At AEWA's 6th Meeting of the Parties on the morning of 14 November 2015 in Bonn, its Executive Secretary, Dr. Jacques Trouvilliez, quoted the poet Paul Eluard in an emotional speech. The Parties present had redoubled their solidarity within this assembly of nations, united around the shared objectives of conserving biodiversity in Europe and Africa. Among the resolutions adopted that day, Resolution 6.14 explicitly expressed the gratitude of the Parties to, among others, the French Government and the Office National de la Chasse et de la Faune Sauvage (ONCFS), now the Office Français de la Biodiversité (OFB), ‘for their generous and substantial contributions to the implementation of the African Action Plan’.

In fact, since their inception, AEWA and the OFB have shared a number of actions, projects and, above all, a common vision for the conservation and sustainable use of migratory waterbirds.

When AEWA was created in 1995, the OFB was already initiating a pioneering experiment to ban lead shot in the hunted marshes from (and with) its long-standing partner, the Tour du Valat (TdV).

The OFB has been particularly involved in the European goose management platform since its launch in 2016, and in the development of adaptive management of exploited species.

Another challenge that is perhaps even more ambitious because it is more uncertain is that of the technical support that AEWA and the OFB wished to commit to providing together to the African Contracting Parties and technical partners through a Technical Support Unit initiated in 2012 by the French Ministry in charge of ecology, with the Direction des Parcs Nationaux du Sénégal and the TdV. In these troubled times, it is more necessary than ever to strengthen this joint international commitment to scientific cooperation between Europe and Africa, in the hope that migratory birds can perhaps even more today maintain a diplomatic link between nations that are sometimes at odds. AEWA provides a framework for the peaceful and constructive dialogue needed to conserve species that depend on both continents. Through this Technical Support Unit and under the aegis of the FAO and AEWA, the OFB and TdV will be making an innovative contribution to this inter-continental dialogue as a birthday present in the form of an online course/MOOC dedicated to African birds, which will be inaugurated at the 9th Meeting of the Parties.

Today it is ‘on the wings of birds’ that the OFB sends its congratulations, in the manner of Eluard, to AEWA for these 30 years of success and commitment to their service!

(and it is again ‘on the wings of birds’ that the OFB sends its best wishes for a fruitful last MOP to its Executive Secretary and, incidentally, its own former director at the time of the Office National de la Chasse, Jacques Trouvilliez).

[Watch the video statement (in French)]

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