Purpose and Overall Objective

At its sixteenth meeting in October 2024, the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the CBD requested the Executive Secretary to invite Parties, observers and other stakeholders, to submit their views on options for enhanced policy coherence, including a potential joint work programme of the Rio conventions, and to invite the executive secretaries of the other Rio conventions to collaborate on the organization of a technical information exchange further explore options to enhance cooperation and policy coherence to support the implementation of the Conventions.

Following the implementation of those requested activities, the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA) at its twenty-seventh meeting in October 2025, requested, among others, to invite the executive secretaries of the other Rio conventions, and the current and incoming presidencies of the Conferences of the Parties of the three Rio conventions, to collaborate on the organization of technical information exchanges to further discuss options to enhance cooperation and policy coherence and synergies across the Rio conventions; and subsequently develop a multilevel road map with short, medium and long-term actions, including a mapping study to help to identify concrete actions, on the headline options for enhancing policy coherence provided in document CBD/SBSTTA/27/4, as well as possible gaps and overlaps in existing national and international policies and existing coordination bodies that address the implementation of the Rio conventions, and to report its finding to Parties at COP 17.

The implementation of exchanges will be guided by the following principles:

• Party-driven and respectful of the respective mandates of the three conventions.
• Science-based and informed by existing assessments (including IPBES, IPCC and others).
• Open to and respectful of different perspectives and worldviews.
• Focused on implementation, coherence and impact rather than procedural harmonization.
• Incremental and pragmatic, building on existing mechanisms and decisions.
• Cognisant of national, regional and local implementation realities, including capacities and national circumstances.

The series of hybrid and fully online technical information exchanges are structured around the eight key thematic areas as elaborated in the table below:

Details on registration for the above exchanges is available in notification 2026-33.

Currently available background documents as shared by Parties and observers:

1. Findings from the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and their implications for the work undertaken under the Convention
2. Report of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol on its first session, held at Montreal from 28 November to 10 December 2005. Part Two: Action taken by the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol at its first session
3. Intergovernmental Consultations on Nature-based Solutions: Co-Chairs’ Summary
4. Increasing collaboration across the Rio Conventions to achieve synergistic climate and biodiversity outcomes at COP30
5. Synergies Between Biodiversity and Climate Relevant Policy Frameworks and Their Implementation
6. Critical reforms for effective and timely action to prevent irreparable harm to earth’s climate and biodiversity: A call for a Joint CBD & UNFCCC SBSTA Work Plan on Climate and Biodiversity Action. Policy Discussion Paper 3/23
7. Understanding land use in the UNFCCC: Summary for Policymakers
8. Using ecosystem integrity to maximize climate mitigation and minimize risk in international forest policy
9. Options and elements for an accounting framework for the land sector in the Post-2020 Climate Regime
10. Economics of Harmonizing Land Restoration Activities across the Rio Conventions in Rwanda and Implications for Food Security

Further background documents can be shared if made available to the secretariat via secretariat@cbd.int.