STAP Meeting held in Washington
The GEF’s Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel (STAP) held its semi-annual meeting in Washington DC, April 4-6, 2006.
“Our mandate is to provide the GEF with the best strategic scientific and technical advice,” said Yolanda Kakabadse, STAP Chair, while welcoming participants and providing them with an overview of STAP activities over the past year.
She noted that the June 2005 retreat held to discuss ways of improving the effectiveness of STAP (together with the Implementing Agencies and the GEF Secretariat) led to the identification of key measures that were presented to the GEF Council in November 2005.
Specifically, STAP has provided advice in the following focal areas:
• Biodiversity: A report on mainstreaming biodiversity in production landscapes was finalized. A sourcebook on “Environmental Risk Assessment of Genetically Modified Organisms – a Case of Bt Cotton in Brazil” was produced. A sourcebook on biosafety issues concerning transgenic fish is in preparation.
• Climate Change: A report on liquid biofuels for the transport sector has been finalized.
• International Waters: A new report on integrating groundwater and managing aquifer recharge has been drafted.
• Land Degradation: A report on sustainable land management in drylands has been drafted. Studies on determining the global benefits in land degradation are in progress, and will serve as a technical input for the 2006 International Year of Deserts and Desertification campaign.
In keeping with the GEF Council’s request for increased transparency, STAP has developed a revised procedure for selecting STAP roster reviewers in cooperation with the GEF Secretariat and Implementing Agencies.
The meeting also provided an opportunity to bid farewell to several STAP members who are completing their terms in June 2006.
The STAP meeting was preceded by a one day technical session to discuss three inter-related studies on land degradation and the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA). The objective of the studies is to clarify further global environmental benefits and incremental costs in the land degradation focal area. The studies will be completed in June 2006, and will focus on the global impacts of land degradation, evaluate if and how applying the MA methodology can be used to determine global benefits and incremental costs in land degradation, and examine trade-offs in land degradation projects.
Next Steps
At the Third GEF Assembly in August 2006, STAP will submit a report on the broad scientific and technical issues that emerged during the GEF-3 cycle.
The next STAP meeting is scheduled for October 16 -18, 2006.
For more information, please email stapsec@rona.unep.org