CBD Notification 2012-117 - "Cities for Life: City & Subnational Biodiversity Summit" A Forum for Local and Subnational Governments in parallel with the 11th meeting of Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity 15-16 October 2012

In decision X/22, Parties requested the Executive Secretary, "subject to the availability of resources, to ... convene, with appropriate partners, meetings of local authorities at the margins of future meetings of the Conference of the Parties, as per its two previous meetings, and continuing with a summit on local authorities and biodiversity to be held in India prior to the high-level segment of the eleventh meeting of the Conference of the Parties". The decision "further requests the Executive Secretary to report on the implementation of the Plan of Action at future meetings of the Conference of the Parties".

Accordingly, the Secretariat of the CBD, the Governments of India, Andhra Pradesh and Hyderabad, with the generous support of the Government of Japan, and in close collaboration with ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability, will convene the "Cities for Life" Summit in parallel with CBD COP 11 on 15-16 October 2012. Thanks to the mobilization of subnational governments and cities within the Global Partnership on Subnational and Local Action for Biodiversity, the Summit will be paired with a meeting of leaders of subnational governments on 16 October 2012, supported by the Network of Regional Governments for Sustainable Development (nrg4SD), with an integrated final session on the afternoon of 16 October 2012. ICLEI's South Asia Secretariat, based in New Delhi, has established a secretariat in Hyderabad for on-site logistical coordination and will work closely with staff of the Secretariat of the CBD as well as the Government of India.

Among other results, the Summit will disseminate best practices in cooperation between different levels of government, examine successful network arrangements and projects and discuss implementation plans for cities, states, academia and international organizations. The event will also see the launch of the Cities and Biodiversity Outlook, an assessment of the links between urbanization and biodiversity; of guidelines for the development of subnational and local strategies and action plans in support of their national policies and of the Strategic Plan of the CBD for 2011-2020; and of a "Cities in Biodiversity Hotspots Initiative" by ICLEI.

Local and subnational authorities can contribute significantly to thematic programmes of work and cross-cutting issues under the Convention, such as inland waters, protected areas, invasive alien species, climate change, development and poverty alleviation, tourism, health and biodiversity, agriculture, food and nutrition, among many others. I therefore request that you promote and support the representation of subnational governments, cities and other local authorities in your delegation to COP 11.

To ensure a successful Summit, the Secretariat of the CBD and ICLEI intend to contact selected local and subnational government representatives based on their efforts to contribute to national, regional and global implementation of the CBD, and request that they share their experiences. Thank you for your support to the "Cities for Life" Summit and please feel free to request any additional clarification through Mr. Oliver Hillel (oliver.hillel@cbd.int) and Mr. Andre Mader (andre.mader@cbd.int).

The text of this notification is also available on the CBD website at:
http://www.cbd.int/doc/notifications/2012/ntf-2012-117-cities-for-life-en.pdf