Among the topics to be discussed:
The expansion of systems of protected areas around the world. Discussions will focus on identifying ways to cooperate for the establishment of protected areas in marine areas on the high seas - beyond the limits of national jurisdiction. Parties will also look at the mobilization of financial resources for the establishment of protected areas systems around the world, and the development of tool kits.
The meeting will also consider the possible terms and form of an international regime on access to genetic resources and sharing of the benefits. Earlier this year, a meeting in Granada, Spain, resulted in a draft text which could form the basis for further negotiations. Parties will seek to come to consensus on this issue and make further progress.
The focus of delegates for the meeting will be on ways to improve implementation of the provisions of the Convention at the regional and national levels in order to achieve the 2010 biodiversity target. The target, endorsed by heads of state at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in 2002, calls upon parties to achieve "a significant reduction of the current rate of biodiversity loss at global, regional and national levels as a contribution to poverty alleviation and to the benefit of all life on earth."
In support of this, delegates will be also receive the latest version of the Global Biodiversity Outlook, which provides both an assessment of the status and trends of biodiversity loss around the world, as well as an evaluation of the ways to ensu
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Contact: David Ainsworth
david.ainsworth@biodiv.org
514-287-7025
Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity
2-Mar-2006