Sustainable use

The Conference of the Parties,

Recognizing that the challenge of sustainable use of biodiversity is to balance the need to maximize human livelihoods against the necessity of conserving the underlying natural resource base,

Recognizing that sustainable use is a cross-cutting issue relevant to different ecosystems, sectors and thematic areas,

Recognizing the need to further investigate the relationship and balance between conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity, and in particular the role and contribution of sustainable use to the conservation of biological diversity,

Recognizing that the involvement and participation of all stakeholders, including indigenous and local communities, in natural resource management is a prerequisite for their conservation and sustainable use,

Recognizing further the important role played by women in the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity,

1. Welcomes the outcome of the three regional workshops on the Sustainable Use of Biological Diversity, which took place in Maputo (Mozambique) in September 2001, Hanoi (Viet Nam) in January 2002 and Salinas (Ecuador) in February 2002;
2. Expresses its appreciation to the Government of the Netherlands for the financial support for these three workshops;
3. Notes with appreciation the collaborative efforts and synergies developed during the three workshops by the Convention on Biological Diversity and other international organizations such as the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, the Convention on Wetlands (Ramsar, Iran, 1971), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, IUCN, the International Tropical Timber Organization and the World Wide Fund For Nature, welcomes their future contributions to the process, and invites other relevant international organizations to participate in the process;
4. Requests the Executive Secretary to organize a fourth open-ended workshop on the sustainable use of biodiversity to synthesize the outcomes of the three workshops, integrate different views and regional differences and develop a set of practical principles and operational guidelines for the sustainable use of biological diversity, to be submitted to the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice for its consideration prior to the seventh meeting of the Conference of the Parties;
5. Invites Parties, other Governments and relevant international organizations to provide appropriate financial support for the organization of the fourth workshop on the sustainable use of biological diversity, with a view to ensuring broad-based participation in the fourth open-ended workshop on the sustainable use of biodiversity;
6. Reiterates its invitation to Parties, other Governments, international organizations and other relevant organizations to submit case-studies on the sustainable use of biological diversity;
7. Requests the Executive Secretary to continue compiling case-studies submitted by Parties, other Governments, international organizations and other relevant organizations on the sustainable use of biological diversity and make them available through the clearing-house mechanism of the Convention.