Bonn, 16 November 2009 - Representatives
from the Wings Over Wetlands partners BirdLife International,
Wetlands International and the AEWA Secretariat came together
at the UN Premises in Bonn, Germany from 10-11 November
2009 to work out the details of an inter-agency Memorandum
of Cooperation (MoC) for continued collaborative flyway-level
action in the AEWA region for the period following the conclusion
of the Wings Over Wetlands (WOW) UNEP-GEF African-Eurasian
Flyways Project.

The aim of the memorandum is to build on
the positive experiences created in the context of the WOW
project by consolidating and further advancing a partnership
approach for flyway-scale conservation of migratory waterbirds
and their wetland habitats between four of the main WOW
partners: the AEWA and Ramsar Secretariats, BirdLife International
and Wetlands International.

The WOW project - scheduled to have delivered
its full set of achievements by December 2010 – is
providing an unprecedented boost to flyway conservation
efforts in the AEWA region, particularly through the development
of such products as the Critical Site Network (CSN) Tool
and a Flyway Training Kit and has also led to closer cooperation
between many of the institutions most involved in flyway-level
conservation work in the region.

Hence, the MoC is seen as a way to build
on the effective institutional partnerships which have already
been forged in the context of the project and to try to
translate the achievements made under WOW into a long-term,
collaborative, flyway-scale programme for the conservation
of migratory waterbirds and the wise use of wetlands along
the African-Eurasian Flyways.

The MoC text drafting meeting was chaired
by Dr. Gerard C. Boere in his capacity as Chair of the WOW
Steering Committee and was jointly organised by the WOW
Project Coordination Unit and the AEWA Secretariat. The
draft text of the proposed MoC for the “Wings Over
Wetlands Flyway Partnership for the Conservation of Migratory
Waterbirds and their Habitats” is currently undergoing
a process of internal consultation amongst all partners
and it is hoped that the final MoC will be signed by all
partners in a signing ceremony in June 2010.