At the June 2005 meeting of the Convention on Biological Diversity &apos; s Ad hoc Open-ended Working Group on Protected Areas held at Montecatini, Italy, Canada offered to &quot; host a workshop of scientific experts to review and assess existing ecological criteria and biogeographical classification systems and to initiate work on the development of a set of scientifically rigorous ecological criteria that could be used to identify potential sites for marine protected areas beyond the limits of national jurisdiction &quot; .
At the June 2005 meeting of the Convention on Biological Diversity &apos; s Ad hoc Open-ended Working Group on Protected Areas held at Montecatini, Italy, Canada offered to &quot; host a workshop of scientific experts to review and assess existing ecological criteria and biogeographical classification systems and to initiate work on the development of a set of scientifically rigorous ecological criteria that could be used to identify potential sites for marine protected areas beyond the limits of national jurisdiction &quot; .