Retired sections: A, paragraphs 9 and 13; B, paragraphs 1-11 and 16-19.

Operations of the Convention

A. Implementation of the Convention, in particular, implementation of priority actions in national biodiversity strategies and action plans

The Conference of the Parties

1. Stresses that the development and implementation of national biodiversity strategies and action plans constitute the cornerstone of national implementation of the Convention;
2. Urges Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity:
   1. To develop and adopt national biodiversity strategies and action plans, where they have not yet done so;
   2. To give priority to the integration of the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity, as well as benefit-sharing, into relevant sectoral or cross-sectoral plans, programmes and policies, in accordance with Article 6 of the Convention;
   3. To identify priority actions in national biodiversity strategies and action plans and other relevant national strategies;
   4. To implement national biodiversity strategies and action plans; and to periodically revise them in the light of the experience of implementation;
   5. To establish national mechanisms or consultative processes, with particular regard, where appropriate, to the special needs of indigenous and local communities, for coordinating, implementing, monitoring, evaluating and periodically revising national biodiversity strategies and action plans;
   6. To identify constraints and impediments to implementation of national biodiversity strategies and action plans, and to reflect them in the national reports;
   7. To make their national biodiversity strategies and action plans, including periodic revisions, available through their national clearing-house mechanism and the Convention website;
3. Encourages Parties to develop regional, subregional or bioregional mechanisms and networks to support implementation of the Convention including, as appropriate, through the development of regional or subregional biodiversity strategies and action plans, the identification of common constraints and impediments to implementation; and promotion of joint measures for addressing these;
4. Calls upon multilateral, regional, bilateral and private donors and institutions able to support implementation of national and regional biodiversity strategies and action plans, in particular priority actions, to target such priority actions in an effective and coordinated manner within the framework of the Strategic Plan of the Convention;
5. Encourages private foundations and other donors that provide funding in support of sustainable-development activities to support implementation of nationally-identified priority actions in national biodiversity strategies and action plans;
6. Requests donor institutions and agencies to simplify, to the extent possible, their administrative procedures in order to expedite access by eligible countries to the financial resources needed to assist the implementation of the national biodiversity strategies and action plans;
7. Emphasizes the importance of access to and transfer of technology and of technical and scientific cooperation in the implementation of national biodiversity strategies and action plans;
8. Transmits to the Council of the Global Environment Facility its view that a strategic approach to capacity-building for the global environment at the national level is urgently needed and that promoting cross?convention synergies, national policy integration, national institutional development and cooperation among stakeholders in capacity?building activities is a priority in order to promote efficiency and quality, and notes the contribution of the preliminary results of the Capacity Development Initiative;
9. Encourages Parties to avail themselves of the assistance available through the financial mechanism for preparation of a national capacity self-assessment;
10. Welcomes the contribution to the implementation of national biodiversity strategies and action plans provided by the Biodiversity Planning Support Programme established by the United Nations Environment Programme and the United Nations Development Programme with core financial support from the Global Environment Facility and requests the agencies and partners involved to consider how regional support for biodiversity planning and capacity?building can be enhanced through core financial support by the Implementing Agencies;
11. Welcomes the Biodiversity Service for the implementation of national biodiversity strategies and action plans in Central and Eastern Europe, established by the United Nations Environment Programme, IUCN, the European Centre for Nature Conservation and the Regional Environmental Centre and financially supported by a number of donors, and invites Parties and intergovernmental and other organizations to review the operation of the Biodiversity Service and to benefit from its experience with a view to considering the establishment of regional capacity-building mechanisms to support the implementation of priority actions in national biodiversity strategies and action plans in other regions;
12. Commends the assessments of implementation carried out by Parties in the Central and Eastern Europe and Central American regions to the attention of Parties in other regions, and encourages Parties in other regions to undertake similar assessments;
13. Requests the Executive Secretary to provide appropriate information to the Parties at an inter-sessional meeting for consideration of the future evaluation of progress in the implementation of the Convention and the Strategic Plan, in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Convention.

B. Operations of the Convention

The Conference of the Parties

Review of the status of implementation of the decisions of the Conference of the Parties

1. Welcomes the Handbook on the Convention on Biological Diversity and encourages the Executive Secretary to seek ways and means to make it available in other United Nations official languages;
2. Decides to review, on the basis of the proposals by the Executive Secretary, the status of implementation of all its decisions at its next meeting with a view to adopting a consolidated body of decisions and to inform decision-making on the long-term work plan of the Convention;
3. Decides to retire the decisions and elements of decisions listed in the annex to the present decision;
4. Requests the Executive Secretary to make proposals to the seventh meeting of the Conference of the Parties regarding, inter alia, the retirement of decisions and elements of decisions taken at the third and fourth meetings of the Conference of the Parties and the consolidation of its decisions and to communicate such proposals to Parties, Governments and relevant international organizations at least six months prior to its seventh meeting;
5. Invites Parties, Governments and relevant international organizations to submit to the Executive Secretary written comments on the proposals referred to in paragraph 4 above, at least three months prior to its seventh meeting;

   Review of recommendations of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice

   Recalling its decision to make an assessment at its sixth meeting of the recommendations made to it by the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice with a view to providing guidance to the Subsidiary Body on ways to improve its inputs,

6. Decides that this assessment will be undertaken under the authority of the Conference of the Parties at its seventh meeting;
7. Requests the Executive Secretary to undertake, in consultation with the bureaux of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice and the Conference of the Parties, a review of the recommendations of the Subsidiary Body with a view to improving its inputs and to report thereon to Subsidiary Body at its ninth meeting and to the Conference of the Parties at its seventh meeting;
8. Requests the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice, on the basis of the review mentioned in paragraph 7 above, to prepare proposals for the improvement of the quality of its advice and to submit a report thereon to the Conference of the Parties at its seventh meeting;

   Roster of experts

9. Requests the Executive Secretary to make full use of the roster of experts identified by Parties through national nodes of the clearing-house mechanism, including for peer review and for Internet-based discussion groups;
10. Requests the Executive Secretary to retire the roster of experts nominated by Parties for specific tasks or activities once those tasks or activities have been completed;

    Regional and subregional mechanisms for implementation of the Convention

11. Acknowledging the important role that regional and subregional mechanisms and networks such as the Pan-European Biological and Landscape Diversity Strategy, the Strategic Plan on Biodiversity for Tropical Andean Countries, the Central American Commission of Environment and Development and the South Pacific Regional Environment Programme play in promoting the implementation of the Convention, which, inter alia, provide forums for the preparation of regional inputs to meetings of the Convention and for translating decisions of the Conference of the Parties into regional actions,
    1. Requests the Executive Secretary, with the assistance of the United Nations Environment Programme and in consultation with Parties, to identify, assess and report on the potential of existing regional and subregional instruments, institutions, networks and mechanisms in various regions as a basis for enhancing the implementation of the Convention, including as partners for capacity-building, taking into account:
       1. The benefits to be gained through the utilization of regional and subregional institutions, mechanisms or networks;
       2. The views from regions as to the types of assistance required to respond to difficulties in implementing the Convention and their level of priority;
       3. The requirements necessary to strengthen such mechanisms and networks for the purposes of the implementation of the Convention;

    2. Encourages Parties to strengthen regional and subregional cooperation, enhance the integration and promote synergies with relevant regional and subregional processes;
    3. Invites all donors and institutions in a position to do so to support the work of existing regional coordination mechanisms and the development of regional and subregional networks or processes, as appropriate;
    4. Invites Parties, Governments, and relevant organizations to strengthen their existing regional and subregional mechanisms and initiatives for capacity-building and to contribute inputs regarding their experiences into the wider assessment process;

12. Invites those countries in a position to do so, individually or collectively, on a bilateral or multilateral basis, to consider providing financial resources and technically qualified person(s) recruited from either government or the private sector to collaborate in the preparation of the assessment in the candidate regions;
13. Decides to further consider this issue, based on the assessment, at its seventh meeting;

    Participation and procedures under the Convention

14. Takes note of concerns about procedural issues raised at inter-sessional meetings, and calls for the implementation of the rules of procedure for meetings of the Conference of the Parties and Subsidiary Bodies;
15. Requests the bureaux of the Conference of the Parties and of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice to develop proposals for the further improvement of existing procedures for conducting meetings in order to allow a more effective participation of one-person delegations and report to the Conference of the Parties at its seventh meeting;
16. Recognizes the increasing workload for Bureau members, particularly the Chairs, and confirms the need for financial support for Bureau members from developing country Parties and Parties with economies in transition, and, in particular, to provide funding for the attendance of Bureau members at meetings and support for the Chair of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice;
17. Decides to consider at its seventh meeting the possibility of providing financial support for at least two representatives from each developing country-Party through the Voluntary Trust Fund for Facilitating Participation of Parties in the Convention Process (BZ Trust Fund);
18. Requests the Executive Secretary, as a matter of priority, to identify potential sources of financial support for facilitating the participation of non-governmental organizations from developing countries and countries with economies in transition in meetings organized under the Convention;
19. Requests the Executive Secretary to establish a focal point within the Secretariat for non-governmental organizations in order to facilitate interaction with non-governmental organizations and to support, inter alia, dissemination of information on the Convention, awareness raising and improved coordination amongst stakeholders.

Annex

DECISIONS AND ELEMENTS OF DECISIONS ADOPTED BY THE CONFERENCE OF THE PARTIES AT ITS FIRST AND SECOND MEETINGS TO BE RETIRED

Decisions of the first meeting of the Conference of the Parties

Decision I/2, paras. 4-8
Decision I/3, paras. 2-4
Decision I/4, paras. 2 and 3
Decision I/5, para. 1
Decision I/6, part I, para. 3 to 9 (part I)
Decision I/6, part II
Decision I/7, paras.1 (d), 2, 4 (and annex)
Decision I/9
Decision I/10
Decision I/11
Decision I/13

Decisions of the second meeting of the Conference of the Parties

Decision II/1, paras. 1, 2 and 4-6
Decision II/2
Decision II/3, paras. 1, 4 (a), 5, 6, 10 and 11
Decision II/4, paras. 2-4
Decision II/5
Decision II/6, paras. 3, 4, 7 and 12
Decision II/7, para. 7
Decision II/8, paras. 6 and 7
Decision II/9, paras. 1, 2(b) and 4
Decision II/10, paras. 7, 9, 10 and 14
Decision II/11, para. 1(a)
Decision II/12, paras. (a) and (c)
Decision II/13, paras. 1 and 5-7
Decision II/14
Decision II/15
Decision II/16
Decision II/17, paras. 4, 5, 9, 11
Decision II/18
Decision II/19, paras. 1 and 3-6
Decision II/20, paras. 1-10
Decision II/21
Decision II/22
Decision II/23