Notification 2008-026

Dear Madam/Sir, I am pleased to inform you that a regional workshop for countries of Central America on “Capacity-building for National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans and Mainstreaming of Biodiversity” will be held in Mexico City, Mexico, from 26 to 27 March 2008, organized by the Secretariat of the Convention in collaboration with the National Commission for the Knowledge and Use of Biodiversity / Comisión Nacional para el Conocimiento y Uso de la Biodiversidad (CONABIO), and with the generous financial support of Spain. The Workshop will be held in conjunction with the “Workshop on the Evaluation of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment Findings and Human Well-being”, being held from 24 to 25 March 2008 at the same location. This is one in a series of regional and sub-regional capacity-building workshops to be organized during 2008, in response to decision VIII/8 (paragraph 6) by which the Conference of the Parties recommended that regional and/or sub-regional workshops be convened to “discuss national experiences in implementing national biodiversity strategies and action plans, and the integration of biodiversity concerns into relevant sectors, including consideration of obstacles and ways and means for overcoming the obstacles.” The purpose of the workshop is therefore to strengthen national capacity for the development, implementation, review and updating of national biodiversity strategies and action plans, and for biodiversity mainstreaming into relevant sectors, through the exchange of experiences and training on the use of relevant tools and mechanisms. The results of the workshop will also inform the ongoing review of implementation of goals 2 and 3 of the Strategic Plan to be considered by the ninth meeting of the Conference of the Parties in May 2008. The importance of convening these workshops was also highlighted at the second meeting of the Working Group on Review of Implementation (9-13 July 2007, Paris, France). Further information on these workshops is available at: www.cbd.int/nbsaps/workshops. In light of the above, I am pleased to invite you to nominate through an official signed letter a representative to participate in this workshop at your earliest convenience, but no later than 10 March 2008. In submitting nominations, Parties are requested to note that the representative should be responsible for the development and/or implementation of the national biodiversity strategy and action plan, and in a position to prepare and present a report on progress made in the development, implementation, review and updating of the national biodiversity strategy and action plan, as well as integration of biodiversity concerns into relevant sectors (using, for example, the voluntary guidelines annexed to Decision VIII/8). Moreover, following the workshop, the representative should be in a position to translate the capacity gained into concrete actions in support of national implementation. Please note that the workshop will be held in Spanish. A major focus of this workshop will be the integration of biodiversity in national development planning. In this regard, a limited number of experts will be selected to participate in the workshop, acting as resource persons. Accordingly, I also invite you to recommend a government official or other expert involved in integrating biodiversity into economic and social development planning in your country. One participant from eligible Parties will be provided with air travel, accommodation and an allowance for incidental costs according to UN rules for both workshops (24-27 March 2008). Additional participants will be financed by their institutions. In submitting nominations and recommendations, I request that you provide full contact details of these persons, including their email addresses, so that we can follow up with them with further details about the workshop. We look forward to receiving your nominations and recommendations, and I thank you in advance for your support and cooperation.

Executive Secretary

To: CBD National Focal Points (Central America)