“The workshop also aimed at validating the Draft Action Plan on Synergies among Biodiversity Conventions, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Financing. The Action Plan was developed based on the outcomes of a national consultation workshop held in September 2016,” said Ms Phoutsakhone Ounchith, Head of the IUCN Lao PDR Country Office. “This second national workshop further contributes to ensuring a coordinated implementation of biodiversity conservation targets and sustainable development in Lao PDR.”

To date, Lao PDR has ratified ten multilateral environmental agreements, notably the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Fauna and Flora (CITES) in 2004, and the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance in 2010. The country has joined these international conventions to improve its legal and regulatory framework, and to support national implementation of biodiversity and conservation objectives.

Global environmental players have called for enhancing cooperation and synergies among the biodiversity-related conventions and suggested the need to link actions between multilateral environmental agreements and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 SDGs.

As a party to the CBD, Lao PDR is committed to the preparation and implementation of an NBSAP.

The workshop entitled ‘NBSAP (2016-2025) Implementation and Validation of an Action Plan on Synergies among the Biodiversity Conventions, SDGs and Financing’ was chaired by Dr Akkharath and co-chaired by Ms Ounchith, and Ms Makiko Yashiro, Programme Officer, UNEP Asia & Pacific Office UN Environment. The event was organised at the Mercure Hotel in Vientiane and attended by over 30 representatives, including policy and decision-makers from concerned government ministries, academic institutions, international organisations and civil society organisations.