Held immediately after SBSTTA-8, the Open-ended Inter-sessional Meeting on the Multi-Year Programme of Work for the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the CBD up to 2010, met from 17-20 March 2003, in Montreal, Canada.

The meeting adopted recommendations on: the multi-year programme of work for the COP up to 2010; legal and socioeconomic aspects of technology transfer and cooperation; the outcome of the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) as it relates to the Convention process; achieving the CBD and WSSD 2010 target to significantly reduce the current rate of biodiversity loss; an international regime for access and benefit sharing; and future progress evaluation in implementing the Convention and the Strategic Plan. MYPOW delegates successfully identified work priorities for the COP up to 2010, as well as initial steps towards developing an international regime on access and benefit sharing. The Earth Negotiations Bulletin report outlining these discussions in detail can be found at: http://enb.iisd.org/linkages/biodiv/mypow/