International news

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.

Biological diversity underpins ecosystem functioning and the provisioning of ecosystem services essential for human well-being.

Following the ratification by Senegal, the total number of ratifications to the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization now stands at 73. In addition, South Africa issued the second internationally recognized certificate of compliance on 23 March 2016, following a permit made available to the Access and Benefit-sharing (ABS) Clearing-House.

I am pleased to welcome you all to the eleventh meeting of the Liaison Group on Capacity-building for Biosafety here in Montreal. I wish to thank you all for taking time from your busy schedules to attend this meeting, which is expected to play a crucial role in contributing to the third assessment and review of the effectiveness of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety and the mid-term evaluation of the Strategic Plan of the Protocol covering the period 2011-2020.

Fundamental to human well-being, water resources can help create paid and decent jobs. But water is a finite and irreplaceable resource. It is only renewable if well managed. All freshwater ultimately depends on the continued healthy functioning of ecosystems, and recognizing the water cycle as a biophysical process is essential to achieving sustainable water management.

It gives me immense pleasure to extend a warm welcome to you all to this Capacity-building Workshop for Africa on achieving Aichi Biodiversity Targets 11 and 12. This workshop is the fourth in a series being organized by the CBD Secretariat in collaboration with partners.