Bonn, 01 July 2008 - The AEWA Secretariat is pleased to announce that the Kingdom of Norway - as third country of the Scandinavian Peninsula besides Sweden and Finland – will accede to the Agreement as of 1 September 2008. It will raise AEWA membership to 61 countries.

Norway stretches over 323,759 km² and the country is dominated by mountainous or high terrain, with a great variety of natural features caused by prehistoric glaciers and varied topography, e.g. the fjords. It possesses a wide range of habitats with hemi-boreal forests and nutrient-rich lakes - both found in the south, while tundra and taiga exist in the north. 3% of this land surface covers 52 Important Bird Areas (IBAs) which is equivalent to 9,307 km². Examples of key bird species found in Norway that are also protected by AEWA include: the Eurasian Golden Plover (Pluvialis apricaria), the Purple Sandpiper (Calidris maritima), the Corncrake (Crex crex), the Great Snipe (Gallinago media), the Steller’s Eider (Polysticta stelleri) and the Lesser-White fronted Goose (Anser erythropus).

Norway is party to a number of international agreements that are relevant to the protection of sites for nature conservation such as the Convention on Biological Diversity, Ramsar Convention, the Bonn Convention and the World Heritage Convention.

Furthermore, the Government of Norway has recently supported the work of AEWA through a financial contribution even prior to accession. The generous support received from Norway has enabled the Secretariat to employ a designated coordinator for the development and implementation of an International Single Species Action Plan for the Lesser White-fronted Goose.

The AEWA Secretariat welcomes Norway to the “AEWA Family” and looks forward to further fruitful cooperation to implement the Agreement in Norway!