Marine and Coastal Biodiversity

Marine and Coastal // EBSAs (September 2022)
Friday // 9.23.2022

Online Discussion Forum on Ecologically or Biologically Significant Marine Areas (EBSAs)

BACKGROUND AND SCHEDULE OF THE FORUM

This online discussion forum is intended to provide an opportunity for discussions and sharing of views on the issues addressed in the annex to recommendation 24/10, “ecologically or biologically significant marine areas”. This recommendation was adopted by the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA) of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) at its twenty-fourth meeting.

In this recommendation, SBSTTA noted that the work on this issue was not completed at its twenty-fourth meeting due to the extraordinary circumstances prevailing. In the same recommendation, SBSTTA requested the Executive Secretary to advance discussions on this issue prior to the fifteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to facilitate focused deliberations on these issues at that meeting. This online discussion forum is being convened in line with this request.

This discussion forum will be preceded by an opening webinar and followed by a closing webinar, as follows:

• Opening webinar: 14 September 2022, 8:00 – 10:00 a.m. EDT (introduction to the forum, its objective and focus of discussion) (Recording available at the following link )
• Online discussion forum: 15-16 and 19-20 September 2022 (written comments posted by participants on dedicated webpage)
• Closing webinar: 21 September 2022, 8:00 – 10:00 a.m. EDT (summary of the discussion and guidance on next steps) (Recording available at the following link )

Participants will be invited to consider a number of guiding questions organized by "threads" (topics). Participants are invited to post comments and engage in the discussions throughout the four days of the Forum by subscribing to one or more of the existing threads. All threads will be active during this time.

PARTICIPATION IN THE FORUM

Participation in the Forum is open to Parties organizations, pursuant to selection, in consultation with the Bureau of SBSTTA, based on relevant expertise and experience relating to ecologically or biologically significant marine areas, taking into account regional representation and gender balance, as set out in notification 047.

To participate and post comments or questions in the Forum, you must sign-in using your CBD account. If you forget your password or need to set one, please use the following link.

Participants are invited to observe the following guidelines:

  1. Briefly introduce themselves when posting first message (name, country/organization and institutional affiliation);
  2. Respond to the thread(s) started by the moderator;
  3. Subscribe to the thread(s) to follow and receive notifications;
  4. Keep messages brief, concise and relevant to the topic or question being discussed;
  5. Ensure that the messages are relevant to the topic/question being discussed;
  6. Provide the reference number of a previous posting when responding to it;
  7. Make the subject header of your post as descriptive as possible about the content of the message so that other participants can easily decide which messages to read and respond to;
  8. Make sure that the text or files attached do not contain viruses, corrupted files or any other similar file deficiencies;
  9. Be respectful of others’ viewpoints.

If you encounter technical difficulties or are unable to participate in the Forum through the website but wish to provide input on the discussion threads (topics) of the Forum, please complete and send the form for submission of comments to [email protected] by 20 september 2022.

Online Discussion Forum on Ecologically or Biologically Significant Marine Areas (EBSAs)

The Forum closed for comments on 21 September 2022.

Forum closed. No more comments will be accepted on this forum.