Notification 2016-050

Dear Madam/Sir, In its decision NP-1/8, the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Nagoya Protocol on access and benefit-sharing (COP-MOP 1) established an informal advisory committee (IAC) to provide advice to the Executive Secretary on matters of relevance to the assessment of the effectiveness of the strategic framework for capacity building and development to support the effective implementation of the Nagoya Protocol. The decision provides that the IAC will comprise 15 experts selected by the Executive Secretary on the basis of nominations by Parties with due regard to equitable geographic representation and gender balance and shall also include representatives of indigenous and local communities and relevant organizations. Through notification 2015-050 of 5 May 2015, and a reminder dated 27 May July 2015, Parties to the Nagoya Protocol were invited to nominate experts actively involved in ABS capacity building to be considered for selection to attend the first meeting of the IAC, which was held in Montreal from 15 to 17 September 2015. In response to this notification, 21 nominations were received from Parties and the list of experts selected from each of the five regions to attend the first meeting was made available through notification 2015-074 dated 6 July 2015. Due to the small number of nominations received from Parties in the regions of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and Western Europe and Others Group (WEOG), only two members from each of these regions could be selected instead of three. A second meeting of the Informal Advisory Committee on Capacity building for the Implementation of the Nagoya Protocol is to be held from 15 to 17 June 2016, in Montreal, Canada. Taking into account the fact that additional countries have become Parties to the Nagoya Protocol and with a view to ensuring adequate representation from all regions at the second meeting of the IAC, Parties to the Nagoya Protocol from the CEE and WEOG regions that did not do so in 2015 were invited, through notification 2016-027 of 26 February 2016, to nominate one expert each as soon as possible but no later than 18 March 2016. However, no additional nominations were received from the two regions and as such the regional representation remains unchanged. Against this background, I am pleased to convey herewith, for your information, the list of experts as well as representatives from indigenous and local communities and relevant organizations invited to participate in the second meeting of the Informal Advisory Committee. A letter of invitation to the second meeting of the IAC will be sent to the experts together with relevant information concerning the meeting. Documents for the meeting will be posted in due course on the Secretariat’s website. Please accept, Madam/Sir, the assurances of my highest consideration.

Executive Secretary

To: ABS National Focal Points; CBD Focal Points where ABS National Focal Points have not yet been designated