The Conference of the Parties
1. Welcomes the outcomes of the Side Event held during the 13th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity on 9 December 2016 in Cancun, Mexico, inter alia launching of the Mountain Biodiversity for our Wellbeing online platform and strengthening awareness of the need for integrated approaches for ecosystem management in mountain regions based on examples of solutions shared by the stakeholders from the Carpathians, thanks the Slovak Republic, at that time the Presidency of the Council of EU, and the Secretariat and UN Environment for the efforts made in this respect, invites the Parties and other stakeholders to get actively involved in development and promoting of the online platform, and requests the Secretariat to support the process;
2. Welcomes the proposal of the Hungarian Presidency to organize a seminar in 2018/2019 on the issues on environmental and sustainable development education and awareness raising in kindergartens and schools with the aim of exchanging best practices in the Carpathian region and exploring of further cooperation, and requests the Secretariat to support the process;
3. Reiterating interest in further cooperation with the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (hereinafter UNECE) Steering Committee on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), requests the Parties, the Secretariat and relevant partners, among others the UNECE and S4C, to consider common activities on awareness raising, for instance, establishing contest for school students and/or young scientists with reference to the Carpathian matters;
4. Welcomes the outcomes of the Lifelong Learning project Innovation in Rural Tourism (InRuTou), which included Carpathian Convention partners from Poland, Romania and Ukraine and had a vocational learning component for sustainable rural tourism development, notes organization of the Networking Event of a project that took place on 15 July 2015 in Vienna, Austria, and invites the relevant stakeholders and the Secretariat to develop a follow up project;
5. Welcomes and appreciates the activities on awareness raising undertaken by the Secretariat, such as involvement in organization of the Model United Nations Conference on Environment and Sustainable Development (MUNESD) arranged for students on 18 – 22 April 2016 in Vienna, Austria, which took the Carpathian Convention and its COP as an example of negotiation process of an environmental agreement, as well as of the students visits, especially of the Carpathian countries, and invites the Secretariat to continue these activities.