World Migratory Bird Day 2007
The
second ever World Migratory Bird Day (WMBD) was successfully celebrated
with 107 separate events taking place in 58 countries around the world on
12-13 May 2007. The events, which were all registered on the
WMBD website, were celebrated across the world’s
flyways and helped to bring the message of this year’s World Migratory
Bird Day campaign to local communities in many parts of the world. The WMBD
campaign also generated an unprecedented wave of global media coverage specifically
focussed on the impacts of climate change on migratory birds. The event
was also featured on many government, NGO and other international partner
websites. [read
on]
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WOW Project Partnership helps highlight WMBD - celebrations
take place at key sites - across the AEWA region
Several World Migratory Bird Day (WMBD) 2007 highlights took place at some
of the most critical sites required by migratory waterbirds across the African-Eurasian
region. A number of these activities were also conducted at wetlands, which
have been chosen as demonstration sites for best-practice of wetland management
across the African-Eurasian Flyways under the 4-year Wings over Wetlands
project. [read
on]
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Project of the month: Workshop on Sustainable Hunting
of Migratory Birds in the Mediterranean Third Countries, 13-14 May 2007,
Amman, Jordan
This was the second workshop in the framework of the LIFE project on Building
Capacity for Sustainable Hunting of Migratory Birds in the Mediterranean
Third Countries (namely Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine
Authority, Syria, and Tunisia). The project is being implemented by
BirdLife International and BirdLife's national partners
in Tunisia and Lebanon. The AEWA Secretariat is partnering by co-funding
two workshops. [read
on]
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AEWA addresses hunters at CIC 54th General Assembly -
urges to turn words into action
On
2-5 May 2007 the
54th General Assembly of CIC, "Passion for wildlife
means caring for people" took place in Belgrade, Serbia. On the request
of Mr. Dieter Schramm, President of the International Council of Game and
Wildlife Conservation (CIC), the Executive Secretary of AEWA gave a welcome
address during the official opening ceremony which took place in the Serbian
Parliament. In his welcome address, Bert Lenten stressed that over the years,
CIC had adopted several decisions that were also of interest for the work
of CMS and/ or AEWA, such as on phasing out lead shot for hunting in wetlands.
However, he also pointed out that more could be done to implement these
decisions. In order to approach the problem of lacking resources, Mr. Lenten
suggested launching an initiative whereby each hunter contributes, for example,
€ 1 annually, which would, in Europe alone, lead to an amount of at
least € 7 million. [read
on]
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7th meeting of the Group of Experts on Invasive Alien
Species (IAS)
The
7th meeting of the Group of Experts on Invasive Alien Species (IAS) organised
by the Bern Convention took place from 22-24 May 2007 in Reykjavik, Iceland.
The Executive Secretary participated in this meeting and distributed many
copies of the AEWA Guideline on Avoidance of Introductions of Non-native
Waterbird Species (Technical Series No. 12). During this meeting Contracting
Parties of the Bern Convention and organisations involved in IAS shared
information about activities that take place in order to eradicate or control
IAS, which in many cases lead directly or indirectly to huge economic losses.
[read
on]
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Outcomes of recent AEWA calls for tenders
In
March the AEWA Secretariat announced two calls for tenders for the following
projects:
1. Implementing AEWA Resolution 3.17 on climate change and the migratory
waterbirds and
2. Developing guidelines on minimizing/mitigating the impact of infrastructure
developments and related disturbance affecting waterbirds. [read
on]
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Preparations for MOP 4 started
At the end of the 3rd Meeting of the Parties the Government of Madagascar
offered to host the next MOP, which will take place end of 2008. To kick
off the logistical preparations for MOP 4, Bert Lenten (Executive Secretary)
and Catherine Lehmann (Programme Officer) visited Madagascar from 7-13 May
2007. The Minister of Environment Dr. Koto Bernard reiterated the offer
of the Government of Madagascar to host MOP 4 in 2008 during a meeting that
was held in order to discuss the organisation of MOP 4. [read
on]
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Voluntary contributions received
In
2007 voluntary contributions have been received from the European Committee
to draft the 4th Conservation Status report on migratory waterbirds in the
Agreement Area. Furthermore funds have been received for the development
of information materials from the Government of Germany. Agreement has been
reached with the Government of Belgium that funding will be provided for
the development of a Guideline on the impact on waterbirds and infrastructural
developments. [read
on]
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