Hundreds of men are working at a frenetic pace to complete the arrangements and spruce up the sprawling campus of the Hyderabad International Convention Centre for the 6th Conference of Parties of Cartagena Protocol on Bio-safety and the 11th CoP to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), to be held here from October 1 to 19.
More than 8,000 delegates from 193 countries are expected to attend the CoP-11, which will review the progress made since Nagoya Protocol on access to genetic resources and the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from their utilisation. It will also look at the status of the 2011-2020 Strategic Plan for Biodiversity and targets set for reducing rate of biodiversity loss.
A high-level Ministerial meeting will be one of the main highlights of CoP-11, which, among others, will hold discussions on resource mobilisation strategies to implement Strategic Plan for Biodiversity from local to global levels.
It will also assess the progress made in translating the Aichi targets into revised national biodiversity strategies and action plans.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will attend the high-level segment meeting on October 18.
The sixth Conference of Parties serving as Meeting of the Parties (CoP/MoP-6) to the CBD’s Cartagena Protocol will take decisions on safe transfer, handling and use of living modified organisms (LMOs) resulting from modern biotechnology.
Meanwhile, the State government has directed all the power utilities to complete all erection and maintenance works to ensure uninterrupted power supply for CoP-11.
