Action plans should enhance collaboration and partnerships as well as a more efficient use of available resources. Interest groups such as industry associations and NGOs should be involved in the development and implementation of the action plans.
The development of action plans normally will require a review of existing policies and instruments to determine how they affect species and ecosystems. They should identify the extent to which the aims and objectives of the Convention on Biological Conservation are already incorporated; any gaps and additional initiatives that may be necessary, and set priorities for action. In the development and implementation of action plans a precautionary approach should be taken in cases where incomplete knowledge exists. Socio-economic aspects of the implementation of the measures contained in action plans should be evaluated. In order to set priorities and to justify chosen options, when different alternatives are available, action plans should incorporate the necessary cost-effectiveness information.
Action plans should as a general rule set out clear tasks, targets and mechanisms to assess their performance and to evaluate progress in their implementation. Sponsors of action plans, in co-operation with relevant bodies, should identify indicators in order to enable an evaluation before and after the implementation of the plans. Species and ecosystems likely to be affected by each policy area, and for which action is needed to ensure their conservation and sustainable use, should be the basis for the establishment of indicators. Economic indicators should also be considered.
Action plans and other measures should pursue the respect, preservation and maintenance of knowledge, innovations and practices of indigenous and local communities embodying traditional lifestyles relevant for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity and promote their wider application with the approval and involvement of the holders of such knowledge, innovations and practices.
The European Union (EU) launched a specific action to define an EU Biodiversity Strategy, finalized and officially approved by the Council of Ministers the 4th of February 1998 and endorsed by the EU Parliament in November 1998. The Community Biodiversity Strategy (CEC, 1998) aims to anticipate, prevent and combat the causes of significant reduction or loss of biological diversity at source. It defines a framework for the actions necessary to fulfil the European Community's legal obligations under the Convention on Biological Diversity and requires development and implementation of specific Action Plans, that have to be built on and complement existing policies and planned initiatives by Member States. This is to ensure real added value, consistency and complementarity.
When adopted in Sofia in 1995, the Pan-European Biological and Landscape Diversity Strategy set a general framework for cooperation aimed to last twenty years. Its first Action Plan identified actions to be undertaken between 1996 and 2000, and was planned as a first step towards reaching the twenty-year aims and objectives of the Strategy. As reported to the Environment for Europe Ministers' meeting in Århus in June 1998, and to the Strategy Council in April 1999, much was achieved in the initial phase.