Event: CBD Capacity Building Workshop on the Nagoya Protocol on ABS for Middle East and Djibouti, Libya, Mauritania [viewed]
This workshop is organized by the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in collaboration with the Royal Botanic Garden of Jordan and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) under the framework of the medium-sized project on capacity building for early entry into force of the Nagoya Protocol. Funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the Japan Biodiversity Fund, this workshop will overview the key features of the Nagoya Protocol on access and benefit-sharing (ABS) and relevant international developments, will include an exchange of experiences on steps taken towards ratification and implementation, and will identify opportunities for support toward ratification and implementation.
3 April 2013: The World Bank has reported on the implementation of a multi-country project, titled Senegal River Basin Multi-Purpose Water Resources Development Project (MWRD), which aims to assist Guinea, Mali, Mauritania and Senegal in jointly managing shared water resources, as well as reduce poverty, diseases and hunger.
18 March 2013: Angola, Namibia and South Africa have signed the Benguela Current Convention, which establishes the first global multilateral Commission to apply the Large Marine Ecosystem (LME) approach to ocean governance. The agreement creates a permanent inter-governmental institution responsible for promoting the long-term conservation and sustainable use of the Benguela Current Large Marine Ecosystem (BCLME), an ocean area extending from Port Elizabeth in South Africa to the province of Cabinda in the north of Angola.
March 2013: The Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) has released a series of videos on forests in Algeria, Tanzania and the Mediterranean region in celebration of the first International Day of Forests, held 21 March 2013.
22 March 2013: This year's edition of World Water Day, celebrated on 22 March, was organized around the theme of water cooperation and within the framework of the International Year of Water Cooperation. The Day's celebrations were coordinated by UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), in collaboration with the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) and the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), for UN-Water.
20 March 2013: The Secretariat of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands (Ramsar Convention) has reported that the Government of Mali has designated three Ramsar Sites, bringing the total number of sites for this country to four, covering over four million hectares. 
February 2013: In preparation for the third Mediterranean Forest Week (III MFW), the Strategic Framework on Mediterranean Forests (SFMF) has been released.
14 March 2013: The Global Environment Facility (GEF) has completed a three-day Expanded Capacity Workshop (ECW) for the West African Sahel, bringing together focal points from the GEF, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), and the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs). 
