About the conference

The Intergovernmental Conference 'Biodiversity in Europe' was held on 20-23 March 2000 in Riga, Latvia. It brought together in a unified approach the key actors involved in European biodiversity policy, focusing on the Pan-European Biological and Landscape Diversity Strategy and its Council, the EU Member States working group on biodiversity, and the focal points to the Convention on Biological Diversity. For the first time ever the Strategy Council meeting was held in Latvia, back to back with the Conference. The Conference discussed six issues of European importance to the CBD and which will bring a concerted message to the fifth CBD Conference of the Parties in May 2000 in Kenya. The issues are being led by the following governments:

Discussion documents are available from this Web site.

See also the Strategy Council documents that were discussed during the meeting.

The outcome of the conference is laid down in the Chairman's conclusions, which will be communicated to COP5 in Kenya. A conference report is available from this site as well..