Notification 2005-082

Dear Madam/Sir, In section A of decision VI/7, paragraph 3, the Conference of the Parties requested the Executive Secretary: (a) to compile and disseminate, through the clearing-house mechanism and other means of communication, current experiences in environmental impact assessment and strategic environmental assessment procedures that incorporate biodiversity-related issues, as well as experiences of Parties in applying the guidelines; (b) in light of this information, to prepare, in collaboration with relevant organizations, in particular the International Association for Impact Assessment, proposals for further development and refinement of the guidelines, particularly to incorporate all stages of the environmental impact assessment and strategic environmental assessment processes taking into account the ecosystem approach (particularly principles 4, 7 and 8) and to provide a report of this work to the Subsidiary Body prior to the seventh meeting of the Conference of the Parties. In decision VII/7, the Conference of the Parties urged Parties and other Governments that have not done so to contribute case-studies on current experiences in environmental impact assessment and strategic environmental assessment procedures that incorporate biodiversity related issues as well as experiences in applying the guidelines contained in the annex to decision VI/7 A. The Secretariat has compiled the submissions received from Parties and through members of the International Association for Impact Assessment (IAIA) and made them available in the form of a searchable database, accessible at: http://www.biodiv.org/programmes/cross-cutting/impact/search.aspx The system permits users to register and to submit additional case studies online. On the basis of the guidance contained in decision VI/7, experiences and case studies made available and the proposals for further development and refinement of the guidelines contained in document UNEP/CBD/SBSTTA/9/INF/18, as well as review comments provided by a number of experts including practicioners attending the IAIA ’05 (13 May – 3 June 2005, Boston, USA), the Secretariat, in collaboration with IAIA and the Netherlands Commission for Impact Assessment, has prepared the following three documents: (a) Guidelines on biodiversity-inclusive Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA); (b) Guidelines on biodiversity-inclusive Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA); (c) An information document containing additional material to support the guidelines on EIA and SEA. The documents are accessible at: http://www.biodiv.org/programmes/cross-cutting/impact/guidelines.shtml In preparation of the consideration of this item at the forthcoming eighth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, you are invited to review these documents and send your views and observations to the Secretariat (secretariat@biodiv.org) to be received by 30 September 2005 at the latest. We would also appreciate any additional case studies you may wish to make available for inclusion in the database.

Executive Secretary

To: CBD National Focal Points, SBSTTA Focal Points and relevant organizations