17 October 2014: Braulio de Souza Dias, Executive Secretary, the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and Emmanuel Ze Meka, Executive Director, International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO), have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) extending the ‘Collaborative Initiative for tropical forest biodiversity’ until 2020.

The MoU, initially signed in 2010 for a duration of five years, created a partnership that supported activities to conserve biodiversity in tropical forests as a contribution to the achievement of the Aichi Biodiversity Targets. To date, 11 projects have been implemented under the Initiative including trans-boundary protected area projects between Indonesia and Malaysia, and between Cambodia, Lao PDR and Thailand as well as between Guatemala and Mexico.

The Initiative, presented during a side event to the twelfth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the CBD (CBD COP 12), has received US$12.5 million in funding over its first four years of implementation. [ITTO Press Release]