Pan-African Ornithological Congress - Promoting the Conservation of Birds in Africa
Birdwatchers in Africa © Szabolcs Nagy
Bonn/Dakar, 14 October 2016 - The 14th Pan-African Ornithological Congress (PAOC14) will take place in Dakar, Senegal from 16 to 21 October. The theme for this year’s Congress is ‘Global challenges: threats and opportunities for birds in Africa’. Meeting every four years, the PAOC aims to advance research, promote the conservation of African birds and highlight the importance of birds and their relation to people.
“AEWA is an international treaty which uses the best scientific knowledge for its implementation. Every three years, the Meeting of the Parties reviews the conservation status of the populations relevant to the treaty for action. PAOC is a good occasion to take stock of the most recent studies and to discuss them with scientists and birdwatchers. The AEWA Secretariat wishes all participants a fruitful meeting”, said Jacques Trouvilliez, Executive Secretary of the UNEP/AEWA Secretariat.
Improving Waterbird Monitoring in Africa – Key for Decision-Making
Sergey Dereliev, Technical Officer at the Secretariat for the African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbird Agreement (AEWA), will be a keynote speaker at the symposium entitled ‘Producing policy-relevant information from waterbird and IBA monitoring’ where participants will be discussing the importance of monitoring waterbird populations in order to estimate their status and identify conservation needs and priorities. Estimates of population sizes and trends are crucial to identify species in need of conservation action under multilateral agreements such as AEWA and CMS as well as for monitoring the impact of such action.
Waterbird Data Management Workshop
In relation to waterbird monitoring in the AEWA region, a waterbird data management workshop for Anglophone AEWA Parties from Africa will take place after the PAOC, from 22-24 October 2016. This workshop, jointly organized by the AEWA Secretariat, the Technical Support Unit for the implementation of AEWA African Initiative and Wetlands International, aims to build capacity for the management of waterbird monitoring data collected through the International Waterbird Census (IWC). It will contribute to improving the quality and quantity of waterbird data available from the Africa region, as defined in the AEWA Plan of Action for Africa 2012-2018, which was adopted by the 5th Session of the AEWA Meeting of the Parties. The IWC, coordinated by Wetlands International, has provided an international framework for the acquisition and management of waterbird data since 1967.
A fuller version of this article can be found on the CMS website.
Last updated on 08 November 2016