Former Executive Secretary, Bert Lenten, Retires

Bonn, 12 January 2018 – After a long and distinguished career in the CMS Family, Lambertus “Bert” Lenten, the former Executive Secretary of AEWA has retired.

Bert’s connection to the CMS Family started when he was appointed interim Executive Secretary of the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) in January 1996. Based in the Division for International Nature Conservation of the Directorate for Nature with the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture Nature and Fisheries in The Hague, Bert organized the first Meeting of the Parties, which took place at Somerset West, near Cape Town in 1999. He became the first Executive Secretary of AEWA, when the Secretariat was established in Bonn the following year. One of the major achievements of AEWA under Bert’s leadership was the multi-million-dollar project, Wings over Wetlands, which was implemented between 2006 and 2010 in partnership with other international organizations and national governments. The key outputs of Wings over Wetlands include the Critical Site Network (CSN) Tool and the Flyway Training Kit.

In January 2011, Bert’s appointment was confirmed as Deputy Executive Secretary of CMS in succession to Lahcen El Kabiri. Bert therefore played an instrumental role in the organization of three CMS COPs – Bergen 2011, Quito 2014 and most recently Manila 2017.

“AEWA certainly would not be where it is today without Bert’s efforts to get the Agreement off the ground in the early days. Now with 77 Parties, AEWA is the largest of all the daughter agreements under CMS. I wish Bert a long and happy retirement and commend his decision to spend a great deal of it in Limousin in my native France”, said Jacques Trouvilliez, Bert’s successor as Executive Secretary of AEWA.

If you would like to contact Bert, he can be reached at the following e-mail address: blenten@hotmail.com.

Dernière mise à jour le 12 January 2018

Type: 
News item
Species group: 
Birds