Notification 2009-058

Nominations for the Sub-regional Capacity Building Workshop on Forest Biodiversity and Climate Change Singapore City, Singapore, 2-5 September 2009

Dear Madam/Sir, We are pleased to inform you that a sub-regional capacity building workshop for South-Eastern Asia on forest biodiversity and climate change will be held in Singapore City, Singapore from 2-5 September 2009. With the generous financial support of the government of Germany and the ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity (ACB), this workshop is being convened by the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in collaboration with the United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF) Secretariat, and the National Parks Board of Singapore. The purpose of the workshop, pursuant to decision IX/5 of the Conference of the Parties to the CBD, is to support the efforts of Parties to achieve synergies and complementarities between the implementation of the CBD programme of work on forest biodiversity, the non-legally binding instrument on all types of forests of the UNFF, and forest-related climate change mitigation and adaptation activities, including those presently discussed under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Through capacity building and an exchange of experiences on pertinent issues, including reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, participants would be able to further integrate forest biodiversity aspects within climate change response activities and related strategies and action plans (decisions IX/5 and IX/16). The workshop also intends to strengthen coordination, in particular among the national focal points for the UNFF, the CBD, and the UNFCCC. In addition, it aims to further promote the use of national forest programmes or other strategies for sustainable forest management to integrate measures to address climate change, conservation and sustainable use of forest biodiversity, desertification, deforestation, degradation of forest ecosystems and to seek coherence with national development and poverty eradication strategies, as well as with strategies and action plans under the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), UNFCCC and CBD, as decided at the eighth session of the UNFF, through Resolution 8/1. In this respect, we are pleased to invite you to nominate up to three country-designated technical experts to participate in this workshop. Please provide the names and coordinates of your nominees through an official letter addressed to the CBD Executive Secretary, together with a brief outline of the nominee’s area of expertise. The letter should reach the Secretariat no later than 30 June 2009 by fax to: +1 (514) 288-6588, or scanned and attached to an email addressed to: secretariat@cbd.int. Participants from eligible Parties will be provided with air travel, accommodation, meals and an allowance for incidental costs. In submitting nominations, Parties are requested to note that one of the designated experts should be involved in national-level implementation of the CBD programme of work on forest biodiversity (decisions VI/22 and IX/5), and/or the development and implementation of National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs), while the second designated expert should be directly involved in national-level implementation of forest-related strategies and action plans such as national forest programmes, and/or the implementation of the non-legally binding instrument on all types of forests in the framework of the UNFF. The third nominated expert should be directly involved in the preparation or implementation of national-level climate change mitigation and adaptation activities related to forests in the framework of the UNFCCC. Nominated experts should be in a position to prepare and present a single brief national report on challenges and opportunities related to forest biodiversity and climate change, including pilot and demonstration activities on reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, as well as forest-based climate change adaptation activities, in their countries. Please accept, Madam/Sir, the assurances of our highest consideration.

CBD Executive Secretary and UNFF Director

To: CBD National Focal Points in South-Eastern Asia; cc: UNFF National Focal Points in South-Eastern Asia; ASEAN Secretariat; ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity

2009-06-01

Action required by 2009-06-30

Subject(s): Climate Change and Biodiversity, Forest Biodiversity