Do you want to mainstream biodiversity concerns into development policy and planning? Are you involved in national or sectoral development planning and looking to highlight how biodiversity contributes to economic and social development, and define ways to improve this? Or perhaps you want to mainstream development concerns into biodiversity policy and planning? Are you developing or revising a National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP) and looking to make sure it supports poverty reduction and social inclusion? In all of these cases, this guidance is for you. It aims to help people:

• Improve their NBSAPs and development plans, and use them better
• Understand the ‘reciprocal’ mainstreaming process – biodiversity into development and development into biodiversity – so that the real links between people and nature, economy and ecology are dealt with properly
• Learn from helpful tools and approaches tested in African contexts
• Effectively and efficiently select, assemble, analyse and present compelling evidence on the links between biodiversity and national development priorities, and
• Develop a communication strategy to support these aims.

This guidance is based on the experience of the African Leadership Group (ALG) of the Mainstreaming Biodiversity into Development Policy and Planning Initiative, facilitated by the UN Environment World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) and the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED). It substantially updates a well-received first edition published in 2015. It was written by Steve Bass, Dilys Roe and Rosalind Goodrich from IIED and Abisha Mapendembe, Sarah Darrah and John Tayleur from UNEP-WCMC.

The Initiative has developed a range of more detailed materials and tools that can help you with mainstreaming, which can be found at: www.iied.org/nbsaps