The Wings Over Wetlands (WOW) Project
was the largest international, flyway-scale wetland
and waterbird conservation initiative ever to take
place in the African-Eurasian region, spanning Africa,
Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia, Greenland and
the Canadian Archipelago. The four year project (2006
- 2010) was a partnership among many international
conservation organizations and national governments
and aimed to improve the understanding and the conservation
of healthy and viable populations of African-Eurasian
migratory waterbirds.
Some of the key outputs of the Wings Over
Wetlands project were:
The Critical Site Network (CSN) Tool
 The
Critical Sites Network (CSN) Tool is an
online resource for the conservation of 294 waterbird species
and the important sites upon which they depend. The tool
makes it easy to obtain information on the critical sites
for waterbirds by accessing several independent databases
and analysing information at the biogeographical population
level providing decision-makers and conservation organizations
with an improved data access needed for timely and focused
wetland and waterbird conservation within the African-Eurasian
region
For more information please visit the WOW
Project website: www.wingsoverwetlands.org/csntool
The WOW Flyway Training Programme and Flyway Training Kit
 Another
key output of the WOW project has been the compilation
of the WOW Flyway Training Kit. The Training
Kit includes three modules with example-rich text, case
studies and exercises and is supported by a comprehensive
set of PowerPoint presentations, as well as accompanying
CDs with a range of supporting material. It is designed
to assist in targeted trainings that can be customized
by topic as they relate to flyway conservation, wetland
management and migratory waterbird conservation.
For more information please
see: www.wingsoverwetlands.org/flywaytrainingkit
11 WOW Demonstration Sites
 Distributed
throughout the project area, WOW supported field projects
at eleven important wetland sites in 12
countries.
These projects focused on a number of wetland-related conservation
issues including community mobilization, management planning,
ecotourism, field research, wetland restoration, control
of invasive species, trans-boundary management, education
and alternative livelihoods. WOW Demonstration Projects
were carried out in the following countries: Estonia, Hungary,
Lithuania, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal & The
Gambia, South Africa, Tanzania, Turkey and Yemen.
For more information please
see: www.wingsoverwetlands.org/demoprojects
One
of WOW’s other big successes has been the high level
of cooperation and partnership in its multi-institutional
and international team working at all levels of the project.
Across the African-Eurasian region, national governments
have highlighted the importance of flyway-scale conservation
as the only meaningful way to protect waterbirds across
their diverse habitats.
The WOW Project was sponsored by the Global Environment
Facility (GEF) through the UN Environment Programme (UNEP),
the German Federal Ministry for Environment, Nature Conservation
and Nuclear Safety, the Secretariat of the African-Eurasian
Migratory Waterbird Agreement (UNEP/AEWA Secretariat) and
several other donors.
More information on the project can be found on the dedicated WOW project website:
www.wingsoverwetlands.org
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