Celebrating 25 Years of AEWA

Over the past 25 years, a group of dedicated countries, organizations and people from across the African-Eurasian region have worked together in a common effort to protect migratory waterbirds and the habitats they need to survive. The work they have done collectively has been guided and carried out under the framework of an intergovernmental treaty called AEWA - the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds.

To mark the 25th Anniversary of the treaty, the AEWA Secretariat has put together this dedicated webpage, which brings together some of the history and highlights of the past 25 years of international waterbird conservation under AEWA.  It also features an exciting new film that is being launched globally to coincide with the anniversary, which highlights the importance of a few of the critical waterbird sites found across the African-Eurasian Flyway. Last but not least, the visitor to this page will also find a growing collection of 25th Anniversary Statements by people that have helped shape and guide the work of the treaty to date.

 PRESS RELEASE: Celebrating 25 Years of International Waterbird Conservation

 Birth of a Treaty

A significant date in the development of the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) is 16 June 1995 – twenty-five years ago – when negotiators representing 54 governments signed the ‘Final Act’.  The rest is – as they say – history. [Read more]

Negotiation meeting: The team coordinating the work at the formal negotiation meeting, June 1995, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, The Hague, The Netherlands.

 People Behind AEWA

To mark the 25th Anniversary of the Agreement, the AEWA Secretariat has received statements from some of the key people who have helped shape the Agreement into what it is today, including from the two Honorary Patrons of AEWA. Their anniversary statements can be found below and more statements from across the flyway will be added to the dedicated 25th Anniversary Statements page over the course of the year. [Read more]

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 Call for Cooperation

To coincide with the 25th Anniversary, the AEWA Secretariat and partners across the African-Eurasian Flyway developed a new ten minute film called “A Call for Cooperation: Saving the Places Migratory Birds Call Home”. The film was produced by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Center for Conservation Media and showcases the importance and beauty of a number of critical sites for migratory waterbirds found across the African-Eurasian Flyway. [Read more]