AEWA Technical Committee Sets its Work Plan for 2023 – 2025

Bonn, 31 March 2023 – The 18th Meeting of the AEWA Technical Committee (TC18) took place at the UN Campus in Bonn, Germany from 14 – 16 March 2023. The three-day meeting brought together experts from a wide spectrum of fields as well as several Party Observers and key partner organizations of the Agreement.

This was the first Technical Committee meeting since the 8th Session of the Meeting of the Parties to AEWA held in Budapest, Hungary in September 2022 and its main purpose was to plan the delivery of the ambitious Work Plan of the Technical Committee for the period 2023 - 2025.

In his opening remarks, Jacques Trouvilliez, Executive Secretary of AEWA said:

“Although we have improved our ability to conduct international meetings online, I strongly believe it is important to try to kick-start the work of the Technical Committee through an in-person meeting. I would like to therefore express our sincere gratitude to the Governments of Germany, The Netherlands, and the United Kingdom for providing the funding which has made this possible.”

© Aydin Bahramlouian

At the start of the meeting, Melissa Lewis – regional representative of Southern Africa in the Committee - was elected as Chair of the AEWA Technical Committee for the period 2023 – 2025 and Taulant Bino, of Albania and representing Central Europe, was elected as the Vice-Chair. Following the election of officers, the meeting heard reports from its regional representatives and the Secretariat on the status of implementation of the Agreement, before proceeding with the detailed planning of the committee’s work for the coming triennium.

"The first Technical Committee meeting after a MOP lays the foundations for the rest of the triennium – not only by giving us the opportunity to plan our work, but also by helping to build the comradery and enthusiasm necessary to get that work done! The Committee has an ambitious array of tasks this triennium, and participants’ lively discussions in Bonn leave me optimistic about delivering on these,“ said Melissa Lewis, Chair of the AEWA Technical Committee.  

Over the course of the three-day meeting, the Technical Committee reviewed and made plans for the implementation of a total of 47 individual tasks that comprise the new TC Work Plan. These tasks are assigned to eight dedicated working groups that facilitate carrying out the work forward over the course of the triennium. In addition to ad hoc virtual meetings of task groups throughout the inter-sessional period, the TC also works on the implementation of its work plan via the AEWA Technical Committee Workspace, a web-based communication and collaboration space and working area custom made for the TC. 

During the meeting in Bonn, the Committee also took decisions on several important items, including on changes to the delineation of boundaries for several AEWA populations and agreeing on a priority list of species and populations for the development of action and management plans.

The committee also agreed on a Terms of Reference (ToR) on new international guidance on the topic of adaptive management as well as ToRs for a set of projects relating to the sustainable harvest of waterbird species. These include the development of guidance on methods and tools used for harvest data collection, a rapid assessment of the sustainability of harvest as well as a report on the nature and extent of waterbird harvest and the socio-economic importance of waterbirds in the Agreement area.

Other tasks the Technical Committee will be working on over the course of the next three years include a thorough review of the seabird conservation priorities under AEWA, the development of a site monitoring protocol and CEPA workplan.

“I’m also very pleased that we were able to finalize our updates to a document on opportunities for AEWA to support the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF). As a very directed, implementation-focused conservation treaty, AEWA has an important role to play in achieving the GBF’s targets, and I encourage governments to make use of this document – especially when updating their National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans," said Melissa Lewis.

The next meeting of the AEWA Technical Committee is scheduled to take place in the first quarter of 2024 and will be held as a virtual meeting.

All documents related to the TC18 meeting can be accessed here.

 

About the Technical Committee:

The AEWA Technical Committee is a subsidiary body of the Agreement, which provides scientific and technical advice to the Meeting of the Parties (MOP) and, through the Secretariat, to Parties. It makes recommendations on the AEWA Action Plan and the implementation of the Agreement and its membership comprises nine experts elected by MOP on a regional basis, representatives appointed by three organizations (IUCN, Wetlands International and the CIC), and thematic experts on the topics of environmental law, game management, rural economics and communication, education and public awareness. The Committee works closely with the Standing Committee to ensure consistency across the Agreement’s work.

Last updated on 03 May 2023

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News item
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Birds