ENB:04:13
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THINGS TO LOOK FOR TODAY
BUREAU: The Bureau will meet this morning at 9:30. This meeting should deal with procedural matters, such as the elections to fill the vacant positions on the bureaus of the Committee and the working groups, as well as the way to approach the programme of work and the Chair's informal paper on regional instruments.
PLENARY: The Plenary will convene this morning at 10:00 am in Conference Room XIX. It is expected that the first item on the agenda will be the election of officers. Yesterday afternoon, the Western Europe and Others Group endorsed Anne de Lattre (France) to replace Jacques Alliot (France) as the Chair of Working Group II. De Lattre is the former head of the Club du Sahel at the OECD. It is also hoped that the Eastern European Group will nominate its candidate for the Vice Chair/Rapporteur of Working Group I.
The Plenary will then hear statements from the following: Anatole Gomtirbou Tiendrebeogo, Minister of Environment and Tourism (Burkina Faso); Maria Helena Semedo, Minister of Fisheries, Agriculture and Rural Development (Cape Verde); A. Ovchinnikov, Deputy Minister of Hydrometeorology (Uzbekistan); the Minister for Environment from Mongolia; and Tunisia. The Minister of the Environment from Tajikistan may also speak. Dominic Walubengo of KENGO will then present the report of the NGO Coordination Meeting, which took place in Bamako, Mali from 16-20 August.
WORKING GROUP I: Working Group I will take up discussions on the Preamble today. It is expected that discussions will proceed smoothly. In essence, the Preamble will address the general issues such as the eradication of poverty and macro-economic issues such as trade and debt relief.
WORKING GROUP II: Working Group II will address the specific definitions that will be outlined in the actual Convention. A number of contentious issues may arise: whether the definition of desertification as contained in Agenda 21 will be reopened; how much emphasis should be placed on the links with climate change; and whether drought should be specifically defined.
NGOS: NGOs will have a coordination meeting every day from 9:00-10:00 am in Room 3056. In addition, ECO, the NGO newspaper, will meet every day from 2:00-3:00 pm in Room 3056. NGOs had intended to convene a daily wrap-up session at 6:00 pm, however, due to UN cost-saving measures, this will not be possible. Look for an announcement today regarding alternative plans.