People behind AEWA - Barirega Akankwasah

Bonn, 10 April 2015 - Barirega Akankwasah is the Vice-Chair of the AEWA Standing Committee and the AEWA National Focal Point in Uganda, a country which hosts over 1,000 different bird species representing 10 per cent of the world’s avian fauna. Barirega is concerned that, while these birds provide vast ecological and economic services to mankind, they are at the same time facing imminent threats: habitat loss, obstacles along flyways and unsustainable levels of use. AEWA is vitally important as it provides one means of delivering the international cooperation needed to ensure that the birds are conserved.

“AEWA is vitally important as it provides one means of delivering the international cooperation needed to ensure that the birds are conserved.”, says Barirega.

Recalling MOP5 in La Rochelle, Barirega said that the moment when the Parties put aside their own self-interests and acknowledged that Africa was a region facing particular challenges proved to him how valuable AEWA is. The Parties’ acknowledgement of Africa’s predicament was backed up with the decision to assign funds to the core budget in support of the African Initiative.

Choosing one AEWA species as a favourite proved to be impossible. Barirega however said that he finds the beauty of the Grey Crested Crane (commonly referred to locally as the Uganda Crane), the Shoebill and the Lesser Flamingo especially striking.

 

 

Last updated on 10 April 2015

Type: 
News item
Region: 
Africa
Species group: 
Birds