An International Comparison Study Of Biodiversity Management Policies Adapting To Climate Change

Biodiversity is an important natural asset for mankind.The negative impacts of climate changes may exacerbate the biodiversity losses.The impacts will reduce the capacity and the potential of human based ecosystem approaches to adapt to the changes in climate.In the process of developing biodiversity management policies,countries around the world have been considering climate-changing factors to varying degrees,but the effectiveness of these policies has yet to be assessed.Therefore,an international comparative study of biodiversity management policies can be carried out from the perspective of adapting to climate changes,which can then be used to compare the effectiveness of different national policies.Hence,the most efficient management practices could be identified and be a reference to other countries.The present study evaluated five stages the policy cycle,starting off with the problem definition,policy formulation,policy implementation,policy monitoring and evaluation and finally on assessment feedback stage.A set of 30 indicators was identified in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the policies.A total of six countries,namely the European Union,Malaysia,Kiribati,the Republic of Rwanda,Australia,and the People’s Republic of China were chosen for the comparison study.The comparison study was based on the biodiversity management policies of these six countries,the relevant assessment reports,academic literatures and other information.These instruments were used to determine the evaluation index system of the score indicators.Grounded by the semi-quantitative evaluation results,the six national biodiversity management policies were examined in terms of the effectiveness in adapting to climate changes and the best management practices for the five stages of the policy cycle were identified,especially for China in the context of climate change adaptation and implementation of biodiversity management policies.The findings of the study illustrated that Rwanda’s biodiversity management policy has the highest score among the six countries and has achieved remarkable results in terms of public awareness and participation and biodiversity conservation objectives.The EU has ranked second,and it has established an interactive monitoring and evaluation information platform which provided a very convenient access and real-time evaluation reports.Meanwhile,China ranked third in terms of its biodiversity management policy,but did not develop clear objectives and action programs.Instead China had a better performance in terms of public awareness and policy implementation.This is followed by Australia,which ranked fourth and the country has developed a longterm,integrated action plan.However,its existing monitoring and evaluation system cannot effectively support the implementation of policy evaluation.On the other hand,Kiribati’s biodiversity conservation focuses on marine ecosystems and has achieved the corresponding protection objectives,but there is still a lack in monitoring and evaluation capacity.Although Malaysia has developed a number of objectives and action programs,it is weaker in terms of policy implementation,monitoring and evaluation,and therefore had the lowest score.Based on the results of international comparisons,it is best to suggest that China’s biodiversity management policy formulation and implementation should include policy-specific action programs,narrow the gap between research and management,improve on the efficiency of funds allocation and usage,strengthen public participation and data collection,set a specific biodiversity evaluation indicators and other recommendations.