The 4th meeting of the Parties to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (COP-MOP 4) took place on 12-16 May 2008 in Bonn, Germany, back-to-back with the 9th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, on 19-30 May. The meeting addressed a number of standing issues on the COP-MOP agenda (i.e. compliance; operation and activities of the Biosafety Clearing-House; capacity building; financial mechanisms and resources; cooperation with other organizations, conventions and initiatives; and administration and budgetary matters). It also addressed a number of substantive issues arising from the medium-term programme of work and previous COP-MOP decisions (i.e. handling, transport, packaging and identification of living modified organisms; risk assessment and risk management; liability and redress; subsidiary bodies; monitoring and reporting; assessment and review; socio-economic considerations; public awareness and participation; and notification requirements). See http://www.cbd.int/mop4/ for background and access to official documents (in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish) and information documents (in English) or contact [email protected] for more information.

03/05/2008