Joëlle Zouzou is the National Focal Point for Côte d’Ivoire, which is one of the newest countries to have joined AEWA having acceded in June 2013 thus becoming the 70th Party to the Agreement. Joëlle attended the École Nationale Supérieure d’Agronomie between 1991 and 1997 where she studied for her diploma as an agronomist specializing in water and forestry.

The following is a collection of guest contributions from the Technical Support Unit (TSU) to the AEWA African Initiative.

The Technical Support Unit (TSU) to the AEWA African Initiative organized and conducted a technical workshop on improving the quantity and quality of data from waterbird counts related to the International Waterbird Census (IWC). This technical workshop took place in Dakar, Senegal from 9 to 13 December 2014 and was intended primarily for database managers from AEWA's francophone African Contracting Parties and aimed to check, update and complement existing databases on waterbird counts.

A programme in support of the International Waterbird Census (IWC) has been initiated in the Mediterranean region by Tour du Valat, the Office National de la Chasse et de la Faune Sauvage (ONCFS - national office of hunting and wildlife) and Wetlands International with the backing of the French Environment Ministry (MEDDE) and the MAVA Foundation.

The Center for African Wetlands (CAW) in Ghana has recently finalized its project co-funded by AEWA entitled “Priority setting and conservation of migratory waterbird species at key coastal sites in Ghana”. The project aimed at gaining a better understanding of trends in populations of waterbird species, reviewing the importance of Ghana’s coastal wetlands for waterbirds as well as advocating enhanced management of designated Ramsar sites and protection of other key sites for waterbirds. Financial support was provided by the AEWA Small Grants Fund (SGF).

Bonn, 30 October 2014 – A waterbird conservation project in Senegal, co-funded in the framework of the AEWA Small Grants Fund (2012 cycle), has just been successfully completed.

Bonn, 29 October 2014 - An AEWA-funded waterbird conservation project has been successfully completed in Uganda.

AEWA’s membership will grow to 74 Contracting Parties as of 1 October 2014, with the Republic of Burundi being the latest country to join the Agreement. Burundi is a landlocked country in the African Great Lakes region in the south-east of the continent, bordered by Rwanda to the north, the United Republic of Tanzania to the east and south and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west. Much of its southwestern border is adjacent to Lake Tanganyika, the second largest freshwater lake in the world by volume.

An AEWA-funded waterbird conservation project has recently been successfully completed in The Gambia. Focusing on breeding waterbird populations on the Bijol Islands, the project was carried out by the Department of Parks and Wildlife Management (DPWM) with financial support from the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) in the framework of the AEWA Small Grants Fund (SGF).

The UNEP/AEWA Secretariat is very pleased to announce that Rwanda’s instrument of accession has been submitted by the Government to the AEWA Depositary. The Agreement will enter into force for Rwanda as of 1 September 2014, thus increasing AEWA’s membership to 73 Parties. The Republic of Rwanda is a mountainous, landlocked country with an area of 26,328 km² located in the equatorial highlands of the Western or Albertine Rift Valley. It is bordered by the Democratic Republic of Congo to the west, Burundi to the south, Uganda to the north and the United Republic of Tanzania to the east.