World Migratory Bird Day will be celebrated by people across the world on Saturday, 9 May with the theme “Birds Connect Our World”.  The UN-led campaign aims to raise awareness of migratory birds and the importance of international cooperation to conserve them. It is organized by a collaborative partnership among two UN treaties - the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) and the African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbird Agreement (AEWA) - and the Colorado-based non-profit organization, Environment for the Americas (EFTA).

After five days of intense but always constructive discussions, the 7th session of the Meeting of the Parties to the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) has come to a successful conclusion in Durban, South Africa. The triennial Meeting of the Parties (MOP) is the Agreement’s principal decision-making body and among the main decisions taken in Durban were the adoption of the Strategic Plan and the Plan of Action for Africa for the period 2019-2027 as well as agreement on key species action plans focusing on some of the African-Eurasian flyway’s most charismatic and endangered waterbirds.

Today Norway and the European Commission will be declared ‘Champions’ of waterbird conservation. The ceremony will take place during the Gala Dinner kindly offered by the Government of South Africa in the margins of the Seventh Meeting of the Parties to the African-Eurasian Waterbird Agreement (AEWA) currently underway in Durban.

Bucking a major general trend, the overall status of waterbird populations listed on the African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbird Agreement (AEWA) has slightly improved over the last ten years, says a new report. The findings are being released ahead of World Migratory Bird Day, an annual, UN-backed global awareness-raising and environmental education campaign focused on migratory birds and the need for international cooperation to conserve them.