Notification 2019-082

Dear Madam/Sir, The Informal Advisory Committee (IAC) to the Access and Benefit-sharing Clearing-House was established at the first meeting of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Nagoya Protocol (decision NP-1/2 (https://www.cbd.int/decisions/?id=13402), paragraph 2,) to assist the Executive Secretary with the implementation of the Access and Benefit-sharing Clearing-House (ABS Clearing-House) and to provide technical guidance with respect to the resolution of technical and practical issues arising from the ongoing development of the ABS Clearing-House. The decision provides that the Informal Advisory Committee shall be composed of 15 experts, primarily from Parties, selected on the basis of nominations provided by Parties. At its third meeting, the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Nagoya Protocol decided that the IAC hold, at least, one meeting and informal online discussions, as needed, during 2019-2020 intersessional period and report on the outcomes of its work to the fourth meeting of COP-MOP in 2020 (decision NP-3/3 (https://www.cbd.int/doc/decisions/np-mop-03/np-mop-03-dec-03-en.pdf), paragraph 8). Accordingly, the meeting of the IAC is planned to be held from 2 to 4 December 2019 in Montreal, Canada. In response to the Secretariat’s invitation for nominations, issued through notification 2019-052 (https://www.cbd.int/doc/notifications/2019/ntf-2019-052-abs-en.docx) of 30 May 2019, 25 nominations were received from Parties, with three or more nominations from each region with the exception of Central and Eastern Europe, where only two nominations were received. The Secretariat selected, with the endorsement of the Bureau, 14 experts based on their experience and involvement with the ABS Clearing-House as well as with due regard for regional and gender balance. A letter of invitation will be sent to the selected experts together with relevant information concerning the meeting. Documents for the meeting will be posted in due course on the Secretariat’s web site. Please accept, Madam/Sir, the assurances of my highest consideration.

Executive Secretary

To: ABS National Focal Points