(a)Recognizes the need to align the national reporting process with the framework for evaluating implementation of the Convention and progress towards the 2010 target;

(b)Underscores the need to reduce overall reporting burdens on Parties, taking into account reporting obligations under other Conventions, and other relevant processes;

(c)Decides that the fourth and subsequent national reports should be outcome oriented and focus on the status and trends of biodiversity, national actions and outcomes with respect to the achievement of the 2010 target and the goals of the Strategic Plan of the Convention, and progress in implementation of national biodiversity strategies and action plans;

(d)Decides that Parties shall submit their fourth national reports by 30 March 2009;

(e)Invites Parties that anticipate that they may encounter difficulty in completing their reports according to the date set by the Conference of the Parties to advise the Secretariat in advance;

(f)Recommends that regional and/or subregional workshops could facilitate the preparation of national biodiversity strategies and action plans and national reports, and the exchange of experiences on implementation of national biodiversity strategies and action plans and on assessment of obstacles for the implementation of the Convention to achieve the objectives of subparagraph (c) above, and requests resourcing for these workshops be considered in budget deliberations at the eighth meeting of the Conference of the Parties;

(g)Invites the Global Environment Facility to explore and establish easier and expeditious mechanisms for the provision of funds to eligible countries for preparing their future national reports;

(h)Decides that Parties will be invited to submit complementary reports on thematic programmes that are due for in-depth review according to the multi-year programme of work of the Conference of the Parties up to 2010 and accordingly, invites Parties, on a voluntary basis, to prepare complementary thematic reports according to the schedule in annex I below;

(i)Decides to establish an on-line reporting facility, through the clearing-house mechanism, for use by Parties on a voluntary basis as a planning tool;

(j)Decides that the third edition of the Global Biodiversity Outlook shall be prepared for publication at the tenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties in 2010 and that it shall be based on the third and fourth national reports as well as other information received on progress towards the 2010 target;

(k)Agrees to base its review of the implementation of the Convention at its tenth meeting primarily on the basis of the third and fourth national reports as well as on the analysis in the third edition of the Global Biodiversity Outlook;

(l)Welcomes the initiative of the five biodiversity-related conventions, through the Biodiversity Liaison Group, to:

(i)Keep each other informed of proposed developments in national reporting under each of the conventions, with a view to aligning approaches where possible;

(ii)Develop a Web portal with links to reports and guidelines of each of the conventions, similar to the Collaborative Portal on Forests;

(iii)Develop common reporting modules for specific themes, where possible, and appropriate;

(m)Takes note of the recommendations from the UNEP-WCMC Workshop Towards the Harmonization of National Reporting to Biodiversity-related Treaties, which was held in September 2004 (UNEP/CBD/WGRI/1/INF/6), and encourages the Biodiversity Liaison Group, in liaison with UNEP-WCMC, to give further consideration to issues of harmonization of reporting among the biodiversity-related conventions, and to develop proposals;

(n)Encourages Parties to harmonize the gathering and management of data for the five biodiversity-related conventions at the national level, where appropriate;