Members of the Energy Task Force, including the CMS and AEWA Secretariats, BirdLife International, and the German Ministry for the Environment (BMUB) joined forces at the UNFCCC Bonn Climate Change Conference to raise awareness of the importance of reconciling migratory species conservation with the deployment of renewable energy and power lines globally.

A waterbird conservation project in Guinea was successfully implemented by BirdLife International, in collaboration with the Government of Guinea and other national partners, in the framework of the AEWA Small Grants Fund (SGF). The project, entitled “Strengthening National Capacity for sustainable conservation of Migratory Waterbirds in Guinea”, was funded under the 2013 cycle of the AEWA Small Grants Fund and implemented in the period 2014-2016. It contributed to the BirdLife/MAVA Foundation-funded Conservation of Migratory Birds Project (CMB).

Gabon has completed a project aiming to enhance technical and operational capacity to support the survey and monitoring of migratory waterbirds and their habitats in the country. This project which lasted 16 months was led by the Gabon Ministry of Water and Forests, through the Directorate General for Wildlife and Protected Areas, under the 2013 cycle of the AEWA Small Grants Fund (SGF).

From 15 to 20 January 2017, the Technical Support Unit (TSU) for the AEWA African Initiative along with the Directorate for Wildlife Conservation and Protected Areas of Chad (DCFAP), Zakouma National Park and with the support of a volunteer ornithologist from the Tour du Valat have jointly carried out the first waterbird census at the Bahr Aouk and Salamat floodplains Ramsar Site - see the location map. Situated in the south of Chad, the vast complex of floodplains, rivers and ponds of some 5,000,000 hectares is one of the largest Ramsar Sites in the world.

The Mediterranean waterbirds network was launched in 2011 by the Tour du Valat research centre for the conservation of Mediterranean wetlands (TdV) and the French Agency for Wildlife and Hunting Management (ONCFS) in order to improve and strengthen the International Waterbird Census (IWC) in the Mediterranean, with a special focus on North Africa. This network had been supported by the MAVA Foundation for Nature and the French Ministry for Environment, Energy and the Sea (MEEM) and was primarily constituted by Groupe de Recherche pour la Protection des Oiseaux au Maroc (Morocco), Direction Générale des Forêts (Algeria), Association "Les Amis des Oiseaux" (Tunisia), Environment General Authority (Libya), the Libyan Society For Birds and the Egyptian Environment Affairs Agency.

A multi-stakeholder consultation workshop took place in Yaoundé from 7 – 8 December 2016, with the aim of re-invigorating the national process for the accession of Cameroon to AEWA. The workshop, which was co-organized by the Cameroon Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife (MINFOF) and the UNEP/AEWA Secretariat, with financial support from the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) in Switzerland, contributes to the implementation of Target 5.1 of the AEWA Plan of Action for Africa which aims to increase membership to AEWA.

The Republic of Cameroon is re-energizing the process of its accession to AEWA with a multi-stakeholder consultation workshop taking place in Yaoundé from 7 – 8 December 2016.
The workshop, which is being co-organized by the Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife (MINFOF) of Cameroon and the UNEP/AEWA Secretariat, with financial support from the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) in Switzerland, is contributing to the implementation of Target 5.1 of the AEWA Plan of Action for Africa which aims to increase membership of AEWA.

The UNEP/AEWA Secretariat, in collaboration with Wetlands International and the Technical Support Unit (TSU) for the implementation of the AEWA African Initiative , organized a Waterbird Data Management Workshop from 22 to 24 October in Dakar, Senegal, immediately following the 14th Pan-African Ornithological Congress (PAOC 14) which also took place in Dakar. The local organization of the workshop was supported by Wetlands International Africa.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) announced earlier this month that it would be working in partnership with the French Facility for Global Environment (FFEM) in the wetlands of the Sahel in Africa to improve the state of natural resources. This agreement will focus on the sustainable management of migratory waterbirds, which play a significant role in guaranteeing food security for people living in the region.

The 14th Pan-African Ornithological Congress (PAOC14) took place in Dakar, Senegal from 16 to 21 October. The theme for this year’s Congress was ‘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.