Meeting of the Biodiversity Committee (BDC)

The Biological Diversity and Ecosystems Committee (BDC) held its exceptional second meeting as an online meeting from 30 September to 2 October 2020. The aim of the second meeting was to cover the issue on the Committees work programme which had not been addressed during the first meeting in March which had to be shifted to an online setting at short notice and run to a curtailed agenda.

BDC(2) focussed on discussing preparations of assessments for the Quality Status Report 2023. The Committee foresees the delivery of a large number of assessments based on common indicators. An agreement to extend four of the existing common indicators into the OSPAR Region I Arctic Waters was achieved. Bringing together the information provided by the common indicators and other assessments in thematic assessments is foreseen to be an important and challenging task. The Committee agreed to establish the Biodiversity Thematic Assessment Drafting Group (BiTA) to tackle this challenge.

BDC engages and cooperates with many other groups globally and regionally to achieve the aims of protecting biodiversity. The second meeting discussed preparations for the next meeting under the collective arrangement and welcomed the delivery of ICES advice on deep sea elasmobranchs to support these discussions. The Committee warmly welcomed the participation of the Arctic Council working group on Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna, and agreed to engage in synergistic work on seabirds as a first step in developing concrete collaboration.

The summary record from BDC(2)2020 is available on the meeting site