Deputy Minister of Environmental Affairs, Barbara Thomson, handed over the chairmanship to the Under-Secretary of National Council of Protected Areas of Guatemala, Marco Tax Marroquin, on the sidelines of the high level segment of the 12th Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in Pyeongchang, Korea.

The Group of LMMCs was established in 2002 in Cancun, Mexico, as a consultation and cooperation mechanism to promote parties’ common interests and priorities related to the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity.

The declaration, establishing the group, acknowledged that biological resources and the associated environmental services have an immense strategic, economic and social value, and offer development opportunities to the populations of these countries and the international community.

Available: http://www.sanews.gov.za/south-africa/sa-hands-over-chairmanship-biological-group