger, ecologically functioning units by restoring areas connecting them. 
• Develop guidelines that include Indigenous Peoples' traditional knowledge and land management practices, as well as their full, effective and meaningful participation in spatial planning and land-use-change processes.
• Extend national and global moratoria on deep seabed mining activities unless and until the environmental, social and economic risks are comprehensively understood and it can be clearly demonstrated that deep seabed mining can be managed in such a way that ensures the effective protection of the marine environment and prevents loss of biodiversity.
• Ensure that all alternative sources for the responsible production and use of the metals also found in the deep sea, such as reduction of demand for primary metals, a transformation to a resource efficient, closed-loop and materials circular economy are fully explored and applied before any deep seabed mining activity is considered.

Policy Proposals for Inter­national Implementation

• Provide capacity building and technical support for developing countries to strengthen their ability to integrate biodiversity in their spatial planning, while not weakening people’s ability to live sustainably in relation to biodiversity.
• Support and advocate for the acknowledgement of forests, and tropical forests especially, in all NBSAPs as areas of significant ecological importance, requiring protection levels.
• Bring deforestation and forest degradation of tropical forests to a full halt before 2030.
• Support and advocate for the acknowledgement in NBSAPs of the rights of Indigenous Peoples to manage their traditional territories, and for the plans to be founded on Indigenous Peoples’ right to free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) in biodiversity management processes.
• Support small-scale producers and Indigenous Peoples in promoting sustainable food systems by advancing food sovereignty and sustainable land use practices in line with the UN Declaration on the Rights of Farmers and Other Persons Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP), adopted in 2018.
• Ensure that the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) includes all ecosystems as well as all commodities to ensure that we do not cause biodiversity loss in other parts of the world.
• Promote a full stop in the destruction of all primary ecosystems.
• Support and advocate an international moratorium on deep seabed mining activities unless and until the environmental, social and economic risks are comprehensively understood and it can be clearly demonstrated that deep seabed mining can be managed in such a way that ensures the effective protection of the marine environment and prevents loss of biodiversity.
• Support the work to fully explore and apply alternative sources for the responsible production and use of the metals also found in the deep sea, such as reduction of demand for primary metals, a transformation to a resource efficient, closed-loop materials circular economy.