Abu Dhabi/Bonn, 12 December 2012
- The Range States of the Central Asian Flyway (CAF) region
came together yesterday in Abu Dhabi to decide on the way
forward for the legal and institutional framework for the
CAF Action Plan for the Conservation of Migratory Waterbirds.
This meeting was possible only thanks to the generous contributions
of the UNEP Regional Office for Europe through the Regional
European Biological and Landscape Diversity Strategy and
the Government of Germany.

The meeting unanimously agreed that the
preferred option would be to include the CAF under the African-Eurasian
Migratory Waterbird Agreement (AEWA). The delegates issued
a declaration requesting the Parties to AEWA to consider
extending the geographic area of that Agreement to encompass
the entire CAF region and to take responsibility for the
CAF Waterbird Action Plan. [Declaration
- English] [Declaration
- Russian]

According to a presentation made by BirdLife
International at the meeting, the waterbirds of the CAF
region are in more rapid decline than those in Africa and
Europe and their habitats are also under great pressure.

The chair of the meeting, Mr. David Stroud
of the United Kingdom, noted that under the proposed arrangement,
legal protection for the birds would be enhanced, and they
would benefit from the greater international cooperation
and coordination that AEWA could offer. In its 17 years’
existence, AEWA had become well established and had acquired
considerable experience in tackling pressing threats to
waterbirds. The declaration included a call for countries
in the region to accede to AEWA and to implement the existing
Action Plan.

Mr. Bert Lenten, Officer in Charge, of
the Secretariat of the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS),
said that he would work together with the UNEP/AEWA Secretariat
and governing bodies to ensure all necessary preparatory
steps were taken to enable the AEWA Parties to take an informed
decision on the extension of the Agreement area to include
the remaining part of the CAF region beyond the current
AEWA area. In accordance with the outcome of the CMS Future
Shape process the extension of the agreement area would
be preferable to the development of a new agreement; Mr
Lenten hoped that AEWA Parties will be able to agree with
such an extension.

At the end of the Meeting, the Chair congratulated
the delegates on the major step taken and looked forward
to it being implemented for the benefit of the conservation
of the waterbirds and their habitats in the Central Asian
Flyway region.

AEWA's Technical Officer, Mr.
Sergey Dereliev attended the meeting on behalf
of the UNEP/AEWA Secretariat.

A Notification from the UNEP/CMS Secretariat
on the legal framework for the CAF Waterbird Action Plan
is available here:

[English]
[Français]