Notification 2019-078

Dear Madam/Sir, The Conference of the Parties (COP), at its fourteenth meeting, decided to establish an Ad Hoc Technical Expert Group (AHTEG) with relevant terms of reference (https://www.cbd.int/doc/decisions/cop-14/cop-14-dec-11-en.pdf), and, wherever possible, to meet back-to-back with other relevant meetings. In the same decision, the COP also requested the Executive Secretary to convene a moderated open online discussion forum to support the deliberations of the AHTEG. In response to the above, with the generous financial support from the Government of Norway, the AHTEG will be meeting in Montreal, Canada from 2 to 4 December 2019, back-to-back with the twenty-third meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA-23). The AHTEG meeting will be conducted in English. Accordingly, I am pleased to invite Parties, other Governments and relevant organizations to nominate a representative to take part in the AHTEG meeting. The nominee should meet at least one of the criteria, below: (a) Expert involved in invasive alien species management actions at the community, sub-national, national or regional level; (b) Expert with knowledge and experience in risk analysis of alien species; (c) Expert with knowledge and experience in cost-benefit/cost-effectiveness analysis on invasive alien species management; (d) Expert with knowledge and experience in e-commerce and associated risks; (e) Expert with knowledge and experience in considering the impact of climate change and related natural disaster or land use change on biological invasions; (f) Expert with knowledge and experience in invasive alien species data and data tools (e.g. Global Registry of Introduced and Invasive Species, EICAT, SEICAT or other relevant databases). Participants will be selected by the Secretariat, in consultation with the SBSTTA bureau, in accordance with the modus operandi of the Subsidiary Body (https://www.cbd.int/doc/meetings/cop/cop-08/official/cop-08-16-add4-en.pdf) on the basis of their expertise, their contributions during the online forum held in the period from 1 May to 15 September 2019, as well as geographic and gender balance. The CBD National Focal Points and Heads of organizations are invited to nominate an expert, by submitting an official nomination letter accompanied by the completed attached nomination form and the nominee’s Curriculum Vitae. The nomination may be sent via fax to: +1-514-288-6588 or via email to: secretariat@cbd.int, no later than 7 October 2019. Please accept, Madam/Sir, the assurances of my highest consideration.

Executive Secretary

To: CBD and SBSTTA National Focal Points, Relevant Organizations, Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities, cc: The Inter-agency Liaison Group on Invasive Alien Species, the Secretariat of the ECOSOC Sub-committee of the Expert on Transport of Dangerous Goods, IPBES Secretariat