Notification 2014-035

Dear Madam/Sir, In its decision XI/8 item A, paragraph 7, the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) requested the Executive Secretary, subject to availability of resources, to continue to involve local and subnational authorities in the series of workshops to review and update national biodiversity strategies and action plans, including regional activities. I am pleased to inform you that, with the financial support from the Government of China, the CBD Secretariat is organizing a regional workshop for East, South and Southeast Asia on Cities and Biodiversity, from 21 to 24 May 2014 in Qingdao, Province of Shandong, China. The event will be held in parallel with the Regional Workshop for East, South and Southeast Asia on Scientific and Technical Cooperation (including South-South and triangular arrangements). The objective of the workshop is to provide participating local government representatives from East, South and Southeast Asia with an introduction to formulating local biodiversity strategies and action plans (LBSAPs) in line with the relevant National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs). It also aims to increase the capacity of participating local and subnational government representatives to implement the CBD and to coordinate with their national governments on biodiversity planning issues. The workshop will include a field visit to the World Horticultural Expo 2014 in Qingdao, one of the themes of which is urbanization and biodiversity conservation. The workshop, to be held in English with simultaneous interpretation into Chinese, will contribute to the work of the Global Partnership on Local and Subnational Action for Biodiversity. For example: the series of workshops on the City Biodiversity Index, the publication in 2012 of the Cities and Biodiversity Outlook and, importantly, the ongoing partnership with ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability including in organizing summits on cities and other local authorities in parallel to the last three meetings of the Conference of the Parties of the CBD. This year, a summit of subnational governments will be held on the margins of the twelfth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the CBD (COP 12) to take place from 6 to 17 October 2014 in Pyeongchang, Republic of Korea. In this connection, I have the pleasure to invite your Government to nominate one representative who is directly involved in biodiversity management at subnational and/or local levels, for example a national government representative who acts as a liaison with provinces and/or municipal governments, leading mayors, governors, or other high-ranking officials of the international relations and/or environment divisions of city and provincial project leaders who can also forward or replicate the information received and/or developed. The nomination should be in the form of an official letter to the CBD Executive Secretary, signed by the CBD Focal Point or a senior government official, submitted as soon as possible, but no later than 13 April 2014, either by e-mail to secretariat@cbd.int or by fax to +1 514 288 6588. Once the nominations are complete, the Secretariat will transmit the names of representatives who are eligible to attend the workshop to the relevant authorities of the Government of China. Please note that funding and travel arrangements for eligible participants will follow the usual UN regulations, and will be handled directly by the Government of China with the intention of supporting the participation of one representative from each developing country Party. Further details regarding the workshop, including the agenda and other documents, as well as contact details of the organizers from the Government of China side will be made available in due course to selected participants. Please accept, Madam/Sir, the assurances of my highest consideration.

Executive Secretary

To: CBD National Focal Points of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, DPR Korea, Republic of Korea, Lao DPR, Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Timor Leste and Vietnam