Following its creation a group of organisations and individuals met as an ad hoc Steering Committee for activities to support the Commons, with a staff member provided part time by IUCN to act as the group’s Secretariat. The Steering Committee thus formed was largely responsible for the enthusiastic reception of the Principles by the conservation community, their subsequent widespread endorsement and ongoing publicity for the initiative. It also enjoyed significant success in stimulating demonstration projects and in other ways.

Despite these achievements, however, a number of important challenges were not addressed. Four in particular, merit a mention:

a) No guidance was provided about what, precisely, is expected of signatories to the Principles.

b) The Principles were not been interpreted and amplified and no benchmarks and indicators of compliance have been developed.

c) No guidance was developed and disseminated with respect to best practice in regard to practical implementation of the Principles.

d) No detailed analysis was made of the barriers that might make it difficult for an organisation to comply with the principles, or of measures that might be developed or encouraged to help remove these.

Thus, it has not been possible for an organisation to know when it is successfully complying with the Principles, or for others to judge its performance in this regard. In addition, there has been no body of case studies that might help organisations improve their performance. Most importantly, it has not been possible to determine whether or not the creation of the Commons has made a significant impact in terms of increased access to biodiversity data beyond that which might have occurred in any case. Indeed, it appears that many signatories have made little if any effort actually to comply with the Principles.

In March 2009 the Interim Steering Committee met at a meeting in Copenhagen, hosted by the European Environment Agency, to address the four challenges listed above in order to give new impetus to the Conservation Commons. During that meeting it was agreed that the following recommendations should be implemented:

1. The Steering Committee should be broadened and reformulated as Friends of the Commons.

2. Governance of the Commons should be formalised so that signatories have responsibilities (to comply with the Principles) and rights (to be represented on the Steering Committee).

3. The Principles should be interpreted and amplified and standards, measures and guidance developed regarding compliance.

4. The Friends of the Commons should establish priorities and a work programme with a sustainable business plan.

To move this new agenda forward a new Charter to establish the Friends of the Conservation Commons was drawn up and UNEP-WCMC was asked to continue to provide a part-time Secretariat to move things forward.

The Mission for the Friends of the Conservation Commons is: “The Friends of the Conservation Commons will promote and enable conscious, effective and equitable sharing of knowledge resources to advance conservation based on the Principles of the Conservation Commons”.

The objectives of the Friends of the Conservation Commons shall be as follows:

a. to encourage and support the application of the Principles;

b. to promote the development of standards, tools and incentives that support free and open access to conservation-related data, information, and knowledge;

c. to eliminate barriers to free and open access to conservation-related knowledge resources – that is, to data, to information and to knowledge; and

d. to develop and authorise the use of the Conservation Commons logo and other tools.

for downloading the PDF version of the Charter of the Friends of the Conservation Commons, click here. 

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