Establishment of a Working Group for Follow-up Actions

When it adopted the programme of work, the Conference of the Parties decided to make progress, inter alia, in the areas of:

1. the establishment of marine protected areas in marine areas beyond the limits of national jurisdiction;
2. mobilization of adequate and timely financial resources for the implementation of the programme of work by developing countries, particularly in the least developed and the small island developing States amongst them, and in countries with economies in transition, with special emphasis on those elements of the programme of work requiring early action;
3. development of "tool kits" for the identification, designation, management, monitoring and evaluation of national and regional systems of protected areas, including ecological networks, ecological corridors, buffer zones, with special regard to indigenous and local communities, stakeholder involvement and benefit-sharing mechanisms.

For this purpose, the Conference of the Parties established an Ad Hoc Open-ended Working Group on Protected Areas to explore the most appropriate ways forward on these issues.

The first meeting of the Working Group was held in Montecatini, Italy, from 13 to 17 June 2005. The main outcomes of this meeting included:

1. the initiation of work to compile and synthesize existing ecological criteria for future identification of potential sites for protection in marine areas beyond the limits of national jurisdiction, as well as applicable biogeographical classification systems, and recommendations concerning cooperation and coordination among various forums for establishment of marine protected areas;
2. agreement on options for mobilizing financial resources for the implementation of the programme of work through a variety of funding mechanisms;
3. an updated list of tool kits for implementing the programme of work, and
4. identification of areas where more work is needed.