5th June 2018, Montreux, Switzerland – Partners* of the InforMEA initiative met for the ninth time in Montreux, Switzerland to identify priorities for the further development of the project.

“At the end of the day, we seek to reach people on the ground. The time has come for InforMEA to reach out to regional networks that work on a sustainable future for this planet,” said UN Environment’s Law Division Director Elizabeth Mrema.

“InforMEA is important as a mechanism in a practical way of realizing synergies between MEAs," said  Bradnee Chambers, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Migratory Species.

“We meet to ensure that InforMEA is much easier to use and much more accessible not only to us, as MEAs, but to the Parties that we serve and other users such as academia,” said Mr. Rolph Payet, Executive Secretary of the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions.

The InforMEA Goals section will be enhanced to highlight and help communicate the collective contribution by MEAs towards the Sustainable Development Goals. The learning section will be enhanced and cooperation with academic institutions around the world intensified.

The meeting considered further partnerships and outreach possibilities with global and regional networks, including sharing a common knowledge base with global judicial networks and supporting capacity building opportunities in Africa, Caribbean and Pacific region, including through the National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans online forum. The InforMEA initiative further agreed on next steps for a Data Reporting Tool to facilitate joint work places for national reporters.

New members and observers were welcomed to the InforMEA initiative. These included the Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea (as host of the Convention of the Law of the Sea ), as well as the Escazú Regional Agreement on Access to Information, Public Participation and Justice in the Latin America and the Caribbean region.  The International Monetary Fund and Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services and the Global Judicial Institute on the Environment joined as observers.

*The InforMEA initiative is supported by the European Union and co-chaired by UN Environment  and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. It comprises over 20 global Convention Secretariats located with four United Nations organizations: the Food and Agriculture Organization, the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization the UN Economic Commission for Europe and UN Environment. The multilateral environmental agreements involved regulate the entire range of environmental topics, including biodiversity, chemicals and wastes, climate change, desertification, genetic resources, ozone, agriculture, species including their international trade and migration.

For more information, please contact the InforMEA Team.

Meeting Participants represented the following members and observers: