What did they discuss at SBSTTA in Montreal in November?

SBSTTA (The Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice to the Convention on Biological Diversity) held its ninth meeting in november in Montreal in Canada, where the Secretariat of the Convention is located. The SBSTTA meeting provided advice for the seventh COP (Conference of the parties), to be held in February 2004 in Malaysis (Kuala Lumpur). The two main themes were very different, but both central to the idea of the Convention. The need for establishing protected areas is huge. The World congress in Durban in September again confirmed this and had already provided a strong background for the discussion. The other theme concerned transfer of technology. Other themes were: the ecosystem approach, sustainable use, monitoring and indicators, biodiversity and climate change, mountain biodiversity, invasive alien species. Behind the Convention work lies very clearly the global concern on how to achieve in the real world, not just on paper, the target set for 2010 of significantly reducing the loss of biodiversity. All the papers for SBSTTA can be found at: http://www.biodiv.org/doc/meeting.asp?mtg=SBSTTA-09&tab=0 and the recommendations from the meeting will be available at http://www.biodiv.org/recommendations/. Information on the COP meeting in Malaysia can be found at: http://www.biodiv.org/convention/cops.asp.