National reporting is a core requirement for Parties to most, if not all, Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs), providing an essential source of information for the convention bodies to measure effectiveness and efficiency of implementation of activities and assess progress in achieving agreed targets. Yet, reporting can be a resource-intensive task and thus sometimes considered a burden, particularly if the benefits of the different reporting processes are not fully evident to parties, or if reporting processes are perceived as overlapping or not fully aligned.

Consequentially, efforts have been made to identify opportunities for streamlining, and where appropriate, harmonising or better aligning the reporting processes. One of the approaches highlighted as promising is modular reporting. By organising the activities and information required into a series of modules of relevance to several conventions and processes, modular reporting takes advantage of similarities and overlaps in the information submitted through separate processes. The objective is to avoid having to reproduce the same information in several reports and thus avoid duplication of work and instead facilitate information management and make more efficient use of resources. In addition, highlighting the interlinkages between different processes can help foster coherence and synergies at all relevant levels. This study, commissioned by the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN), presents elements for a modular approach to reporting that can be integrated into the reporting guidelines of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) for the next national reporting cycle (6th National Reports). In addition to the reporting needs of the CBD, the work draws on information collected through reporting processes under the other six biodiversity-related conventions, as well as seven intergovernmental assessment processes related to biodiversity.