Bonn,
24 June 2011 – The Committee for Captive
Breeding, Reintroduction and Supplementation of Lesser
White-fronted
Geese in Fennoscandia (RECAP) was convened by the UNEP/AEWA
Secretariat for its fourth meeting on 16 June 2011
at the UN Campus in Bonn, Germany. Committee members Finland,
Norway and Sweden as well as observer country Germany were
all represented. The meeting was chaired by AEWA Acting
Executive Secretary, Dr. Marco Barbieri.

One of the main agenda items was the presentation
of an independent review on Lesser White-fronted Goose (LWfG)
flyways in Europe prepared by the British Trust for Ornithology
(BTO). The review was commissioned by the Secretariat on
behalf of the Committee in an attempt to shed more light
on past flyways of the LWfG in Europe before the dramatic
decline of the species starting in the 1950s.

BTO representatives Andy Musgrove and
John Marchant started off the meeting with a presentation
of
the review, including the main conclusion that there is
little evidence that LWfG were migrating along a so-called
“Atlantic flyway” from the breeding areas in
northern Sweden to the south over western parts of Germany

and the Netherlands, although the possibility that such
a migration route had existed in the past, before European

ornithology had developed sufficiently to record it, could
not be completely ruled out. Whilst the Committee agreed

with the conclusions of the review, Sweden requested that
BTO in addition look at web-based data on LWfG sightings

to complement the information derived from published data
and to see if this additional information would perhaps

alter some of the conclusions of the review.

Sweden also presented a request that background
information on the Swedish LWfG population in the International
Single Species Action Plan (SSAP) which it considers to
be incorrect should be revised as soon as possible. The
request in particular concerns changing the labeling of
the Swedish population to supplemented instead of reintroduced.

Following a discussion, Committee members
agreed that any revision of the SSAP will have to be undertaken

by a decision-making body of the Agreement. Sweden was
requested by the Chair to submit its proposal for amendments
in writing
to the next AEWA Technical Committee Meeting in September
2011, from which it can be passed on for a decision to
the
AEWA Standing Committee in November and the fifth Meeting
of the Parties to AEWA in May 2012, if necessary.

Other topics on the agenda included national
reports on the current situation of the LWfG in each country
as well as an update on the ongoing implementation of the
SSAP, which is being coordinated by the Secretariat.

For more information, please contact Ms.
Nina Mikander, Coordinator for the Lesser White-fronted
Goose at the UNEP/AEWA Secretariat.