Notification 2005-083

Dear Madam/Sir, The purpose of this notification is to seek the views of Parties on a proposal by the European Union regarding the organization of work of the fourth meeting of the Ad Hoc Open-ended Working Group on Access and Benefit-Sharing, to be held in Granada, Spain, from 30 January 2006 to 3 February 2006. At a meeting held in Montecatini, Italy, on 16 June 2005, the Bureau of the Conference of the Parties discussed the question of the organization of work of the fourth meeting of the Working Group on Access and Benefit-sharing based on a draft annotated agenda prepared by the Secretariat. On that occasion, the European Union made a proposal for a new organization of work. According to this proposal each of the first three days of the meeting would be organized on a specific theme, namely provider measures, user measures and linkages. Each day would begin by one or two keynote presentations, which would provide clear and significant pointers to the issue under consideration, as well as needs and gaps to be resolved. Each day would end by clarifying possible components and elements to be fed into the International regime on the final day. Bureau members emphasized the need for wider regional consultations on the proposal and agreed that comments be provided to the Executive Secretary by 31 July 2005 for the preparation of a revised text for consideration by the Bureau at its next meeting. In light of this, the full text of the proposal from the European Union is attached for your consideration. Parties are invited to communicate their views on this matter to the Secretariat no later than 31 July as requested by the Bureau. The Secretariat will prepare a new proposed organization of work for the fourth meeting of the Working Group on Access and Benefit-sharing in light of comments received, for consideration by the Bureau at its next meeting to be held in Montreal, Canada, on 4 September 2005.

Executive Secretary

To: CBD National Focal Points, ABS National Focal Points