ENB:09:06
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DRAFT RESOLUTION:
On Wednesday afternoon, Finland, on behalf
of Iceland, Norway, and Sweden, proposed a draft resolution
regarding the interim financial mechanism
(UNEP/CBD/IC/1/WG.II/CRP.1 and Rev. 1). Malaysia took issue with
the implications of the criteria, referring to "conditionalities."
The G-77 then tabled its own version of the draft resolution. The
Chair requested that the group of some Nordic countries meet with
representatives of the G-77 to produce a common list of criteria
for eligibility. This final draft resolution, with bracketed
text representing outstanding issues, was introduced
by Colombia, on behalf of the G-77 and China, Finland, Iceland,
Norway and Sweden. The G-77 had included a list of eligibility
criteria, as requested. Although the Chair created a drafting group
to work on the remaining bracketed text, compromise proved elusive.
As a result, the Chair decided to include a balanced selection of
parts of the non-consensus draft as a paragraph in the report of
the Working Group with a note explaining that there had been no
agreement.
Elements that were discussed by the drafting group, and appeared
unbracketed in the final version, included a request to the GEF to
operate according to the following policy guidelines: national
priority status; conservation of vulnerable biodiversity resources
under immediate threat; and consideration of alternatives according
to cost effectiveness or opportunity costs forgone. In addition,
the GEF, as the institution structure operating the interim
financial mechanism, was requested to operate and fund projects
according to the following eligibility criteria:
- Projects from all developing countries that have signed the Convention, upon their request;
- Projects that help developing countries develop or improve their national strategies, plans and programmes pertaining to the conservation of biodiversity;
- Projects that are relevant to national priorities and to the Convention;
- Projects that promote use of local/regional expertise and human resource development in general;
- Projects that promote capacity building and enhancement;
- Projects that seek to address basic issues such as poverty/overpopulation which impact adversely on conservation of biological diversity;
- Projects that promote the sustainable use of biological resources of the countries, including endemism and biodiversity of marine and other aquatic environments; and
- Projects that include cultivated or domesticated species.
The draft resolution also requested the Chair of the ICCBD to
convey this list to the GEF and invite the GEF to report to the
next meeting of the ICCBD on actions taken to implement the policy
guidance and eligibility criteria and on the results of its
restructuring process. In the absence of consensus within the
drafting group, it was agreed that the G-77 and China draft version
of the document would be attached to the segment of the report
dealing with the work programme for the next session.
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