In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic and following extensive deliberations between the Chairs and members of the Standing, Animals and Plants Committees and the Secretariat, it was confirmed that the face-to-face 31st meeting (AC31) of the Animals Committee and the 25th meeting (PC25) of the Plants Committee would not take place as scheduled from 13-17 July and on 17 and 20-23 July, respectively (see Notification to the Parties No. 2020/045 of 29 May 2020).
Following that decision, the Secretariat made an appeal to Parties to consider offering to host AC31 or PC25 during the first half of 2021 (see Notification to the Parties No. 2020/046 of 4 June 2020). So far, the Secretariat has not received any expression of interest in hosting AC31 or PC25.
Led by its Chair, the Plants Committee is developing actions to advance its work intersessionally.
On the basis of the documents prepared for its 25th meeting, the Plants Committee took the following intersessional decisions (see Notification No. 2020/056 of 21 September 2020):
- Ms. Aurélie Flore Koumba Pambo (representative for Africa) and Ms. Rosemarie Gnam (representative for North America) were confirmed as Chair and Vice-Chair of the Plants Committee respectively;
- The Plants Committee workplan for 2020-2022 (CoP18 to CoP19), as outlined in document PC25 Doc. 7.2 , was approved; and
- Ms. Rosemarie Gnam (representative for North America), Ms. Fabiola Rocío Núñez Neyra (representative for Central and South America and the Caribbean), and Ms. Yan Zeng (alternate representative for Asia) were nominated as the Plants Committee representatives on the Standing Committee working group on capacity-building.
The Committee also established several intersessional working groups. Details of their mandates and membership can be found here. Guidance for the chairs of intersessional and in-session working groups is available here.
The Secretariat invites interested Parties and observers to regularly visit the Committee’s information documents webpage (PC) where studies to be considered by the intersessional working groups will be posted.
Any new developments on the intersessional work of the Plants Committee will be posted on this webpage.