The SBSTTA 11 meeting - 28 November to 2 December in Montreal, Canada

SBSTTA (The Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice to the Convention on Biological Diversity) will hold its 11th meeting from 28 November to 2 December in Montreal, Canada, at the seat of the Convention Secretariat. The agenda can be found at: http://www.biodiv.org/convention/sbstta.asp .

SBSTTA meetings are organised by the Convention Secretariat. The chair for this and for SBSTTA 12 (2006) is Mr. Christian Prip from the Danish Ministry for the Environment.

The SBSTTA meetings provide scientific and technical advice on themes which are to be on the agenda for the upcoming Conference of the Parties (COP meetings) to the Convention.

At this SBSTTA the following items will considered:

1. The conclusions from two major reports: the draft version of the Second Global Outlook and the Millenium Ecosystems Assessment
2. For ecosystems the focus will be on the dry- and sub-humid ecosystems with also some work on the mountains and marine ecosystems
3. The global Taxonomy Initiative (GTI)
4. The issue of incentive measures

The next COP will be the 8th and will be held in Brazil in the last weeks of March 2006. Preparations for this meeting are already ongoing. Information may be found at: http://www.biodiv.org/convention/cops.asp .

During SBSTTA 11 one side-event will present progress in development of Clearing House Mechanisms. The collaboration in Europe among national Clearing Houses and the European Community Clearing Houses will be part of this side-event, assisted by several collaborating countries. - This present European Community Clearing House web site is the result of this collaboration. http://biodiversity-chm.eea.eu.int .