The twenty-sixth meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA 26) will be held from 13 to 18 May 2024, back-to-back with the fourth meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Implementation (SBI 4), from 21 to 29 May 2024, and will be hosted by the United Nations Environment Programme, in Nairobi, Kenya.
An information workshop on the outcomes of recent ad hoc technical expert group meetings related to the agenda items of SBSTTA will be organized on 11 May 2024. In addition, the Co-Chairs leading the negotiations under the Working Group on Benefit-sharing from the Use of Digital Sequence Information on Genetic Resources propose to convene informal discussions on 19 May 2024 in preparation for the second meeting of the Working Group. Further details on these informal sessions will be communicated through separate notifications.
Nominations
The designation of representatives to attend the SBSTTA 26 and/or the SBI 4 meetings should be submitted through an official letter of nomination addressed to the CBD Executive Secretary, sent as a scanned e-mail attachment to secretariat@cbd.int, by 30 April 2024. The ISC can faciliatet registration – please contact Olivia Tighe (olivia.tighe@council.science) by 26 April.
Financial support
The ISC is not able to provide funds to support experts’ participation in these meetings.
Subject to the availability of contributions to the Special Voluntary Trust Fund (BZ), the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity of the United Nations Environment Programme may be in a position to finance the participation of one representative for each meeting, (i.e. one delegate for SBSTTA 26 and one delegate for SBI 4 from each of the eligible Parties, i.e. those that are developing countries, in particular the least developed countries and small island developing States, as well as countries with economies in transition). Parties to the Convention eligible to receive financial support that wish to solicit such assistance are kindly requested to advise the Secretariat at their earliest convenience, but no later than 15 March 2024, through an official letter addressed to the CBD Executive Secretary, of the name and coordinates of their Government’s officially designated representatives to benefit from such financial support. In order for travel arrangements to comply with the UN rules and regulations, funding requests submitted after the above deadline cannot be guaranteed.
Furthermore, accordance with the criteria for the operations of the Voluntary Funding Mechanism to facilitate the participation of indigenous peoples and local communities in the work of the Convention on Biological Diversity, representatives of indigenous peoples and local communities are invited to submit a request for financial assistance for consideration for the meeting, subject to the availability of funds, at their earliest convenience but no later than 15 March 2024. A list of beneficiaries from the indigenous peoples and local communities will be communicated via a notification and selected participants will be contacted directly by the Secretariat regarding necessary arrangements.