Notification 2005-072

Dear Madam/Sir, In decision VII/14 the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the Convention on Biological Diversity adopted the Guidelines on Biodiversity and Tourism Development. The guidelines provide technical guidance to policy makers, decision-makers and managers with responsibilities covering tourism and/or biodiversity, whether in national or local governments, the private sector, indigenous and local communities, non-governmental organizations and other organizations, on ways of working together with key stakeholders involved in tourism and biodiversity. In order to increase clarity and facilitate the detailed understanding of the guidelines and their implementation, the COP also recommended in paragraph 3 of decision VII/14 the development of a user’s manual, checklists and to produce and make available a streamlined and user-friendly core set of improved voluntary guidelines, and to prepare a glossary and definitions of terms used in the Guidelines. To this end, the Secretariat organized a meeting of experts in the Bahamas, from 24 to 28 January 2005 with the financial support of the Government of Germany. The main purpose of the meeting was to contribute to the development of the user’s manual based on practical advice, covering the management steps of the guidelines, examples and case studies to facilitate the implementation of the guidelines. Based on the outcomes of the expert meeting, the Secretariat has prepared a draft user’s manual and a glossary of technical terms to facilitate the implementation of the CBD Guidelines on Biodiversity and Tourism Development. I hereby invite Parties, Governments, relevant international organizations and other stakeholders to submit to the Secretariat written comments thereon as soon as practicable but in any case no later than 30 September 2005. The draft user’s manual and the glossary are available at: http://www.biodiv.org/programmes/socio-eco/tourism/review.shtml The draft user’s manual and the glossary of technical terms will be further improved in light of the comments received and will be submitted to the eighth meeting of the Conference of the Parties for its consideration.

Executive Secretary

To: CBD National Focal Points, relevant international organizations and other stakeholders.