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CONTAC T GROUPS

Agenda Items 6.4, 7, and 8: The contact group chaired by Canada completed its work on Tuesday morning. The last items to be considered were the completion of the draft provisional agenda for SBSTTA’s first meeting in September, 1995 and the list of items that the COP will convey to the CSD. The group chose priority items from the draft medium-term work programme as the basis for the agenda for the SBSTTA’s first meeting. These are the matters for which advice from the SBSTTA is required by the second COP. They include: the components of biodiversity under threat and the action to be taken; ways and means to promote technology transfer; scientific and technical information to be contained in national reports regarding implementation; contribution of the Convention to the preparation of the 1996 International Technical Conference on the Conservation and Utilization of Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture; and conservation and sustainable use of coastal and marine biological diversity. On the list of items to be conveyed to the CSD, the group agreed to remove the reference to work on the protection of traditional knowledge and indigenous and local communities since the matter will not be taken up by the COP until 1996. The group did agree, however, to add a statement that future work in this area should be coordinated with the relevant bodies. The group added a new reference to the establishment of the SBSTTA and a new reference to work relevant to biodiversity related conventions, other agreements and processes of relevance.

Agenda Items 6.5, 6.6, 9 and 10: The contact group chaired by Mauritania met all day in a closed meeting  to finalize consultations on the remaining issues. In particular, extensive negotiations were conducted on financial rules governing funding of the Secretariat, the budget for the Secretariat, the medium- term work programme and biosafety.

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