In 2014, the Scientific Committee endorsed a proposal from South Africa that the Secretariat be tasked with developing a proposal for funding support from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) to build capacity among GEF-eligible CCAMLR Member countries to strengthen their participation in CCAMLR (SC-CAMLR-XXXIII, paragraph 10.30). This report updates CCAMLR Members on developments during 2017. This includes the approval of the Project Identification Form (PIF) by the GEF Council at its meeting in May 2017, subsequent work that will be associated with developing the full Project Document over the next 12 months and seeks further guidance on the role of the Project in the work of CCAMLR. The project will be financed by GEF, implemented by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and executed by CCAMLR for the duration of four years. The financial support requested from GEF is US$6 192 694.

The Executive Secretary's Report of the 40th Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (ATCM XL), Beijing, China, 23 May to 1 June 2017, presents a summary of items of interest to CCAMLR Members.

Cooperation between the Scientific Committee of CCAMLR (SC-CAMLR) and the Committee for Environmental Protection (CEP) has been steadily increasing over the last few years to the mutual benefit of both.  In order to avoid duplicate reporting between the two committees, and following discussions between the Chairs of the CEP and SC- CAMLR, the report of the CEP meeting is presented to SC-CAMLR by the CEP Observer to SC-CAMLR and the report of the meeting of SC-CAMLR is presented to the CEP by the SC-CAMLR observer to the CEP.  An agreed standard reporting template, to be routinely followed by both committees, has also clarified and simplified the reciprocal reporting.  Accordingly, this report provides the CEP’s annual report to SC-CAMLR-XXXVI.