Notification 2009-140

Dear Madam/Sir, I am pleased to inform you that a regional workshop for the Caribbean and Central American countries on the fourth national report and updating the strategic plan for the post-2010 period will be held from 7 to 10 December 2009 in the City of Panama, Panama. The workshop will be jointly organized by the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, IUCN Countdown 2010 and the Regional Office for Latin America and Caribbean of the United Nations Environment Programme, with additional support of the Global Environment Facility, UNEP and the European Commission. The purposes of the workshop are: (a) to assist countries in the preparation of their fourth national report in line with COP decision VIII/14. This decision requires Parties to submit their fourth national report by 30 March 2009. However only a few countries from these sub-regions have yet done so; (b) to promote sub-regional cooperation for the implementation of the Convention in both the Caribbean and Central America; and (c) to provide inputs from the sub-regions to the process of revising and updating the strategic plan of the Convention for the post-2010 period, in line with COP decision IX/9. I would like to invite you to nominate an officer or expert to participate in this workshop. Nominations should be made as soon as possible and no later than 16 November 2009. The nominee should be the officer or expert responsible for the preparation of the fourth national report and/or the implementation of the Convention in your country, and should be in a position to revise and/or finalize the national report within four weeks after the workshop. To make this workshop as productive and useful as possible, all participating countries that have not yet submitted their fourth national report are required to provide to the Secretariat a draft of the report by 27 November and to also bring this draft to the workshop for review. Financial support will be provided covering a round-trip economy-class air ticket, the hotel accommodation, and a daily subsistence allowance to cover meals and incidentals. The working languages of the workshop will be English and Spanish. English and Spanish speaking resource persons will be available to provide suggestions to improve the reports. The documents of the workshop will be made available on the CBD website in due course. This workshop will facilitate the submission of the fourth national reports and obtain inputs more widely from the region for the new strategic plan of the Convention on Biological Diversity, including the development of post-2010 biodiversity targets. Both these processes are essential for the success of the tenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties in Nagoya, Japan, October 2010. I look forward to receiving your nomination and your country’s fourth national report soon. We thank you very much for your support and cooperation. Please accept, Madam/Sir, the assurances of my highest consideration.

Executive Secretary

To: CBD National Focal Points of the following countries: Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Saint Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago