The Secretariat of the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (UNEP/AEWA) would like to remind you of the decision from Resolution 6.21 of the 6^th Session of the Meeting of the Parties (MOP6) to AEWA in November 2015 which urges AEWA Contracting Parties to “enhance synergies in their respective countries between biodiversity-related conventions to facilitate information sharing on potential funding opportunities and sharing of financial resources such as the Desertification Fund, Green Climate Fund, the Adaptation Fund, and the Global Environmental Facility to enable efficient use of resources”. 

The same resolution as well as other resolutions of the AEWA MOP6 further urge the AEWA Contracting Parties to ensure that their national authorities responsible for the implementation of AEWA promote the incorporation of measures for the implementation of the Agreement into their National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs) – this includes AEWA Resolutions 6.3 on strengthening waterbird monitoring, 6.21 on resource mobilization for the implementation of AEWA and 6.15 which refers to the contribution of AEWA to the implementation of the Aichi Targets 2011-2020 of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

In addition, for the AEWA Contracting Parties which are also Parties to the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS), the UNEP/AEWA Secretariat will like to equally draw attention to Notification N^o 2016/030 of 31 October 2016 from the UNEP/CMS Secretariat to its contracting Parties, providing elements of advice on funding of national priorities of CMS in the framework of the GEF.

The UNEP/AEWA Secretariat hereby encourages the AEWA National Focal Points to liaise with their CBD counterparts to ensure that the provisions for migratory waterbird conservation are taken into account during any related national, regional or international negotiations in preparation for the forthcoming 13^th Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP13) to CBD taking place from 4-7 December 2016, and thereby mainstreamed into the four-year framework of programme priorities for the seventh replenishment period (2018-2022) of the GEF Trust Fund. The UNEP/AEWA Secretariat also encourages AEWA National Focal Points to liaise with their CBD counterparts to ensure that migratory waterbird provisions are duly taken into consideration and mainstreamed into any CBD COP13 decisions relating to the development, revision and implementation of NBSAPs.