Notification 2015-145

Dear Madam/Sir, The first meeting of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit-sharing adopted decision NP-1/10 on ‘The need for and modalities of a global multilateral benefit-sharing mechanism (Article 10)’, and requested the Executive Secretary to convene, subject to the availability of funds, a meeting of a regionally balanced expert group. Thanks to funding from the Governments of Norway and Belgium, the expert meeting will be held in Montreal from 1 to 3 February 2016. Pursuant to the above decision, by notification 2015-111 of 25 September 2015 and in a reminder sent on 2 November 2015, Parties to the Nagoya Protocol were invited to nominate an expert to be considered for the meeting. Other Governments, indigenous and local communities, international organizations and relevant stakeholders were also invited to nominate an expert who would participate as an observer in the meeting. The Secretariat received a total of 26 nominations from Parties and 26 nominations from other Governments, indigenous and local communities, international organizations and stakeholders. Against this background, I am pleased to convey herewith, for your information, the list of experts and observers invited to participate in the expert group. The experts and observers were selected on the basis of their expertise and experience and the need to ensure equitable geographical distribution and gender balance as well as the need for balance between experts and observers. Due to the small number of nominations received from Parties in the region of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), only two members have been selected from this region. A letter of invitation will be sent to the selected experts and observers in the coming days together with relevant information concerning the meeting. Documents for the meeting will also be posted in due course on the Secretariat’s web site at: https://www.cbd.int/doc/?meeting=ABS-A10EM-2016-01. Please accept, Madam/Sir, the assurances of my highest consideration.

Executive Secretary

To: ABS National Focal Points, CBD National Focal Points (where ABS focal points have not yet been designated), Indigenous and Local Communities and relevant organizations