Participants from various countries participated in the 3rd Meeting of the CBD Global Partnership on Business and Biodiversity that was held in Montreal, Canada, on 2/3 October 2013. The purpose of the conference was both to give room for an in-depth discussion of various business-related questions as well as to further strategically develop the Global Partnership. <link _blank internal-link internal link in new>The network is based on CBD decisions targeting at integrating business into the implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity. 

Following a 1st Meeting of the Partnership in December 2011 in Tokyo and a second one on the occasion of CBD-COP 11 in Hyderabad, India, in 2012, the third meeting was jointly hosted by the Secretariat of the CBD and the Canadian Business and Biodiversity Council. Braulio de Souza Dias, CBD Executive Secretary, und Luc Robitaille, Corporate Director Environment, Holcim (Canada) Inc. and Chair of the Canadian Business and Biodiversity Council, welcomed more than 150 participants. One and a half days of the event were given to discussing core questions of business and biodiversity in various panels, such as safeguards and mechanisms, responsible supply chains, standards, and challenges of selected sectors. 

Sally Ollech from 'Biodiversity in Good Company' presented the latest developments in Germany as well as in the international work of the initiative. The focus of her presentation was on the launch of the new German platform <link _blank internal-link internal link in current>"Unternehmen Biologische Vielfalt 2020", an innovative forum for business federations and nature conservancy NGOs that was established in addition and complementary to the company-driven Business and Biodiversity Initiative. 

In the afternoon of 3 October the delegates from existing national and regional business and biodiversity initiatives and those under construction met in order to discuss strategic questions regarding the further implementation and structure of the Global Partnership. They worked upon a draft of a "Global Partnership Governance Document", the purpose of which is to establish a governance structure and process for the network. Among other things, the question how initiatives can get access to the platform called for clarification. It was decided that in the end the decision has to be made on the respective national and regional level. Finance and resources were an issue, as well. In the run-up to CBD-COP 12 in Korea in 2014, some of the governance questions should be further addressed.

For the Global Partnership to move forward and be recognized, both within and outside of the Partnership, the participants opted for setting-up an executive structure. An interim committee consisting of Daan Wensing (Netherlands), Edgar Endrukaitis (Germany/India), Eduard Muller (Mesoamerica), Elisa Romano (Brazil) and Sonia Castaneda Rial (Spain) and chaired by Reg Melanson (Canada) was created to work on the establishment of an inaugural executive committee. Edgar Endrukaitis is a board member of 'Biodiversity in Good Company' and thus presents our initiative in this interim committee. The plan is to appoint an Executive Committee of the Global Partnership in Korea at the latest. 

Some further next steps regarding communication of the Partnership include revamping the website <link http: www.cbd.int business _blank external-link-new-window external link in new>www.cbd.int/business and seeting up a Global Partnership Wikipedia page. The Global Partnership is expected to meet once a year.

<link file:1274 _blank download file>Programme of the conference (without internal meeting of initiatives on 3 Oct afternoon)

Please visit the conference webcast on the CBD website where some constributions to the event are available: <link http: new.livestream.com accounts gpbb _blank external-link-new-window external link in new>new.livestream.com/accounts/4167025/gpbb