12 April 2013: At its eighth session, the Committee on Phytosanitary Measures (CPM 8) approved two revised International Standards for Phytosanitary Measures (ISPMs) on pest risk analysis for quarantine pests and on the regulation of wood packaging material. The Committee also considered the way forward on developing ISPMs on sea containers and on international shipments of grain.
12 April 2013: In a keynote address by Tarja Halonen, former President of Finland and Chair of the High-level Panel on Global Sustainability, participants at the third Special Session of the Committee on Science and Technology (CST S-3) of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and the UNCCD 2nd Scientific Conference were reminded that sustainable land management (SLM) can be one of the most important tools for poverty eradication, and they were challenged to send a strong message that a land degradation neutral world is possible, with concrete targets and a monitoring system to follow progress.
25 March 2013: A briefing for UN Member States on preparations for the tenth session of the UN Forum on Forests (UNFF10) was held at UN Headquarters in New York. The briefing covered logistical and program information for delegations to the meeting, which will be held 8-19 April 2013, in Istanbul, Turkey.
15 March 2013: The sixteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties (CoP 16) to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES) adopted 55 new listing proposals, saw the first global meeting of wildlife enforcement networks and adopted measures to address wildlife crime.
3 March 2013: The sixteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties (CoP 16) to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) opened on Sunday in Bangkok, Thailand, and will continue through 14 March 2013.
25 February 2013: The 27th session of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Governing Council/Global Ministerial Environment Forum (GC27/GMEF) convened in Nairobi, Kenya, from 18-22 February 2013. This was the first Universal Session of the GC following the decision of the UN General Assembly to strengthen and upgrade UNEP, as called for in the Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20 or UNCSD) outcome document.
13 February, 2013: Lebanon will become the 165th member of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety on 7 May 2013, 90 days after depositing its instrument of accession on 6 February.
The Third Session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee for a Legally Binding Agreement on Forests in Europe (INC-Forests3) will reconvene to discuss, inter alia, the decision on whether to adopt the Legally Binding Agreement (LBA) as a UN treaty, finance, compliance and the roadmap for negotiations through to the Extraordinary Ministerial Conference of FOREST EUROPE, scheduled for late 2013 in Madrid, Spain, where the results of the LBA negotiations will be presented to ministers.
11 February 2013: Convened from 4-8 February 2013, in Geneva, Switzerland, the Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore (IGC) of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) further streamlined the draft text of an international legal instrument on intellectual property and genetic resources, which will be submitted to the WIPO General Assembly, to be held from 23 September - 2 October 2013. However, several brackets remain indicating delegates' divergent opinions on key issues under negotiation.
This Special Session of the Southwest Indian Ocean Fisheries Commission (SWIOFC) of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) will take place in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Current membership includes: Comoros, France, Kenya, Madagascar, Maldives, Mauritius, Mozambique, Seychelles, Somalia, South Africa, Tanzania, and Yemen. More information on the SWIOFC: http://www.fao.org/fishery/rfb/swiofc/en
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