We are putting on our IUCN Europe website some information about what our Members in Europe will be doing during the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Jeju, Korea in September this year.  There will be a lot of exciting stuff going on, as you can see on the website:  http://www.iucn.org/about/union/secretariat/offices/europe/europe_at_the_congress/member_s_activities/

 One of the most recent entries is a workshop to look at the implementation of the Aichi targets by local authorities.  This is particular relevant, as the 10th Conference of Parties (COP10) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), which took place in Nagoya in 2010 adopted a Programme of Work for biodiversity in local authorities.  http://www.cbd.int/authorities/ .

At the next CBD COP11 in Hyderabad, in October this year, the Parties to the CBD will have to report how their cities and local authorities have dealt with these issues.  A workshop in September is an opportune moment to reflect on this.

The workshop is a partnership between the IUCN National Committee in France, a few sub-national governments, ICLEI and the IUCN Regional Office for Europe and the discussions in Jeju will focus on ways for IUCN to strengthen cooperation with local and regional authorities, especially in an effort to help them reach the Aichi targets.

Meanwhile, IUCN Europe is developing a long-term programme of work on biodiversity in cities in Europe, as a component of the 2013-2016 IUCN Programme, and the outcome of this workshop will be instrumental in honing our interest and involvement.