Notification to the Parties

CONCERNING:

Review of the criteria for amendment of Appendices I and II

1. In Resolution Conf. 9.24 on criteria for amendment of Appendices I and II, the Conference of the Parties "recommend that the text and the annexes of this Resolution be fully reviewed before the 12th meeting of the Conference of the Parties with regard to the scientific validity of the criteria, definitions, notes and guidelines and their applicability to different groups of organisms".

2. At its 11th meeting, the Conference of the Parties adopted document Doc. 11.25, as amended, thus initiating the process of conducting the above-mentioned review (see also Decision 11.2).

3. The following steps have been taken:

a) First meeting of the Criteria Working Group (2-4 August 2000 in Canberra, Australia);

b) Consultation of all Parties on the report of the Criteria Working Group (see Notification to the Parties No. 2000/51);

c) Joint meeting of the Animals and Plants Committees to discuss the report of the Criteria Working Group and the comments received from the Parties (7-9 December 2000 in Shepherdstown, United States of America; see Notification to the Parties No. 2000/38);

d) Meeting of the Chairmen of the Animals and Plants Committee and the Chairman of the Working Group (19-21 April 2001, Geneva, Switzerland) to compile a report taking into account the written comments received and the comments made at the joint meeting;

e) Second meeting of the Criteria Working Group (21-23 May 2001, Sigüenza, Spain; as agreed at the joint meeting) to discuss Annex 5 of Resolution Conf. 9.24 on Definitions, notes and guidelines. The results of the meeting were included in the report of the Chairmen.

4. The following steps remain, to complete the review:

a) A second consultation of all Parties and of all interested governmental and non-governmental organizations (the purpose of this Notification) on the report referred to under paragraphs 3.d) and e) above;

b) Preparation by the Chairmen of the Animals and Plants Committees of a final report for submission to the Standing Committee for approval, taking into account all the comments received; and

c) Submission of the final report by the Standing Committee for consideration at the 12th meeting of the Conference of the Parties.

5. Attached to this Notification is the report of the Chairmen of the Animals and Plants Committee and the Chairman of the Criteria Working Group referred to in paragraphs 3.d) and e) above.

6. In it the following types of characters are used:
strikethrough for text proposed for deletion;
bold for newly proposed text;
italics for explanatory notes by the Chairmen; and
normal font for text that remains unchanged.

7. The Chairmen, when preparing the report, were aware that on several issues there were contrasting opinions among the Parties and others that participated in the discussions. They have tried to accommodate these as well as possible, aware that the proposed text does not always reflect consensus.

8. All Parties and interested governmental or non-governmental organizations are requested to provide the Secretariat with their comments on this report not later than 15 October 2001.

9. The Secretariat is distributing this Notification and its Annex to relevant inter-Governmental and international non-Governmental organizations. The Parties are strongly recommended to distribute this Notification and its Annex to all interested national organizations, with a request that they provide their comments on it through the Management Authority of the country in which they are located.