What is the relationship of the Millennium Assessment to the Convention on Biological Diversity?
The MA is closely linked to the CBD. Three of the current and past chairs of the CBD SBSTTA were members of the Steering Committee. The Executive Director of the CBD Secretariat and the current Chair of SBSTTA hold seats on the Board. based on informal discussions with parties to the Convention, the discussions at the Norway/UN Conference on the Ecosystem Approach for Sustainable Use of Biological Diversity in Trondheim, the briefings given at the June 1999 and February 2000 SBSTTA meetings, the May 2000 COP, and discussions of the MA at the CBD brainstorming meeting on scientific assessments in November 1999 (UNEP/CBD/COP/5/Inf./1) the CBD has decided to support language recommending that the MA be undertaken as a joint assessment with other ecosystem-related conventions including the CCD and Ramsar. Such support was attained during the SBSTTA discussions and as part of the COP discussions on Operations of the Convention” held in Nairobi in May 2000 (UNEP/CBD/COP/5/17). The MA is also
