Notification 2012-154

Dear Madam/Sir, I am pleased to inform Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity that a regional capacity building workshop for Western and Central Africa will be held in Dakar, Senegal from 4 to 7 March 2013 to address invasive alien species (Target 9) and take actions on biodiversity knowledge sharing and transfer (Target 19). The workshop is organized by the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in collaboration with the Government of Senegal, the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), with the generous financial support from the Government of Japan. It will be conducted in English and French. The workshop responds to decisions of the Conference of the Parties (COP) requesting the Executive Secretary to continue promoting and facilitating, in partnership with relevant organizations, activities to strengthen implementation of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011–2020 and progress towards the Aichi Biodiversity Targets (paragraph 10 of decision XI/2), and to explore methodologies for fostering awareness, promoting education and generating information on invasive alien species (paragraph 18 of decision XI/28). It also contributes to the implementation of the Capacity-building Strategy for the GTI (annex to decision XI/29). I therefore invite Parties in the Western and Central Africa to nominate two experts to participate in the workshop, according to the following criteria: • One government official engaged in the development or updating of strategies and action plans on invasive species as part of the National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans; • One taxonomic expert who is engaged in the implementation of the Global Taxonomy Initiative and who can contribute to the GTI Capacity-building Strategy at the national level. The expert could be: (i) GTI National Focal Point; (ii) GBIF node manager; or (iii) from a leading regional network of taxonomists, including but not limited to, as follows: Forest Invasive Species Network, SAFRINET, the Sud Expert Plantes, WAFRINET. Nominations should be sent to the CBD Secretariat in the form of an official letter signed by the CBD National Focal Point, together with the Curriculum Vitae of the nominated expert, addressed to the Executive Secretary (by fax at +1 514 288 6588 or by email to secretariat@cbd.int) no later than 2 February 2013. Once the experts are selected, the SCBD will send them a questionnaire that will need to be filled out as soon as possible. The experts will be invited to present their analyses of the questionnaire at the workshop in Senegal. Please accept, Madam/Sir, the assurances of my highest consideration.

Executive Secretary

To: CBD National Focal Points for Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sao Tome and Principe, Togo