The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Secretariat organized a Capacity Building Workshop for East Asia and Southeast Asia on achieving Aichi Targets 11 and 12 in Yanji City, Jilin Province, China, on 15-18 September 2015. The meeting was hosted by the Ministry of Environmental Protection of the People’s Republic of China and attended by 34 participants from 12 countries including Cambodia, China, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Indonesia, Japan, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Mongolia, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Timor-Leste, and Vietnam. WCPA’s Transboundary Conservation Specialist Group (TBC SG) was represented by Dr. Rahimatsah Amat, the Group’s Regional Coordinator for Asia. The programme encompassed a 3-day workshop and a day field trip to Changbaishan Tiger Landscape.

The objectives of the workshop were to:

Collect and share information and data on the status of Aichi Biodiversity Targets 11 and 12; Identify priority actions for East and Southeast Asia for achieving Aichi Biodiversity Targets 11 and 12 and explore opportunities for advancing these actions through financial support from national budgets and from bilateral and multilateral sources including the Global Environment Facility-6 System for Transparent Allocation of Resources biodiversity allocations; and Support countries to enhance integration of protected areas into wider land and seascapes including through transboundary collaboration.

Presenters and resource persons were from the CBD Secretariat, IUCN Secretariat, WCPA’s TBC SG, UNEP-WCMC and East Asian-Australasian Flyway Project. A welcoming statement by the Executive Secretary of CBD can be viewed here. Dr. Rahimatsah Amat, TBC SG, delivered a presentation consisting of an introduction to the TBC SG, the relationship of connectivity and transboundary conservation, definitions and scope of transboundary conservation, and transboundary conservation examples from Asian.