Article 25 establishes an open-ended intergovernmental scientific advisory body known as the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA). SBSTTA is a subsidiary body of the Conference of the Parties (COP) and is to report regularly to the COP on all aspects of its work. Its functions include: providing assessments of the status of biological diversity; assessments of the types of measures taken in accordance with the provisions of the Convention; and respond to questions that the COP may put to the body. How SBSTTA carries out its work is described in its modus operandi, which can be found in Annex 1 of decision IV/16 (as amended by decision V/20).

SBSTTA has met 13 times to date and produced a total of 136 recommendations to the Conference of the Parties, some of which have been endorsed in full by the latter. Such endorsement makes these recommendations de facto decisions of the Conference of the Parties. Parts of other recommendations have also been endorsed, and many others have been taken up in modified form.

The fourteenth meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA 13) will take place from 10 to 21 May 2010, at UNEP in Nairobi, Kenya.