Notification 2005-071

Dear Madam/Sir, I am pleased to inform you that the eleventh meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA-11) and the second meeting of the Ad Hoc Open-ended Working Group on Protected Areas (WG-PA 2) will be held back-to-back in Montreal, Canada, respectively from 28 November to 2 December 2005 and from 5 to 9 December 2005 at the Conference Center of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). The provisional agenda for the SBSTTA-11 meeting, the document "Information for Participants" and the pre-registration form for both meetings, together with the annotated provisional agenda, are posted on the Secretariat’s website at http://www.biodiv.org/meetings/. The pre-session documentation for both meetings, including the provisional agenda for the second meeting of the Ad Hoc Open-ended Working Group on Protected Areas, will be made available as soon as finalized. Subject to the availability of contributions to the Special Voluntary Trust Fund (BZ) established by decision VII/34 for facilitating participation of Parties in the Convention process, the Secretariat will be in a position to finance the participation of only one representative from each of the developing countries Parties to the Convention, including the least developed countries, small island developing States, other developing countries and countries with economies in transition, for both meetings. The participation of additional representative(s) will have to be funded directly by your Government. Please advise the Secretariat of the name(s) and coordinates of your government’s officially designated representative(s) to this meeting at your earliest convenience but no later than 15 October 2005 to enable travel arrangements to be made for eligible participants in good time. In view of the budget constraints and in order to allow the maximum number of countries to participate in the meeting, the Secretariat would be using special air fare tickets for sponsored delegates, which impose restrictions with respect to the changing of passenger’s name, travel dates and itinerary.

Executive Secretary

To: All CBD and SBSTTA National Focal Points