The Intergovernmental Panel on Forests (IPF), set up by the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) in 1995 provides the principal intergovernmental arena for global discussions on forests. Its ancestry lies in the UNCED Earth Summit which agreed a set of Forest Principles in Rio in 1992.
Progress in implementing these Principles (and Agenda 21) was reviewed by the Commission on Sustainable : Development (CSD) in 1995 and this gave rise to the Forest Panel. The Panel will next meet in Geneva in September 1996 and then again in February 1997 before a final report to the CSD later in the year.
A manual examining all aspects of biodiversity assessment has been _ produced as a collaborative effort between the Royal Geographical Society, the Natural History Museum and the Botanic Gardens at Kew and Edinburgh. The three volume handbook is aimed at all those surveying and assessing biodiversity around the world. Its intent is to improve standards of biodiversity research.
The Manual was sponsored by the Department of the Environment and is available at a cost of £50 from the Royal Geographical Society, 1 Kensington Gore, London, SW7 2AR.
Tel: 0171 589 5466.
Fax: 0171 584 4447.
Email: info@rgs.org.
The next Conference of the Parties (COP) to the Convention on Biological Diversity will meet in Buenos Aires, Argentina from 11 to 20 November 1996. The Whitehall lead on the Convention is the Department of the Environment.
The Association for the Taxonomic Study of the Flora of Tropical Africa (AETFAT) Congress will take place in Harare, Zimbabwe from 3 to 9 February 1997. This three-yearly meeting of African botanists will have the theme "Plant biodiversity in Africa: its use and value to people".
Almost 200 people are expected to attend, of which about 60 African scientists still require sponsorship (July 1996). Workshop titles are: development of African herbaria; establishing a
network of ethnobotanists, the Biodiversity Convention: update on progress; phytosociology of African plants, taking taxonomy to the schools; CITES- the implications for botanists; and the Mopane ecosystem. For more information contact the General-Secretary of AETFAT, Prof. Bruce Campbell. Email bcambell@esanet.zw