Bonn, 2 November 2011 - The Secretariat would like to seek initial offers to host the 11th Meeting of the CMS Conference of Parties in 2014.

CoP 11 will be due in the period October - December 2014. By then CMS is expecting to have 120 Parties. Total attendance including observers is estimated at 450-500. The normal cycle for CMS CoP meetings is a two-day Scientific Council, followed by a further two-day period (which can be a weekend) during which a Standing Committee is held and side meetings convened (including possible MoPs of species agreements) and the Scientific Council Report prepared. The next six days are allocated to the CoP itself including a one-day excursion for delegates. Other meetings including species agreement MoPs can also be added before or after this nine-day “core period”. Any country willing to offer to host the meetings will at the very least have to meet the costs of the CoP itself and make a considerable contribution towards its organization. Responsibility for the subsidiary events (Standing Committee, Scientific Council and species agreement MoPs etc) can be subject to negotiation with the Secretariat.

All offers for venues in Party States should be submitted to the CMS Secretariat through the Party focal point for CMS. Any non-Party State interested in offering to host the CoP should initially contact the Secretariat direct.

Any formal offer received by the time of the Conference will be considered under Item 28 of the provisional Agenda at CoP10 (click here) in November 2011.

The Secretariat remains available to advise and provide further detailed information to any country that is thinking of submitting an offer to host CoP 11.