Bonn, 3 April – The recently-appointed Deputy Executive Director of UNEP, Ms. Angela Cropper, visited Bonn today, in order to meet with the CMS Executive Secretary Robert Hepworth, the AEWA Executive Secretary Bert Lenten and the Eurobats Executive Secretary Andreas Streit, and to familiarise herself with current CMS Family issues and conservation policy.

During her visit to the AEWA Secretariat, Bert Lenten gave a short presentation on AEWA and briefed Ms. Cropper on the preparations for the 4th Meeting of the Parties, which will take place from 15-19 September 2008 in Antananarivo, Madagascar. Mr. Lenten invited her to attend the opening ceremony of MOP4. Sergey Dereliev, Florian Keil, Catherine Lehmann and Kirsten Martin gave a concise presentation of the ongoing activities on the conservation of species, information management and project development to the Deputy Director, giving her an insight into the active role AEWA is playing regarding the conservation of migratory waterbirds.

After presenting a statement to the ASCOBANS Advisory Committee in the afternoon, the UNEP Deputy Executive Director invited all CMS Family staff to a meeting, where she took the opportunity to make a brief statement and address questions and concerns of staff members. Ms. Cropper paid tribute to the interns working for the CMS Family, describing the high take-up of internships as a vote of confidence in the Convention and its Agreements.

The Executive Secretary of CMS invited Ms. Cropper to attend the major CMS Family side event scheduled for 26 May during the forthcoming CBD Conference in Bonn.

Later that day, Ms. Cropper spoke at a public BMZ Policy Dialogue in Bonn, where she emphasised close links between biodiversity sciences and poverty alleviation, drawing on her previous leadership role in the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. She pointed out that there is a clear need to streamline the scattered attempts of linking biodiversity, equity and poverty considerations at an economic scale. She also stressed the need for nations, international organisations and particularly development policy to focus on the strengthening of Access and Benefit Sharing between the countries of the North and the South.

Note: Ms. Angela Cropper of Trinidad and Tobago took up her post as Assistant Secretary-General and Deputy Executive Director for the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), in February 2008.

Link to UNEP news release on Ms. Cropper’s appointment