Notification 2021-031

Dear Madam/Sir, The Conference of the Parties, at its fourteenth meeting, requested the Executive Secretary to update, subject to the availability of resources, the CBD Technical Series on Synthetic Biology for consideration by the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA), based on the peer review of scientific information and other relevant information (Decision 14/19 (https://www.cbd.int/doc/decisions/cop-14/cop-14-dec-19-en.pdf), paragraph 17©). Accordingly, the Secretariat has updated the CBD Technical Series, thanks to the generous funding from the Governments of Austria and the Netherlands. The draft of the updated CBD Technical Series is now available for the information of SBSTTA as CBD/SBSTTA/24/INF/19. The document is also being made available for peer review at the following webpage: https://bch.cbd.int/synbio/peer_review/. Please note that the document is a draft, for comments only, and not for citation or other uses. I invite Parties and observers to participate in the peer review process, noting that the draft document will be available for review until 15 June 2021. Kindly send your comments to the Secretariat by e-mail to: secretariat@cbd.int using the template for peer review comments, which is accessible in electronic format on the peer review webpage indicated above. Only comments using this template will be considered. It is also preferable to receive the peer review comments in Word format. Parties and observers are kindly requested to include any supporting information related to their comments or provide a complete reference or hyperlink for it. Please accept, Madam/Sir, the assurances of my highest consideration.

Executive Secretary

To: CBD National Focal Points, relevant organizations and indigenous peoples and local communities, cc: SBSTTA National Focal Points, Cartagena Protocol National Focal Points