Development Institutional; (4) Public Awareness and Involvement; (5) Institutional and Legal Frameworks; (6) NBSAP Implementation and (7) International Cooperation. Under those 7 programs, 27 objectives are to be achieved by 2020 and 203 actions were also identified which were to be undertaken by 2010. In 2011, the IUCN published an assessment of the 1st NBSAP which summarizes the implementation status per objective and per action under each of the seven programmes.
The main conclusion is that significant progress has been made across a range of areas, including biodiversity research, the recording of local knowledge, the expansion of NPAs, the implementation of management plans in a few key NPAs, the drafting of a Biosafety Law, the expansion of ecotourism activities, improved land use planning and land allocation, Ramsar accession, and stricter EIA/ESIA regulation; major achievement has been reached on international cooperation, particularly on the participation of the Lao PDR to multilateral environment agreements.
However, additional gaps are to be addressed related to improving human resource capacity and biodiversity management, including efforts to ensure that social and economic benefits from the use of natural products originating from the Lao PDR accrue to the nation. The mainstreaming of biodiversity has been partially executed in recent years. This report provides details of biodiversity mainstreaming at three levels:
(1) at the Ministerial level, by the creation of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MoNRE); (2) at the sectorial level, by the establishment of the Natural Resource Management and Environment Sector Working Group (SWG) in 2012, and (3) at the Policy level, through the Five-Year National Socio Economic Development Plans (NSEDP). In spite of these achievements, additional efforts are to be made to mainstream biodiversity into the different sectors; by ensuring that biodiversity actions are included in sectorial respective strategies, plans, and programmes.
At the global level, on the progress towards the 2020 Aichi biodiversity targets, there has been strong efforts towards outreach activities which have raised awareness of environmental issues and the values of biodiversity, promoted through representation of environmental education activities during special events and festivals, improved environmental curriculum in schools, media training, and capacity development and training of government staff. Improvements have been made to the legal framework to include biodiversity values into sector strategies, policy, and legislation, while positive steps have been made towards improving the EIA process.
In terms of urban planning and improved land use planning, there have been positive efforts made towards developing criteria for sustainable urban areas and a National Master Land Use Plan, while in Agro-biodiversity there iv