Bridges Trade BioRes • Volume 4 • Number 22 • 3rd December 2004
Events
For a more comprehensive list of events in trade and sustainable development, please refer to ICTSD’s web calendar. Please bear in mind that dates and times of WTO meetings are often changed, and that the WTO does not always announce the important informal meetings of the different bodies.
ICTSD Event
14 December, Buenos Aires, Argentina: TRADE IMPLICATIONS FOR KYOTO IMPLEMENTATION: MAKING IT WORK. This Kyoto COP-10 side event organized by ICTSD and UNCTAD will focus on the linkages between the climate change regime and trade rules. Presentations will address the climate/trade interface, including relevant issues arising from the current Doha Round of trade negotiations. They will explore windows of opportunity in the international trading system for promoting climate policy, as well as possible obstacles. Following a general background on the interaction between the climate and trade regimes, two case studies will be examined to bring the issues down to a more concrete level. For further information, contact Malena Sell, email: msell@ictsd.ch; Internet: http://www.ictsd.org/dlogue/2004-12-14/COP10side-event.pdf.
Coming up in the next two weeks
6,8 December: WTO NEGOTIATING GROUP ON MARKET ACCESS
6-10 December, San José, Costa Rica: EXPERT MEETING ON TRADITIONAL FOREST-RELATED KNOWLEDGE AND THE IMPLEMENTATION OF RELATED INTERNATIONAL COMMITMENTS. This meeting is organised by the International Alliance of Indigenous Tribal Peoples of Tropical Forests. It begins with a two-day preparatory meeting for indigenous participants. Following this, indigenous and local community experts will join government and international agency delegates in a three-day official Expert Meeting of the UN Forum on Forests. The meeting will provide an opportunity for indigenous and other experts to discuss the extent to which governments have implemented international commitments related to the protection, promotion and support of Traditional Forest Related Knowledge. For further information, contact Annabel Pinker,tel: 66-53-904037; fax: 66-53-277645; email: iait@loxinfo.co.th; Internet: http://www.international-alliance.org
6-17 December, Buenos Aires, Argentina: TENTH CONFERENCE OF THE PARTIES TO THE UNFCCC. For further information contact the UNFCCC Secretariat, tel:+49-228-815-1000; fax: +49-228-815-1999; email: secretariat@unfccc.int; Internet: http://unfccc.int/cop10/index.html
8 December, Cambridge, England: CAMBRIDGE ENVIRONMENTAL INITIATIVE: TOWARDS A SUSTAINABLE EARTH. This seminar, held by the University of Cambridge Horizon Seminar series, is open to companies interested in looking at environmental initiatives focused on four themes: provision of sustainable energy, sustainable engineering, climate change and environmental planning, and will illustrate the variety of work carried out at Cambridge in this field. Delegates will have the opportunity to meet with industry leaders and the university’s academic experts to debate and discuss ideas generated during the seminars. Delegates will be addressed after dinner by Professor Sir David King, Chief Scientific Advisor to the British Government and Head of the Office of Science and Technology. For further information, contact the Sue Rhodes, tel: +44 (0)1223 765400; fax: +44 (0)1223 765410; email: sr295@cam.ac.uk; Internet: http://www.clo.cam.ac.uk/horizon/ei.html
12-14 December, Noordwijk, Netherlands: INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ENERGY FOR DEVELOPMENT. This high-profile event is being organised by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment, in close collaboration with the World Bank, UNDP and the World Business Council on Sustainable Development. The conference will address investment needs in the energy sector, barriers to investment and ways of overcoming them. It aims to put energy more firmly on the development agenda and to explore the contributions that can be made by various local and international stakeholders. For further information, contact the Secretariat of Energy for Development, tel: 31-70-339-1812; fax: 31-70-339-1306; email: projectteam@energyfordevelopment.org; Internet: http://www.energyfordevelopment.org
13-17 December, Canary Islands, Spain: AD HOC TECHNICAL EXPERT GROUP ON ISLAND BIODIVERSITY. This group of the Convention on Biological Diversity(CBD) will meet to review the outcomes of the Barbados Programme of Action on Island States, the status and trends of, and major threats to, island biological diversity, and identification of the characteristics of island biodiversity. They will also review ongoing work on different thematic areas and cross-cutting issues under the Convention on Biological Diversity and related work carried out in the framework of other processes, and identification of significant gaps and constraints to implementation. The meeting hopes to develop proposals for the programme of work on island biological diversity. For further information, contact the Secretariat of the CBD, tel: +1-514-288-2220; fax: +1-514-288-6588; email: secretariat@biodiv.org; Internet: http://www.biodiv.org/doc/meeting.aspx?mtg=TEGIB-01
14-17 December, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: BIOTECHNOLOGY TOWARDS RAINFOREST CONSERVATION WORKSHOP. Organised by the Forest Research Institute Malaysia, this workshop seeks to provide theoretical knowledge concerning the utilization of modern biotechnology for plant conservation, and hands-on knowledge regarding recent biotechnology techniques for plant conservation. For further information, contact Cik Norifiza, tel: +60-3-6279-7621; fax: +60-3-6280-4614; email: noyee@frim.gov.my; Internet: http://www.frim.gov.my/pdf/seminar2004/BioTech2004.pdf
Other Upcoming
18-22 January 2005, Kobe-Hyogo, Japan: WORLD CONFERENCE ON DISASTER REDUCTION. This conference is organised by the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction Secretariat and aims to increase support for the implementation of disaster risk reduction strategies at all levels and in particular its integration into development planning processes. The conference is the culmination of a the ten-year review of disaster reduction activities since the first World Conference on Natural Disaster Reduction, which took place in Yokohama, Japan in 1994. For further information, contact Helena Molin Valdes, tel: 41-22-917-2776;fax: 41-22-917-0563; email: molinvaldes@un.org; Internet: http://www.unisdr.org/wcdr/
26-28 January, Gauteng, South Africa: INTERNATION WORKSHOP ON AFRICA WATER LAWS - PLURAL LEGISLATIVE FRAMEWORKS FOR RURAL WATER MANAGEMENT IN AFRICA. This workshop is organised by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Natural Resources Institute (NRI), Global Water Partnership (GWP) and University of Dar-es-Salaam and will compare ongoing national policy and legal reform in Africa, and its direct and indirect impacts on small-scale rural water development, use, and management, as well as discuss general and site-specific recommendations and guidelines for water management and legal pluralism that foster sustainable development for the poor in Africa. For further information, contact Barbara van Koppen, tel: 27-12-845-9100; email: bvankoppen@cgiar.org; Internet: http://www.nri.org/waterlaw/workshop.htm