The Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF) has successfully completed a project on enhancing capacity and raising awareness for waterbird conservation, implemented over the period 2018-2019 and funded under the AEWA Small Grants Fund (SGF). Project activities included, among others, the conduct of waterbird monitoring trainings and waterbird counts, the development of a schedule for planning waterbird monitoring at identified sites and the establishment of Site Support Groups (SSGs) to sustain future waterbird and habitat conservation activities.

With support from the AEWA Small Grants Fund (SGF), the Mauritanian conservation NGO AMISO (Association mauritanienne des amis des oiseaux et de la protection des espèces animales menacées d’extinction) has successfully implemented a project designed to enhance technical and material capacity for waterbird identification and monitoring in Mauritania. The project has a focus on the Aftout Essahili lagoon, a peripheral zone of Diawling National Park (PND) in southwestern Mauritania.

The Republic of Malawi is acceding to AEWA becoming the 80th Party on 1 September. It is at the same time joining the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS). Malawi, capital Lilongwe, is a landlocked country of Southern Africa with a population of 18 million people and an area of 118, 484 km2. It has borders with Zambia and the United Republic of Tanzania to the north and with Mozambique to the south. The Great Rift Valley runs through the country, which also has shores on the west side of Lake Malawi (also known as Lake Nyasa).

The AEWA International Working Group for the Grey Crowned-crane (GCC IWG) met for the first time in Entebbe, Uganda from 24 to 26 July. After intensive discussions, considerable progress was made in drawing up a concrete implementation plan covering the period to 2022, with specific national activities complementing wider regional and international tasks.

The International Working Group for the Grey Crowned-crane is meeting for the first time from 24 to 26 July following the adoption of the associated International Single Species Action Plan at AEWA MOP6 in 2015. The primary aim of the meeting is to operationalize the Action Plan by agreeing implementation priorities for the Range States both individually and collectively at a supranational level. Initial focus will concentrate on the next three and half years covering the period 2019-2022. Encouragingly, most of the principal Range States are registered to participate.

An AEWA Training of Trainers (ToT) workshop on the flyway approach to the conservation and wise use of waterbirds and wetlands took place from 6 to 10 May in Benin. The workshop was jointly organized by the UNEP/AEWA Secretariat and the Directorate General of Water, Forests and Hunting (DGEFC) of Benin, in cooperation with the Ramsar Secretariat and the Wadden Sea Flyway Initiative (WSFI). It was made possible thanks to generous financial and in-kind support from the Government of Benin and the European Commission’s Global Public Goods and Challenges (GPGC) Thematic Programme Strategic Cooperation Agreement (SCA) with UN Environment and the WSFI.

The Seventh Meeting of the Parties (MOP7) to the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) took place from 4-8 December 2018 in Durban, Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa, under the theme “Beyond 2020: Shaping Flyway Conservation for the Future”. The MOP was attended by more than 280 delegates representing 56 Parties, along with many observers from non-Party countries, NGOs and scientists.

A regional Training of Trainers (ToT) workshop on the Flyway Approach to the Conservation and Wise Use of Waterbirds and Wetlands is scheduled to take place from 6 to 10 May 2019 in Cotonou at the kind invitation of the Government of Benin. The workshop is jointly organized by the UNEP/AEWA Secretariat and the Directorate General of Water, Forests and Hunting of Benin, in close collaboration with the Ramsar Secretariat and the Wadden Sea Flyway Initiative.

The Secretariat of the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (UNEP/AEWA) is pleased to inform you that the Central African Republic and the Republic of Serbia will

The UNEP/AEWA Secretariat is pleased to announce the accession of the Central African Republic as AEWA’s 78th Party. The country’s membership to the Agreement took effect on 1 January. The Central African Republic is a landlocked country in the heart of the continent bordering with Cameroon, Chad, Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Sudan and Sudan. The country has an area of just over 620,000 km2 and a population of 4.6 million (2016 estimates); the capital is Bangui.