Framework for the Development of Environment Statistics (FDES 2013)
192
x. Water quality indicators such as Algae index or Release of nitrogen components
and phosphates; and
xi. Critical habitats indicators such as Area of live and dead coral.
United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD)
C.37. The UNCCD is a convention to combat desertification and mitigate the effects of
drought through national action programmes that incorporate long-term strategies supported
by international cooperation and partnership arrangements.213
C.38. The Convention, stemming from a direct recommendation of Agenda 21, was adopted
in Paris in June 1994 and entered into force in December 1996.214 It is the first and only inter
national legally binding framework set up to address the problem of desertification. The Con
vention is based on the principles of participation, partnership and decentralization—the back
bone of good governance and sustainable development.
C.39. At the Conference of the Parties on its eighth session, the Parties to the Convention
adopted the 10-year strategic plan and framework to enhance the implementation of the Con
vention for 2008-2018 (The Strategy).215 The Strategy contains the “strategic objectives” to be
achieved over the 10 years and the “operational objectives” that guide the actions of short and
medium-term effects. Parties are requested to report on progress made with their implementa
tion of The Strategy, while the Committee for the Review of the Convention is given the respon
sibility of reviewing its implementation based on the reports by Parties, as well as those from
other reporting entities. Parties can use the online reporting platform: Performance Review
and Assessment of Implementation System.216
C.40. The core set of impact indicators used for monitoring purposes are:217
i. Decrease in the number of people negatively impacted by the process of desertifica
tion/land degradation and drought;
ii. Increase in the proportion of households living above the poverty line in affected
areas;
iii. Reduction in the proportion of the population below the minimum level of dietary
energy consumption in affected areas;
iv. Reduction in the total area affected by desertification/land degradation and
drought;
v. Increases in net primary productivity in affected areas;
vi. Increases in carbon stocks (soil and plant biomass) in affected areas; and
vii. Areas of forest, agricultural and aquaculture ecosystems under sustainable man
agement.
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and
the Kyoto Protocol
C.41. The UNFCCC has the goal of preventing dangerous human interference with the cli
mate system. Its immediate objectives included beginning “to cooperatively consider what they
could do to limit average global temperature increases and the resulting climate change, and to
cope with whatever impacts were, by then, inevitable.” 218 A number of nations have approved
an addition to the treaty, the Kyoto Protocol, which has more powerful (and legally binding)
measures. The Kyoto Protocol, an international and legally binding agreement to reduce GHG
213 Text of the United Nations
Convention to Combat
Desertification, available
from www.unccd.int/en
/about-the-convention/Pages
/Text-overview.aspx (accessed
4 August 2017).
214 United Nations “Agenda 21”,
United Nations Conference on
Environment and Development,
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 3 to 14
June 1992, available from http://
sustainabledevelopment.un.org
/content/documents/Agenda21
.pdf (accessed 4 August 2017).
215 United Nations Convention
to Combat Desertification,
The Reporting Process and
the UNCCD 10-Year Strategy,
available from http://www2
.unccd.int/convention/unccd-
reporting-process (accessed
4 August 2017).
216 United Nations Convention
to Combat Desertification,
Performance Review and
Assessment of Implementation
System (PRAIS), available from
http://prais.unccd.int/ (accessed
4 August 2017).
217 United Nations Convention to
Combat Desertification, Report
of the Conference of the Parties
on its ninth session September
to October 2009 ICCD/COP(9)
/18/Add.1, available from
http://archive.unccd
.int/cop/officialdocs/cop9
/pdf/18add1eng.pdf (accessed
4 August 2017).
218 United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change.
Essential Background, The
Convention and the Protocol,
available from http://unfccc
.int/essential_background
/items/6031.php (accessed
4 August 2017).
193
Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs)
193
emissions worldwide, entered into force in February 2005. With regard to national reporting/
monitoring, the UNFCCC invited the IPCC to produce the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National
Greenhouse Gas Inventories. These guidelines provide internationally agreed methodologies
intended for use by countries to estimate GHG inventories to report to the UNFCCC. Reporting
and review requirements under the Convention encompass the following elements: 219 national
communications which are submitted by Annex I Parties every four to five years following
decisions for each submission by the Conference of the Parties; and national GHG inventories
which are reported annually by Annex I Parties following reporting guidelines agreed by the
Conference of the Parties and methodology developed by the IPCC. GHG inventory data may
also be found on the UNFCCC website.220
C.42. The GHG emission and removal estimates are divided into main sectors, which are
groupings of related processes, sources and sinks:
i. Energy
ii. Industrial Processes and Product Use
iii. Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use
iv. Waste
v. Other (e.g., indirect emissions from nitrogen deposition from non-agriculture
sources) 221
The IPCC is a scientific body whose purpose is to review and assess the most recent scientific,
technical and socioeconomic information produced worldwide relevant to the understanding
of climate change, including response strategies.222 It should be noted that it does not conduct
any research nor does it monitor climate related data or parameters.
Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer/ Montreal
Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer
C.43. The Vienna Convention was adopted in 1985 and entered into force on 22 September
1988. The Vienna Convention did not require countries to take concrete actions to control ODSs.
Instead, in accordance with the provisions of the Convention, the countries of the world agreed
to the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer under the Convention
to advance that goal.223 The chief aim of the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the
Ozone Layer is to reduce and eventually eliminate the production and use of man-made ODSs
(chlorofluorocarbons, hydrochlorofluorocarbons, halons, methyl chloroform, carbon tetrachlo
ride, methyl bromide and others).224 By agreeing to the terms of the Montreal Protocol, signa
tory nations commit to take actions to protect the ozone layer, hoping in the long-term to reverse
the damage that has been done by the use of ODSs. The Protocol requires all Parties to submit
a detailed national ODS data report annually on the production, import and export of each of
the controlled ODSs. The data reporting forms, instructions and definitions may be downloaded
from the Ozone Secretariat website.225 Data on, inter alia, the consumption and production of
ODSs may be accessed from the Ozone Secretariat website.226
C.44. Among the MDGs, Goal 7 (Ensure environmental sustainability, Target 7A—Integrate
the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes and reverse
the loss of environmental resources) identifies the consumption of ODSs as one of its indicators
on which reporting should be done.
219 United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change.
National Reports, available from
http://unfccc.int/national
_reports/items/1408.php
(accessed 4 August 2017).
220 United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change.
Greenhouse Gas Inventory Data.
Available from http://unfccc
.int/ghg_data/items/3800.php
(accessed 4 August 2017).
221 Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change (2007). 2006
IPCC Guidelines for National
Greenhouse Gas Inventories:
Introduction to the 2006
guidelines, available from
https://www.ipcc-nggip.iges
.or.jp/public/2006gl/vol1
.html Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change. Organization,
available from www.ipcc.ch
/organization/organization.shtml
(accessed 4 August (accessed 4
August 2017).
222 Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change. Organization,
available from www.ipcc.ch
/organization/organization.shtml
(accessed 4 August 2017).
223 The Vienna Convention for the
Protection of the Ozone Layer
(2010-2011), available from
http://ozone.unep.org/en
/treaties-and-decisions/vienna
-convention-protection-ozone
-layer (accessed 4 August 2017).
224 The Montreal Protocol on
Substances that Deplete the
Ozone Layer (2000), available
from http://ozone.unep.org
/pdfs/Montreal-Protocol2000.pdf
(accessed 4 August 2017).
225 United Nations Environment
Programme. “Data Reporting
and Tools” (2014), available from
http://ozone.unep.org/en/data
-reporting/data-reporting-and
-tools (accessed 4 August 2017).
226 United Nations Environment
Programme. “Data Access Centre”
(2014), available from http://
ozone.unep.org/en/ods_data
_access_centre/ (accessed
4 August 2017).
195 Annex D Classifications and environment statistics D.1. This Annex provides supporting material for the most important and widely used clas sifications, categories and other groupings relevant to the field of environment statistics. None of these should be considered as mandatory for reporting purposes. Classifications of land cover and land use D.2. FAO and partner agencies, including UNEP and the EEA, have done considerable work in developing land cover and land use classifications. After a comprehensive global consultation process, a classification composed of 14 classes has been developed in the SEEA-CF.227 These 14 classes have been generated using the LCCS, version 3 approach, created by FAO, and thus provide a comprehensive set of land cover types, mutually exclusive and unambiguous, with clear boundaries and systematic definitions. 227 United Nations, European Union, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, International Monetary Fund, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, and the World Bank (2014). System of Environmental- Economic Accounting 2012— Central Framework, available from http://unstats.un.org /unsd/envaccounting/seeaRev /SEEA_CF_Final_en.pdf (accessed 4 August 2017). Table D.1 Land Cover Classification based on FAO LCCS (interim) 1. Artificial surfaces (including urban and associated areas) 2. Herbaceous crops 3. Woody crops 4. Multiple or layered crops 5. Grassland 6. Tree covered areas 7. Mangroves 8. Shrub covered areas 9. Shrubs and/or herbaceous vegetation, aquatic or regularly flooded 10. Sparsely natural vegetated areas 11. Terrestrial barren land 12. Permanent snow and glaciers 13. Inland water bodies 14. Coastal water bodies and inter-tidal areas D.3. A reference framework for the classification of land use is provided in the SEEA-CF 228 as agreed after a comprehensive global consultation process. The development of the land use classification included in the SEEA-CF, led by FAO, has been based on practices already in use in major international and national land use databases adjusted to meet the different needs which have arisen during the global consultation process on this issue. 228 Ibid.
Framework for the Development of Environment Statistics (FDES 2013) 196 Table D.2 Classification of Land Use (interim)
- Land 1.1 Agriculture 1.1.1 Land under temporary crops 1.1.1.1 Cereals 1.1.1.2 Vegetables and melons 1.1.1.3 Temporary oilseed crops 1.1.1.4 Root/tuber crops with high starch or inulin content 1.1.1.5 Temporary spice crops 1.1.1.6 Leguminous crops 1.1.1.7 Sugar crops 1.1.1.8 Other temporary crops 1.1.2 Land under temporary meadows and pastures 1.1.3 Land with temporary fallow 1.1.4 Land under permanent crops 1.1.4.1 Fruit and nuts 1.1.4.2 Permanent oilseed crops 1.1.4.3 Beverage and permanent spice crops 1.1.4.4 Other permanent crops 1.1.5 Land under permanent meadows and pastures 1.1.5.1 Cultivated permanent meadows and pastures 1.1.5.2 Naturally grown permanent meadows and pastures 1.1.6 Agricultural land under protective cover 1.2 Forestry 1.2.1 Forest land 1.2.1.1 Primary regenerated forest 1.2.1.2 Other naturally regenerated forest 1.2.1.3 Planted forest 1.2.2 Other wooded land 1.3 Land use for aquaculture 1.3.1 Land use for hatcheries 1.3.2 Managed grow-out sites on land 1.4 Use of built up and related areas 1.4.1 Mining and quarrying 1.4.2 Construction 1.4.3 Manufacturing 1.4.4 Technical infrastructure 1.4.5 Transport and storage 1.4.6 Commercial, financial, and public services 1.4.7 Recreational facilities 1.4.8 Residential 1.5 Land used for maintenance and restoration of environmental functions 1.6 Other uses of land n.e.c. 1.7 Land not in use
- Inland waters 2.1 Inland waters used for aquaculture or holding facilities 2.2 Inland waters used for maintenance and restoration of environmental functions 2.3 Other uses of inland waters n.e.c. 2.4 Inland waters not in use
- Coastal waters 3.1 Coastal waters used for aquaculture or holding facilities 3.2 Coastal waters used for maintenance and restoration of environmental functions 3.3 Other uses of coastal waters n.e.c. 3.4 Coastal waters not in use
- Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) 4.1 EEZ areas used for aquaculture or holding facilities 4.2 EEZ areas used for maintenance and restoration of environmental functions 4.3 Other uses of EEZ areas n.e.c. 4.4 EEZ areas not in use