Resumed Session on the First Extraordinary Meeting of the Convention of the Parties (ExCOP) to Finalize and Adopt a Protocol on Biosafety

Montreal, CANADA; 24 - 28 January 2000

Monday 24 January:

On Monday 24 January, the Extraordinary Meeting of the Conference of the Parties (ExCOP) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) resumed its first session in Montreal, Canada. The session was suspended when the ExCOP's initial discussions in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, in February 1999, failed to adopt a protocol. The ExCOP resumes following three sets of informal consultations (Montreal, July 1999; Vienna, September 1999; and Montreal, January 2000). Working from a text of the protocol contained in the draft report of the ExCOP in Cartagena and a non-paper developed by ExCOP President and Minister of Environment of Colombia Juan Mayr, delegates have met informally over the past four days to start resolving outstanding issues and finalize a protocol for adoption.

Our "curtain raiser issue" is now available.

Seated above, CBD Executive Secretary Hamdallah Zedan (far left), ExCOP President Juan Mayr (2nd left), and COP4 President Laslo Miklös prepare their opening statements, and look towards guiding this COP to drafting a strong Protocol.

Juan Mayr, Chair of the ExCOP makes his opening remarks to the Plenary.

Hamdallah Zedan, Executive Secretary of the CBD delivers his opening remarks, underscoring the importance of a Protocol for the world.

Convention on Biodiversity Homepage [CBD]
CBD Secretariat page for the Resumed ExCOP
Clearing House Mechanism [CHM]
EXCOP Documents : UNEP's pre-session documents
ENB Briefing Note from Sept. 99 Informal Consultations
ENB Coverage of Cartagena (BSWG-6)
ENB Coverage of BSWG-5, BSWG-4, BSWG-3, BSWG-2, BSWG-1

Convention on Biodiversity Homepage [CBD]
CBD Secretariat page for the Resumed ExCOP

This page was last updated 01/18/2002 16:47:18 -0600