International news

It is my pleasure to welcome you all to this Technical Workshop on Monitoring of Marine and Coastal Biodiversity, being held on the margins of the twentieth meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice.

Germany is the latest country to ratify the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization, bringing the total number of ratifications to 74. This includes 73 countries and the European Union (EU), which ratified the Protocol in May 2014.

This year, International Mother Earth Day coincides with the signing ceremony for the Paris Agreement on Climate Change at UN Headquarters in New York, where world governments will demonstrate their commitment to meet the challenges of climate change.

One of the main bodies under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CDB) is set to meet next week to discuss issues that will accelerate progress in implementing the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 and achieving its Aichi Biodiversity Targets.

With its focus on mainstreaming biodiversity and issues being discussed at SBSTTA-20 and SBI-1, the May 2016 edition of [square brackets], the CBD newsletter for Civil Society, is now available online.

Rafael Pacchiano Alamán, Minister of Environment and Natural Resources of Mexico, as the incoming president of the thirteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 13) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), in a joint letter with Braulio Ferreira de Souza Dias, CBD Executive Secretary, urged his global counterparts to ratify the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization to the Convention on Biological Diversity as soon as possible.

to Parties yet to ratify or accede to the Nagoya Protocol from Rafael Pacchiano Alamán, Minister for Environment and Natural, Resources, Mexico and COP 13 President and Braulio Ferreira de Souza Dias, Executive Secretary, Convention on Biological Diversity

In anticipation of the discussions to take place at the thirteenth meeting of the Conference of Parties (COP 13) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) later this year, Latin American and Caribbean Ministers of Environment have adopted a decision to enhance implementation of the Convention and its Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020.

The World Health Organization's objective of scaling up the prevention, care, and surveillance of diabetes on World Health Day 2016 provides a timely opportunity to reflect upon the profound impacts of biodiversity loss and its consequences for human and planetary health.

It is a great pleasure to welcome you all to Montreal for this inaugural meeting of the Compliance Committee under the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization.