26 April 2012: A meeting of sub-national governments in support of the Aichi biodiversity targets aimed to identify and disseminate best practices and promote decentralized cooperation on biodiversity.

The meeting, held from 24-27 April 2012, in Curitiba, Brazil, was organized by the State Government of Paraná, Brazil, in collaboration with the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the Network of Regional Governments for Sustainable Development (nrg4SD).

Participants discussed case studies presented by, among others: the States and Provinces of Andhra Pradesh, India; Aichi Prefecture, Japan; Catalonia, Spain; Brussels, Belgium; Rhône-Alpes, France; Gyeongsangnam-do, Korea; Quintana Roo, Mexico; Hyogo Prefecture, Japan; Quebec, Canada; and Sichuan, China, as well as UN-HABITAT and the UN University Institute of Advanced Studies (UNU-IAS).

Participants discussed a road map of events and activities leading to the Sub-national Governments Summit in Hyderabad, India, to be held in parallel to the 11th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the CBD (COP 11) and to the Cities for Life Summit, co-organized with ICLEI. The meeting also included the launch of the State of Paraná Government’s Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan. [CBD Communiqué] [Meeting Documents]