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DRAFT RESOLUTION:

On Wednesday afternoon, Finland, on behalf of Iceland, Norway, and Sweden, proposed a draft resolution regarding the interim financial mechanism (UNEP/CBD/IC/1/WG.II/CRP.1 and Rev. 1). Malaysia took issue with the implications of the criteria, referring to "conditionalities." The G-77 then tabled its own version of the draft resolution. The Chair requested that the group of some Nordic countries meet with representatives of the G-77 to produce a common list of criteria for eligibility. This final draft resolution, with bracketed text representing outstanding issues, was introduced by Colombia, on behalf of the G-77 and China, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. The G-77 had included a list of eligibility criteria, as requested. Although the Chair created a drafting group to work on the remaining bracketed text, compromise proved elusive. As a result, the Chair decided to include a balanced selection of parts of the non-consensus draft as a paragraph in the report of the Working Group with a note explaining that there had been no agreement.

Elements that were discussed by the drafting group, and appeared unbracketed in the final version, included a request to the GEF to operate according to the following policy guidelines: national priority status; conservation of vulnerable biodiversity resources under immediate threat; and consideration of alternatives according to cost effectiveness or opportunity costs forgone. In addition, the GEF, as the institution structure operating the interim financial mechanism, was requested to operate and fund projects according to the following eligibility criteria:

  • Projects from all developing countries that have signed the Convention, upon their request;
  • Projects that help developing countries develop or improve their national strategies, plans and programmes pertaining to the conservation of biodiversity;
  • Projects that are relevant to national priorities and to the Convention;
  • Projects that promote use of local/regional expertise and human resource development in general;
  • Projects that promote capacity building and enhancement;
  • Projects that seek to address basic issues such as poverty/overpopulation which impact adversely on conservation of biological diversity;
  • Projects that promote the sustainable use of biological resources of the countries, including endemism and biodiversity of marine and other aquatic environments; and
  • Projects that include cultivated or domesticated species.
The draft resolution also requested the Chair of the ICCBD to convey this list to the GEF and invite the GEF to report to the next meeting of the ICCBD on actions taken to implement the policy guidance and eligibility criteria and on the results of its restructuring process. In the absence of consensus within the drafting group, it was agreed that the G-77 and China draft version of the document would be attached to the segment of the report dealing with the work programme for the next session.

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