14/03/2011

The secretariats of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) took another step forward to strengthen their ongoing collaboration with the signature of a cooperation agreement on capacity building, information exchange and technical assistance.

The agreement acknowledges the ongoing fruitful collaboration and responds to the need for mutual support one another in the promotion of activities and projects relevant to their mandates such as workshops, seminars and other events.

The agreement was signed by Shakeel Bhatti, Secretary of the International Treaty, and Ahmed Djoghlaf, Executive Secretary of CBD, on the occasion of the intergovernmental negotiations of the Tenth Conference of the Parties of the CBD in Japan.

This new agreement, which builds on an existing framework agreement between the CBD Secretariat and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, will also facilitate the coordination of technical assistance in the field of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture with a view to developing synergies at international, sub-regional and national levels.