The Conference «Biodiversity : science and governance» which took place in Paris (Unesco), on 24-28 January 2005, was organised in response to an announcement made by the President of the French Republic, Jacques Chirac, at the Evian G8 summit in June 2003. This project, which was initially proposed by the Minister for Research to his counterparts at the G8 during informal meetings of the Carnegie group (Ministers for Research G8), grew to involve a wider set of countries as well as other stakeholders including major programmes, international organizations (UNEP, UNDP, IUCN, etc) and conventions (CBD, UNCCC, UNCD, Ramsar, Cites, CMS, etc).
The main aims of the conference were to take stock of the current knowledge, shortcomings and controversial issues with a view to opening up a dialogue between scientists, politicians and economic decision-makers on the management of biodiversity.
This conference attracted an audience of 2.000 scientists, politicians, members of the private sector, NGOs, and of the civil society, representing over 100 countries.
This Conference led to a statement, which recommend, in response to the call for action made by President Chirac at this Conference, the launch of an international multi-stakeholder consultative process guided by a balanced multi-stakeholder steering committee.
This process would assess the need for an international mechanism which would :
To organise an international consultative process to study all aspects related to the establishment of an international expertise on biodiversity, an initial meeting took place in Paris, on 28 June 2005.
The meeting convened all members of the Scientific Committee and the Steering Committee of the Paris Conference, as well as representatives of some other governments and other personalities.
The following main decisions were adopted :
Many participants stated there is a need for a mechanism delivering :
It was agreed that the consultative process, which would assess the need for such a mechanism, must be open, transparent and independent.
The group agrees that there should be two steps :
The focus of the effort should be on the consultation, which should not be rushed.
The consultative process has to be broadened to the main conventions interested in biodiversity (CBD, UNCCC, UNCD, Ramsar, CITES, CMS) and to the representatives of the civil society.
During this consultation phase, additional more detailed documents will be produced. The goals of this consultation are :
The consultation will be organised by an International Steering Committee (ISC). Members of the International Steering Committee will be nominated in their individual capacity. People who represent an organisation should commit personally to the process to avoid too much turnover. It should be composed of :
It was proposed that the ISC would meet four times including the 28 June meeting in Paris, in October and December 2005 and March 2006. The Government of France offered to host the meeting in December and, if needed, in October.
A small Interim Executive Bureau was established and mandated to (i) produce a list of members for the International Steering Committee that will carry out the assessment of the need for and feasibility of the International Mechanism, with the understanding that the ISC will elect its chair or an executive board, (ii) develop a short working/concept paper, drawing on the meeting held on 28 June. Diversitas was requested to serve as interim executive secretariat until the executive secretariat is established.
It was agreed that the consultation to be undertaken by the ISC should use a fully participatory approach and therefore take advantage of the events organised by all biodiversity-related conventions and relevant scientific meetings where statements could be made for outreach and communication, and side events organised to collect comments.
The eighth meeting of the CBD COP will be an important step in the process, not necessarily the end point.
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