After a year’s delay due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA) of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) will convene virtually to advance the preparations for the fifteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties.
Article 25 of the Convention on Biological Diversity establishes an open-ended intergovernmental scientific advisory body known as the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA) to provide the Conference of the Parties (COP) and, as appropriate, its other subsidiary bodies, with timely advice relating to the implementation of the Convention. As a subsidiary body of the COP, SBSTTA is to report regularly to the COP on all aspects of its work. Multidisciplinary and open to participation by all Parties, SBSTTA comprises government representatives competent in the relevant field of expertise. Its functions include: providing assessments of the status of biological diversity; providing assessments of the types of measures taken in accordance with the provisions of the Convention; and responding to questions that the COP may put to the body. SBSTTA has met 23 times to date and produced a total of 240 recommendations to the Conference of the Parties, most of which have formed the basis for decisions of the Conference of the Parties.
SBSTTA-24 will consider the following agenda items:
- The post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework
- Synthetic biology
- Risk assessment and risk management of living modified organisms (LMOs)
- Marine and coastal biodiversity
- Biodiversity and agriculture
- Programme of work of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES)
- Biodiversity and health
- Invasive alien species