. Assessment processes: progress report on ongoing assessments

Assessment processes: progress report on ongoing assessments

The Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice,

Recalling its recommendation VI/5,

1. Welcomes the steps taken by the Executive Secretary to implement the pilot assessments as described in annex II to his progress report on ongoing assessments (UNEP/CBD/SBSTTA/7/3);
2. Approves the procedure being used to carry out assessments under the Convention through the use of ad hoc technical expert groups, outlined in annex I to the progress report of the Executive Secretary on ongoing assessments;
3. Agrees to keep this procedure under review, and, in the light of experience, to periodically revise and improve it;
4. Welcomes also the contribution that the assessments listed in section III of the progress report of the Executive Secretary on ongoing assessment processes are making to the work of The Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice and the Convention, as well as ongoing work at the national and regional level; and Invites those participating in these assessments to keep the Subsidiary Body informed of their work;
5. Welcomes, in particular, the approach taken by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment as described in the information document on the status and outline of the Assessment prepared by the Assessment secretariat (UNEP/CBD/SBSTTA/7/INF/15);
6. Invites the secretariat of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment to fully utilize the rosters of experts under the Convention in the process for nominating experts for the working groups of the Assessment;
7. Calls upon Parties and Governments to provide nominations for experts for the four working groups being set up by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment;
8. Recommends that the Conference of the Parties consider the need to provide assistance to developing country Parties so that experts from these Parties can properly participate in the work of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment;.
9. Requests the Executive Secretary to inform the Conference of the Parties at its sixth meeting on the progress of pilot assessments, and, in consultation with relevant organizations, to bring to the attention of the Subsidiary Body any important assessment gaps in the work under the Convention, together with proposals on ways and means to address such gaps;
10. Welcomes the agreement by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to prepare a technical paper on the interlinkages between biological diversity and climate change, as requested by The Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice in its recommendation VI/7, as in input to the Convention's pilot assessment on biological diversity and climate change;
11. Notes with appreciation the consideration of the Convention's pilot assessment on biological diversity and climate change, and related cooperation, by the Subsidiary Body on Scientific and Technological Advice of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.