The sessions on systematic biodiversity assessment and planning in Africa focused on the increasing collaboration across the continent to ensure that mobilised biodiversity data is useful for policy and decision-making, especially through the application of spatial biodiversity planning processes. The Forum also provided an opportunity to look at how biodiversity is integrated into land-use planning and environmental management. There was a focused session on the biodiversity protocols that have been developed to inform assessments required by the EIA Screening Tool, an online map-based platform developed by the Department of Environmental Affairs which enables users to generate a screening report as part of the environmental authorisation process.
Please click here for the 2018 Biodiversity Planning Forum programme.