ETHIOPIA said the winds of change from Seattle empowered developing countries to reach an agreeable outcome in Montreal.

Tewolde Berhan G. Egziabher, spokesperson for the Africa Group and chief negotiator for the Like-Minded Group during the Biosafety Group, signs on behalf of the Government of Ethiopia.

INDONESIA supported the ICCP's work programme as well as the Biosafety CHM

INDONESIA was signed on by Ambassador Isslamet Poernomo.

NORWAY highly welcomed the Protocol and said an additional biosafety-related process within the WTO is unnecessary.

Peter Schei, International Negotiations Director for the Norwegian Government and Chair of Working Group 1 at COP-5, signs on behalf of Norway.

During the Vienna Informal Roundtable Consultations in September 1999, Juan Mayr (Colombia), President of the Biosafety Ex-COP, creatively used coloured balls chosen at random from a bag to determine the sequence of speakers. In Montreal this January, Mayr was unable to find such balls, resorting instead to a colorful set of teddy bears, and subsequently each bear was given a name. The negotiator who drew the green Protocol bear, called Testaverde, was the first to speak. At the end of the negotiations, Testaverde was given to the representative of the European Community. In these pictures, we can see various members of the EC who brought the bear with them into the room where they signed the protocol.

David Shepherd, World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) International Policy Unit [gshepherd@wwfnet.org, center], facilitated a workshop on the WWF-DANIDA project to promote the effective implementation of the CBD to achieve its objectives in the Cameroon, Colombia, Cote d'Ivoire, India, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico and the South Pacific.

Erie Tamale, WWF-DANIDA CBD Project coordinator [eTamale@wwfint.org, photo on the left] said that Phase I of this project aimed to increase CBD awareness and popular support, involve civil society in national and international CBD processes and provide technical assistance to governments through technical workshops, policy advice and guidance on a number of themes. Priority issues of concern were the development of national biodiversity strategy and action plans, national reports to the CBD, access and benefit sharing legislation, incentive measures for biodiversity conservation, manage protected areas and implement Article 8(j) on traditional knowledge. Phase II will include Brazil and China and the following priority issues: the ecosystem approach; biosafety; synergies among biodiversity-related conventions; in situ conservation (protected areas and the monitoring and assessment of biodiversity indicators); sustainable use of biodiversity [private sector involvement, sustainable tourism, incentives and root causes of biodiversity loss]; and how to mainstream biodiversity into sectoral policies.

Estherine Lisinge Fotabong, WWF Cameroon [elisinge@wwf.net.org, photo on the right], gave an overview of pilot work on protected area policy and guidelines for accessing genetic resources in parks in Cameroon.

A representative of WWF Mexico discussed their pilot efforts to promote Forest Stewerdship Council certification of sustainable forest management and sustainable tourism alternatives in protected areas and forests of Oaxaca, Mexico. WWF has also facilitated work on biosafety and access and benefit sharing legislation with a coalition of NGOs working on the CBD.

Alexander Shestakov, Environmental Law Programme Coordinator at WWF Russia, [ashestakov@wwf.ru, photo on the left], shown here on the left with Siberian pines. He discussed the WWF International's Global 2000 Ecoregion approach and described WWF work with local and regional governments and indigenous peoples on the sustainable use of non-timber forest products and certification of sustainable forestry in the Alta Sayan ecoregion of Southern Siberia, which straddles Mongolia, China, Kazakhstan and Russia. For more information on the Alta-Saya Initiativee and to contribute to the restoration of Altai forests stripes recently burned down in forest fires, contact [russia@wwf.ru].

Ole Kamuaro Ololtisatti, Maasai Environment Resource Coalition (MERC) [portalala@hotmail.com, seated in the photo on the left], facilitated a joint round-table discussion with members of Cooperativa Tecnico Scientifica di Base (COBASE) on the missing links between biological and cultural diversity.

Speakers included Jonathan Kamomon, Loita Forest Project [standing]; Anna Borioni and Massimo Pieri of COBASE Italy [photo below, left and middle]; and Stephan Schienier, College of Indigenous Australian Peoples; Terry Williams, The Tulalip Tribes, USA [far right]; Krystina Bishop, First Nations Development Institute of Canada; and Kalimba Zephyrin, Batwa Rwanda-Burundi. Discussion focused on: COBASE's Resolution of Rome: Guidelines for the Protection of Cultural Diversity as a first step towards a convention to protect cultural diversity and promote the equality of Western science and indigenous knowledge; how biodiversity can only be protected if cultural diversity is also protected; the need for the repatriation and education of indigenous knowledge concerning ecosystems; the need to recognize the privacy of indigenous peoples; the fact that certain African countries do not accept the concept of indigenous peoples; and the provision for the right to culture in the Human Rights convention.

COBASE will be organizing a workshop, The Sustainability of Taste: Food in the Life Circle, to debate Rome Resolutions from 24-26 September 2000 in Rome, Campidoglio, Sala della Promoteca. The workshop will focus on the linkages between biodiversity conservation and sustainable use, food culture and health and consider ways to improve and promote the Rome Guidelines. For more information, contact COBASE at [cobase@micanet.it].

A panel discussion on the UNEP/GEF Pilot Biosafety Enabling Activity Project reviewed the outcome of this pilot project and discussed capacity-building options for the development and implementation of national biosafety frameworks. Panelists included Mohammed. El Ashry, Chief Executive Officer of GEF, other members of the GEF Secretariat and the UNEP Biosafety Project Task Force. Representatives of the Pilot Project's national focal points from Namibia, Bolivia, Bulgaria and China, also gave brief overviews of their experience gained through regional workshops.

Martha Candawa-Schulz, Namibia, said three regional workshops were held on national biosafety frameworks, the safe use of biotechnology and ways to implement national biosafety frameworks. She said the workshops improved public awareness, international collaboration and networking within and between institutions. For further information and future GEF activities in the area of Biosafety, contact Nalini Sharma, UNEP Division of Environmental Conventions [nalini.sharma@unep.org].