On 27-28 August 2005 the AEWA Secretariat took part in the Dutch Bird Fair, the Vogelfestival, which was held in the Oostvaardersplassen wetland, Lelystad, the Netherlands, by the Dutch BirdLife partner Vogelbescherming Nederland.

About 9,000 visitors came to see 97 different stands selling binoculars, cameras and outdoor equipment, wildlife books and photographs as well as holiday trips and everything to do with birds, and to take part in the workshops, birdwatching excursions and special events for both adults and children.

The Vogelfestival was launched in Lelystad last year, modelled on the British Birdwatching Fair, which is organized jointly by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) and the Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust and held in August every year at Rutland Water, UK.

AEWA, which was negotiated and concluded in the Netherlands 10 years ago, was represented at the Vogelfestival for the first time. In its tent the AEWA team presented an exhibition about the Agreement and its work, and distributed approximately 1,000 posters showing the migration routes of the dark-bellied brent goose, the black stork, the greater and lesser flamingo and the common crane, as well as stickers, pins, brochures and other information material on the Agreement and its mother convention CMS.

The proceeds from this year's Vogelfestival will be donated to the BirdLife partner in Burkina Faso, NATURAMA (Fondation des Amis de la Nature). The money will support a one-year project to conserve an important Ramsar wetland site in the Sahel zone in the north of the country, where more than 20,000 waterbirds are regularly to be found.