Convention on biological diversity

ITEM 1 OPENING OF THE MEETING

1. 
   The meeting was opened by Mr. Kalemani Jo Mulongoy, Principal Officer, Scientific, Technical and Technological Matters Division, on behalf of the Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity at 10:30 a.m., on Tuesday 10 June 2003. In his statement, he welcomed the participants and mentioned the importance and timeliness of this ad hoc technical expert group meeting. He also highlighted the role of protected areas in achieving the objectives of the convention and elaborated the road map for protected areas within the Convention through the World Parks Congress, the ninth meeting of SBSTTA to the seventh meeting of the Conference of the Parties. He paid tribute to the Government of Sweden for generously sponsoring and hosting this meeting in a sylvan setting and for their excellent hospitality as well as all other Governments and organizations that supported participants.
   
2. 
   Mr. Jan Terstad of the Swedish Ministry of Environment welcomed the participants on behalf of the Government of Sweden and made reference to the high level round table that had taken place the previous week in The Hague on the role of protected areas and ecological networks in biodiversity policies.
   
3. 
   Mr. Per Wramner, Chairman of the Swedish Scientific Council on Biological Diversity welcomed the participants on behalf of the Swedish Scientific Council on Biological Diversity. He outlined the work of the Council and described the successful association between the Council and the Convention in organizing the technical meetings of marine coastal biological diversity (in 1995) and agriculture biological diversity (in 1996) in Sweden, and fresh water biological diversity (in 1997) in collaboration with Norway.
   
4. 
   Ms. Kerstin Johannesson, Director of the Tjärnö Marine Biological Station also welcomed the participants and described the marine biological station and the Tjärnö nature reserve. She emphasized the important role of stakeholder participation in the planning and management of protected areas by describing recent experience in Tjärnö.
   
5. 
   Participants introduced themselves and highlighted their fields of expertise and key areas of their work relevant to the theme of the meeting.
   
6. 
   The representative of the Executive Secretary gave a brief presentation describing the mandate of the group,  ¹the expected output, the guidance from the Secretariat and decisions of the Conference of the Parties, the process towards the seventh meeting of the Conference of the Parties through the World Parks Congress, the ninth meeting of SBSTTA and the linkages with other ongoing processes.
   
7. 
   Mr. Jacques Bakker, Deputy Director, Nature Management of the Government of the Netherlands presented the outcome of the High Level Round Table on the Role of Protected Areas and Ecological Networks in Biodiversity Policies ²/ held in The Hague on 5 and 6 June 2003. His presentation covered the outcome of the WSSD, the objective of the Round Table, concept of ecological network and future perspectives.
   
8. 
   Ms. Sarah George presented the outcome of the Marine and Coastal Protected Areas AHTEG and its relevance to the work of the present AHTEG. ³/
   

ITEM 2 ORGANIZATIONAL MATTERS

2.1. Election of officers

9. 
   The participants elected Mr. Per Wramner from Sweden and Ms Sarah George from St Lucia, as co-chairs of the meeting.
   

2.2. Adoption of the agenda

10. 
    The Group adopted the following agenda on the basis of the provisional agenda proposed in document UNEP/CBD/AHTEG-PA/1/1 and agreed that the agenda as well as the organization of work (item 2.3 below) should be kept flexible while addressing the full breadth of its mandate:
    

1. Opening of the meeting.

2. Organizational matters:

2.1 Election of officers;

2.2 Adoption of the agenda

2.3 Organization of work.

3. Substantive issues:

3.1 Status and trends of protected areas, including their role and value;

3.2 Planning, establishing and managing protected areas and networks:

(a) Review of methods and approaches, appropriate policies and strategies for planning and establishment of protected areas;

(b) Methods for developing systems plans and integrating biodiversity into sectoral plans and strategies;

(c) Mechanisms for stakeholder involvement;

(d) Identification of ecosystem and bioregional approaches for protected-area management and sustainable use of biodiversity;

(e) Transboundary protected areas;

3. 
   Meeting the costs of protected areas;
   
4. 
   Measuring effectiveness of protected areas;
   
5. 
   Draft programme of work on protected areas under the Convention on Biological Diversity.
   

4. Preparation and adoption of the report:

4.1 Determination of need for follow-up work;

4.2 Preparation of report;

4.3 Adoption of report.

5. Other matters.

6. Closure of the meeting.

2.3. Organization of work

11. 
    The AHTEG agreed to consider all issues first in plenary and to establish working groups as needed to draft elements and recommendations on each point in the mandate. In the Plenary on Wednesday 11 June, the participants agreed to establish five working groups (WG) to consider the following topics:
    
    1. 
       Key protected areas concepts and their interrelationship (WG I chaired by Mr. Stuart Chape);
       
    2. 
       Planning and selecting protected area systems and sites: reviewing methods and their scientific/ecological basis (WG II chaired by Mr. Luis Suarez);
       
    3. 
       Managing protected areas, building capacity and evaluating effectiveness (WG III chaired by Mr. Kenton Miller);
       
    4. 
       Mechanism for stakeholder involvement (WG IV chaired by Mr. Jan Terstad); and
       
    5. 
       Transboundary protected areas (WG V chaired by Mr. Yaroslav Movchan)
       
12. 
    The group met in plenary eight times and in working groups four times.