Decision COP XIV/24

4. Invites providers of and strategic partners for technical and scientific assistance, including the Consortium of Scientific Partners, to communicate to the Executive Secretary through the clearing-house mechanism the priority themes, geographic coverage and types of services that they are able to offer to other Parties;

5. Decides to consider establishing, at its fifteenth meeting, an informal advisory committee on technical and scientific cooperation, to be operational at the end of the mandate of the current Informal Advisory Committee to the Clearing-house Mechanism in 2020, to provide the Executive Secretary with advice on practical measures, tools and opportunities to promote technical and scientific cooperation for the effective implementation of the Convention;

6. Requests the Executive Secretary to seek advice from the Informal Advisory Committee to the Clearing-house Mechanism on matters relating to technical and scientific cooperation in accordance with Article 18 of the Convention for the duration of its current mandate;

7. Takes note of the key needs and priorities, which could be addressed through technical and scientific cooperation, identified during the regional Bio-Bridge Initiative round tables,6 and requests the Executive Secretary, in collaboration with partners and subject to the availability of resources, to facilitate cooperation initiatives to respond to the needs identified;

8. Also requests the Executive Secretary, in collaboration with partners and subject to the availability of resources, to further promote and facilitate technical and scientific cooperation, in particular the promotion of cooperation on areas such as remote sensing, scenario analyses and modelling, values of biodiversity and ecosystem functions and services, and training in DNA technologies, such as DNA barcoding for rapid species identification in countries and regions concerned within the context of the Global Taxonomy Initiative, as well as promotion of cooperation through the Bio-Bridge Initiative and to submit a progress report for consideration by the Subsidiary Body on Implementation at its third meeting and by the Conference of the Parties at its fifteenth meeting;

9. Further requests the Executive Secretary, subject to the availability of resources, to prepare proposals for an inclusive process to review and renew technical and scientific cooperation programmes, including the Bio-Bridge Initiative, the Forest Ecosystem Restoration Initiative and the Global Taxonomy Initiative, in order to support the development of the post-2020 global biodiversity framework, and to submit these proposals for consideration by the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice and the Subsidiary Body on Implementation at their meetings prior to the fifteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties.