The Anglophone Africa Subregional Workshop on the Review of and Capacity Building for the Implementation of the Programme of Work on Protected Areas under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) convened from 13-16 August 2007, in Cape Town, South Africa. Organized by the CBD, with financial support from the European Commission (EC), the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF), and The Nature Conservancy (TNC), and in collaboration with the Government of South Africa and resources provided by other international non-governmental organizations, the Workshop is one in a series initiated in response to the request of the eighth meeting of the CBD Conference of the Parties (COP-8) to the Executive Secretary to convene a series of regional workshops to review the implementation of, and build capacity for, the Programme of Work on Protected Areas.

The Workshop, which comprises plenary and interactive sessions, opened with more than 70 participants in attendance, including representatives from 20 countries, nine indigenous community representatives, and five non-governmental representatives. In the morning, participants agreed on organizational matters and heard presentations from, inter alia, the CBD Secretariat, IUCN/WCPA and the UN Development Programme/Global Environment Facility (UNDP/GEF) project to support country actions. In the afternoon, participants heard presentations on ecological gap analysis methods, and gap analysis case studies from Madagascar and BirdLife International.

Participants then convened in four country groups for the remainder of the day to discuss national ecological gap analysis status, obstacles and challenges, next steps and support for next steps with a view to completing a matrix on country actions.