As the year draws to an end, the opportunity presents itself to provide an overview on Lesser White-fronted Goose conservation activities and projects that have been implemented under the framework of the AEWA Lesser White-fronted Goose International Working Group in 2017. The year has certainly been a very busy one for the Working Group, as showcased below. Following the 3rd Working Group meeting in Trondheim in April 2016, the focus has been on the implementation of key conservation activities outlined in the 2016-2019 workplan.

The UNEP/AEWA Secretariat is proud to launch a new partnership, with the information resource initiative, Conservation Evidence. Based at the University of Cambridge, UK, with collaborators and advisers in all continents of the world, Conservation Evidence is a free, authoritative information resource designed to support decisions about how to maintain and restore global biodiversity. The idea is to give busy conservationists access to the very latest and most relevant ecological knowledge to support their policy or management decisions.

The AEWA Northern Bald Ibis International Working Group (NBI IWG) comprises the eight principal Range States of the two populations of Northern Bald Ibis. Five of them came together for the 2nd meeting of the NBI IWG in Agadir, Morocco from 25 to 27 September 2017. This meeting followed the first gathering of the Group in November 2012 in Jizan, Saudi Arabia where the revision of the International Single Species Action Plan for this critically endangered species was launched, which was later adopted at MOP6 in 2015.

A multi-faceted group of European government representatives, scientists and non-governmental organizations came together to develop an International Species Management Plan (ISMP) for the Northwest/Southwest European population of the Greylag Goose (Anser anser).