This week, UNEP-WCMC will present its analysis of the 2014 national reports to the Convention on Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Species (CMS) at the 11th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to CMS. For the first time, Parties to CMS submitted their national reports using a template made available on the Online Reporting System (ORS) developed by UNEP-WCMC.

The ORS is a sophisticated, web-based tool for questionnaire creation and management that aims to streamline the process of reporting to Multilateral Environmental Agreements by Parties, and was developed in collaboration with CMS and the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA). In 2014, for the first time, CMS Parties used the ORS to submit their national reports. The ORS had already been successfully used to capture national report data submitted by Parties to AEWA prior to the 5th Meeting of the Parties in 2012, and has also been customised for use by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and the Bern Convention.

In this way, the ORS is already playing a key role in the collection of information critical to supporting ongoing natural capital assessment and informing policy decisions at both the national and global levels. Uptake of the ORS across the biodiversity-related conventions also has the potential to bring opportunities for increased harmonization of national reporting templates and information-sharing, which would help to reduce the reporting burden on Parties needing to submit reports to multiple conventions.

At CMS COP11, UNEP-WCMC will contribute to a side-event, held in collaboration with the CMS and AEWA Secretariats and UNEP, to gather feedback from ORS users in order to inform the future development of the system and ensure that it best meets the needs of Parties.

UNEP-WCMC will also lead a side-event at CMS COP11 to present and discuss a draft Sourcebook of opportunities for enhancing collaboration among the biodiversity-related conventions at national and regional level, a key output of the UNEP project “Improving the effectiveness of and cooperation among biodiversity-related conventions and exploring opportunities for further synergies”.

The aim of the side-event is to discuss case studies from the Sourcebook that are of particular relevance to CMS, and to gain input and feedback from participants on potential future activities for enhancing coordination and cooperation among the focal points of the biodiversity-related conventions at the national and regional level. The Sourcebook is still under revision and comments are encouraged until 16 November 2014. To view and comment on the draft Sourcebook, and for further information on the project, please visit the project website: wcmc.io/Sourcebook.