Notification 2009-100

Dear Madam/Sir, In accordance with decision IX/26 adopted by the ninth meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), I am very pleased to inform you that the third meeting on business and biodiversity will be held in Jakarta, Indonesia, from 30 November to 3 December 2009. The Business and the 2010 Biodiversity Challenge Conference aims to strengthen business participation in CBD processes. Following-up on the first and second business and the biodiversity challenge meetings, held in 2005 in London and Brazil respectively, this third meeting will build upon the previous outcomes and provide input into the tenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 10) to be held in Nagoya, Japan, on 18-29 October 2010. With financial support from the Netherlands and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the meeting is being convened by the CBD Secretariat in collaboration with the UNEP’s Division of Technology, Industry and Economics (DTIE). The meeting will be preceded by the UNEP/DTIE 2009 Business & Industry Global Dialogue. It will be followed by an informal dialogue on business and access and benefit-sharing on 2-3 December, organized by the Secretariat in collaboration with the United Nations University (UNU). The overall objective of the Jakarta conference is to effectively engage the private sector in addressing biodiversity by stressing the link between biodiversity and core business and by highlighting best case practices, including life cycle approaches and incentive mechanisms. By emphasizing existing efforts underway, the meeting will explore ways to scale-up business engagement on biodiversity issues and develop recommendations on collaborative actions that can be undertaken. Specific objectives include: • To provide stakeholders a discussion platform for raising awareness, collecting feedback and supporting ongoing initiatives to better engage the private sector in biodiversity related efforts. • To provide CBD with private sector focused inputs to inform the COP 10. • To identify opportunities for key partnerships or international initiatives between the business community and biodiversity organizations that would further support mainstreaming. • To establish an informal dialogue on business and access and benefit-sharing. You are kindly invited to nominate, at your earliest convenience but no later than 25 September 2009, representatives of the business community to attend the Jakarta meetings. Kindly provide your nomination with complete details of the nominated candidates and their organizations to business@cbd.int. The conference is funded by the Netherlands and UNEP, which enables us to provide limited travel grants for participants from eligible countries on a first come first served basis.

Executive Secretary

To: CBD National Focal Points