Notification 2011-045

Dear Madam/Sir, I am pleased to inform you that thanks to the financial support provided by the Japan Biodiversity Fund, a regional workshop for the updating and revision of National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAP) for North African and Middle Eastern countries will be held in Beirut - Lebanon from 2 to 7 May 2011. This workshop is being organized jointly by the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), the Technical Secretariat of the Council of Arab Ministers Responsible for the Environment (CAMRE) of the League of Arab States, and the Regional Office for West Asia (ROWA) of the United Nations Environment Programme. The tenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP 10), held in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, Japan, from 18 to 29 October 2010, adopted a Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020, which contains five strategic goals and twenty headline targets, also known as the Aichi Targets. Whilst adopting this strategy for the next decade, the COP urged Parties to develop national and regional targets, using the Strategic Plan as a flexible framework, as well as to review and, as appropriate, update and revise their NBSAPs in line with the Strategic Plan. As you may know, the Global Environment Facility (GEF) has made funds available to support the process of revising and updating NBSAPs. A template for accessing these funds is available at this link (http://www.thegef.org/gef/sites/thegef.org/files/documents/document/GEF-%20EA%20template%20 for%20Agencies_Final%2011-23-10rev.doc). Additionally, as COP President, the Government of Japan has established a fund to further assist developing countries to implement the Nagoya Outcomes. As a part of this assistance, the CBD Secretariat is organising a series of regional and sub-regional capacity building workshops in 2011 and 2012 of which this proposed workshop is a part. The purpose of these workshops is to strengthen national capacities for the development, implementation, reviewing, updating and communication of NBSAPs; to help facilitate national implementation of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020; and to translate the post-2010 strategic plan into national targets and commitments (decision X/2 (17)). The workshop will comprise a number of sessions including one focused on further developing a regional strategy on Invasive Alien Species (IAS), to be facilitated by the Global Invasive Species Programme (GISP) Please note that the workshop will be held in English. Some interpretation between Arabic and English will be provided as needed. In light of the above, I am pleased to invite you to nominate a representative of your Government who will participate in this workshop. The nomination should be in the form of an official letter addressed to the CBD Executive Secretary signed by you, or a senior government official, and should contain the nominee’s name and full contact information, including email addresses, using the attached nomination form. This letter can either be scanned and emailed to secretariat@cbd.int or faxed to the Secretariat at + 1 514 288 6588, no later than 15 March 2011. In submitting nominations, Parties are requested to note that the participant should be responsible for the development, updating and/or implementation of national biodiversity strategy and action plan, and be in a position to translate the capacity gained into concrete actions in support of national implementation. A limited number of additional participants from planning or financing ministries will also be invited. Parties are therefore invited to nominate such suitable participants who should be in a position to support the national development, updating and/or implementation of national biodiversity strategy and action plan through the mainstreaming of biodiversity into relevant sectors. Upon receipt of nominations, further information on travel and hotel arrangements will be duly communicated. We look forward to having your early nominations and I thank you in advance 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: Algeria, Bahrain, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syrian Arab Republic, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen; Relevant organizations