Third ABS Capacity Development Workshop for Africa

hosted by the Ministère de l'Environnement des Eaux et Forêts et du Tourisme

24th to 28th November 2008, Antsiranana (Diego Suarez), Madagascar

Background

This workshop is part of the ABS Capacity Development Initiative for Africa. Background information about the Initiative and full documentation of previous workshops and events is provided on www.abs-africa.info. This website was launched under the Initiative to provide a platform for information exchange and it is envisaged to develop it further into an ABS Clearinghouse for Africa.

The first continent wide workshop under this initiative was held in November 2006 in Cape Town, South Africa, and the second in December 2007 in Nairobi, Kenya. A number of workshops with regional or issue based focus and trainings have been organized since then under the Initiative, including the Ministerial Meeting on the Seychelles in preparation for the 9th Conference of the Parties (COP 9) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the recent briefing for the African

negotiators in Bonn, Germany, prior to COP 9.

The workshop in Madagascar will mark the transformation of what began as the Dutch-German ABS Capacity Development Initiative for Africa into a multi-donor initiative as well as the move into negotiation of operational text for the international ABS regime.