FNR-Rio

UNCCD Secretariat has just launched an e-forum for the review of the 2 consultancy reports that have been commissioned to start the process of refinement of the impact indicators in view of the 2012 reporting exercise by affected country Parties to the UNCCD. The consultancy reports will be held open for review by scientists and stakeholders worldwide until 30 November 2010.

Full instructions on how to register, participate in the discussion and provide your comments are available at: http://www.unccd.int/science/announce/eforum.php.

Please be invited to review the drafts of two consultancy reports. The reports deal with methodologies and data needs for an effective use of the subset of impact indicators for reporting by affected country Parties to the UNCCD beginning in 2012. The impact indicators in question were identified as the minimum required to fulfill this task. The two consultancy reports address respectively the “proportion of the population in affected areas living above the poverty line” and the “land cover status”. If you would like to participate in the review, please go to http://eforum.unccd.int and register for the e-consultation. You can download and read the papers in PDF format if you prefer, but all comments must be received via the web feedback system that is accessed through the above link. We very much welcome your valuable contributions and thank you for helping us enrich these papers with your knowledge, comments and suggestions. If you have any problems registering or answering the questions please let us know.

Background
In decision 17/COP.9, the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) decided to provisionally accept a recommended set of eleven impact indicators to assist measurement, at the national and global levels, of progress made under national action programmes in implementing strategic objectives 1, 2 and 3 of The Strategy (http://www.unccd.int/science/menu.php?newch=l41).
The following subset of impact indicators was identified as the minimum required for reporting by affected country Parties to the UNCCD beginning in 2012:
a. Proportion of the population in affected areas living above the poverty line;
b. Land cover status.
In order to enable affected countries to report against impact indicators in 2012, the UNCCD secretariat launched two consultancies to work on methodologies and data needs for an effective use of the two above-mentioned impact indicators, as well as on the development of a related glossary of terms and definitions.
As a result, two consultancy reports, which address respectively the “proportion of the population in affected areas living above the poverty line” and the “land cover status”, were produced. These reports also draw upon the outcomes of a meeting organized by the UNCCD secretariat (Bonn, Germany, 11 June 2010) with relevant institutions and/or agencies that could provide information and data required to implement the subset of impact indicators (http://www.unccd.int/science/announce/meeting-on-methodologies-data-needs.php).
At its meeting on 21 and 22 June 2010, the bureau of the Committee on Science and Technology decided that the two consultancy reports should be subject to a scientific review process. A document with the results of this review will make available through the UNCCD web page and will serve as a basis for discussion at the second special session of the Committee on Science and Technology to be held on 16-18 February 2011 in Bonn (Germany).
The consultancy reports will be held open for review by scientists and stakeholders worldwide until 30 November 2010.
Please visit the web link mentioned above to participate in the review process and feel free to circulate this notice via your networks and to individuals, as appropriate.
We would herewith also like to provide you with the details for registering to the e.forum:
1. You can register to participate in the e.forum at: http://eforum.unccd.int
2. Click on (button on the top left)
3. Fill in the registration form (here you have to enter a valid e-mail address and decide on a password)
4. Click on to submit your registration form
6. IMPORTANT: After the registration, your account has to be activated by an administrator. You will receive an email from ict@unccd.int once activation has been completed.
7. After the activation, you can access the forum at: http://eforum.unccd.int/viewforum.php?f=4
8. In order to create a database of the participants in this e-forum, you are kindly requested to submit to the moderator(s) (vcastillo@unccd.int; sminelli@unccd.int) an e-mail with the following personal details
PERSONAL DETAILS
Surname
Given and middle name
Name and place of Organization
e-mail
Position
Nationality*
* optional: This information is requested only for the purpose of assessing the geographical distribution of the participants to the survey