Dear Colleagues,

Greetings from Montreal. I am Lijie Cai, SCBD Programme Officer for National Reports. I am one of the main moderators of this discussion forum.

First of all, I would like to welcome you all to join in this forum. As said, this forum provides a platform where countries could exchange their experiences in preparing the fourth national report, in particular the approaches and tools employed for assessing the status and trends of and threats to biodiversity, the implementation of national biodiversity strategies and action plans, and progress towards the 2010 Biodiversity Target. Countries could also share their experiences in developing and using indicators for assessment and reporting. In addition, countries could also submit for discussion questions or problems encountered while preparing the fourth national report.  

No doubt that achieving the 2010 Target is crucial for biodiversity of our planet, and reviewing progress towards this target to help identify further actions or probably new targets is equally important. The fourth national report provides key sources of information for this review, therefore high-quality reports to be submitted in time are very important for this review, and even more important for the proper functioning of the Convention.

Having said this, we hope that you all will join in this forum and contribute as much as you can. We thank you all in advance for your strong support and cooperation.