National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan for Eritrea.

The National biodiversity strategy and action plan for Eritrea (NBSAP) covers a range of existing and ongoing biodiversity-related activities taking place within different sectors of the economy. An important principle of the strategy is that the most appropriate niche for biodiversity-related activities in Eritrea lies within the existing policy framework for sustainable economic development.
The NBSAP attempts to place biodiversity policy in the context of the government's major development objectives for the next five years. Given the limited financial and human resources capacity available in Eritrea, the NBSAP seeks to integrate and co-ordinate these activities to increase their effectiveness for biodiversity conservation, rather than replace or add to them. Biodiversity-related activities must be made compatible with those designed to improve human welfare in Eritrea. There are many situations where these two goals are complementary and can even be self-reinforcing. The NBSAP focuses on these "win-win" opportunities, plus those interventions which are considered to be essential to meeting the obligations to which Eritrea has committed itself to undertake the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), which the State of Eritrea formally approved on 21st March 1996.
The NBSAP comprises four major parts. The first part describes the broad geographic and socio-economic context of Eritrea within which any biodiversity strategy must be positioned. The second part documents what is currently known about the distribution and condition of biodiversity across both terrestrial and marine environments. Although Eritrea is not a biodiversity "hotspot", it does contain a wide range of ecosystem types within a small geographic area. This diversity is an important component of Eritrea's potential as a tourist destination. The third part of the NBSAP (Assessment of the National Policy, Legislative and Institutional Framework in view of Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation) reviews the evolving policy, legislative and institutional framework within which conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity must be effected in Eritrea.