AEWA MOP7 – Durban, South Africa – 4-8 December 2018

Bonn, 26 November 2018 – The seventh session of the Meeting of the Parties (MOP7) to the African-Eurasian Waterbird Agreement (AEWA) is taking place 4-8 December in Durban at the kind invitation of the Government of South Africa.    

MOP7 promises to be an important milestone in the development of AEWA because the Parties will have to make important decisions determining the way ahead for the Agreement over the next decade.  A new Strategic Plan as well as a new Plan of Action for Africa are on the agenda, along with other issues such as how to adopt the principles of adaptive management, potentially opening a new era in bird conservation.

The slogan for MOP7 chosen by the Host Government is “Beyond 2020: shaping flyway conservation for the future” and the Strategic Plan and the Plan of Action for Africa are two important contributions that AEWA can make to the post-2020 objectives for biodiversity policy by setting a new course for flyway conservation. 

The timing of AEWA MOP7 coincides with the latest stage of international negotiations over the global response to climate change, as Parties to the UNFCCC will be meeting in Katowice, Poland.  Climate change is recognized as being one of the main drivers of biodiversity loss and is affecting the behaviour and survival chances of many of the migratory waterbirds protected under AEWA.

A total of 18 side events will take place over the course of the meeting, both during the lunch breaks and in the evenings.

Throughout the duration of the meeting, the Secretariat is planning to maintain a special AEWA MOP7 Newsroom which will feature daily highlights from the meeting, including a short daily report, a daily photo gallery as well as relevant news and social media content related to MOP7. The Secretariat has also prepared a dedicated AEWA MOP7 Social Media Pack to support the social media work before and during AEWA MOP7.

About the African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbird Agreement (AEWA)
The Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) is an intergovernmental treaty dedicated to the conservation of migratory waterbirds that migrate along the African-Eurasian Flyway. The Agreement covers 254 species of birds ecologically dependent on wetlands for at least part of their annual cycle. The treaty covers 119 Range States from Europe, parts of Asia and Canada, the Middle East and Africa.  Currently 77 countries and the European Union (EU) have become a Contracting Party to AEWA (as of 1 October 2018). For more background on AEWA please see the "Introduction to AEWA" page: English | French

 

Last updated on 05 December 2018

Type: 
News item
Country: 
South Africa
Region: 
Africa
Species group: 
Birds