ICLEI Welcomes the New ‘Implementation Focused’ Executive Secretary of the CBD

ICLEI Cities Biodiversity Center welcomes the appointment of Braulio Ferreira de Souza Dias to the helm of the Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD). ICLEI has a very close working relationship with the CBD, with Andre Mader currently on secondemnt to the CBD's Montreal office. Mr Mader is ICLEI CBC's longest serving staff member and was technical lead to the team before his secondment.

Mr Mader met with Mr Diaz and presented a letter to him on behalf of ICLEI’s Secretary General, Konrad Otto-Zimmermann, congratulating Mr Diaz on his new, and critical, international role. In the letter Mr Otto-Zimmermann applauded the close connection shared between ICLEI and the SCBD, demonstrated by Mr Mader’s presence at the CBD. He reiterated ICLEI’s position on “mobilizing, serving and driving cities towards innovative urban development solutions in the context of Local Agenda 21, the Rio Conventions and the guiding principles of sustainable development.”

In accepting his new role earlier this month, Mr Dias, who has a strong scientific background and recently served as the Brazilian National Secretary for Biodiversity and Forests, said: “It gives me great pleasure to succeed those that have successfully led the Convention Secretariat since the beginning.”

Mr Diaz clearly stated his intentions for his tenure as head of United Nations biodiversity when he said: “If you ask what my three priorities are for the Convention, my answer is implementation, implementation and implementation.”

After the meeting, Mr Mader said: “Mr Dias reiterated his very clear intention to increase the CBD's focus on implementation; and to catalyze concrete outcomes. He clearly recognises that local authorities and the agencies supporting them are key in achieving these aims.”

Mr Dias thanked ICLEI for the supportive letter and for the organization's foresight and generosity in seconding an expert to assist the Secretariat in supporting the implementation of Decision X/22 and the associated "Plan of Action on Sub-national Governments, Cities and Other Local Authorities for Biodiversity".