AEWA Electronic Update:
- Guinea-Bissau and Madagascar have joined AEWA as 58th and 59th party
- Strategic Plan for AEWA
- UN-Report and the impact of Climate Change on species protected under AEWA
- The 'Wings Over Wetlands' (WOW) Steering Committee meets for the first time
- Development of an Online National Reporting System for AEWA
- Welcome to Dunia Sforzin and Jolanta Kremer
- MOP3 Proceedings published
- Seven new Stickers featuring "AEWA waterbirds"
- “Waterbirds around the World” book to be released soon
Guinea-Bissau and Madagascar have joined AEWA as 58th and 59th party
The UNEP/AEWA Secretariat is very pleased to welcome Guinea-Bissau and Madagascar on behalf of the Contracting Parties to the growing AEWA Family. Guinea-Bissau deposited its instrument of accession to AEWA and became 58th Contracting Party as of 1 November 2006. [read on]
Strategic Plan for AEWA
A working group has elaborated a first draft of the strategic plan taking into consideration the results of the prior situation analysis. This draft version has been circulated to the wider circle of members of the Technical and Standing Committees. A second refined draft will later be circulated to the Parties for their comments. The working group, which met in January 2007 to elaborate the draft Strategic Plan, consists of David Stroud and Rachelle Adams (members of the Technical Committee) as well as of Bert Lenten, Sergey Dereliev and Florian Keil (members of the AEWA Secretariat) and is assisted by the consultant Gwen van Boven. The process of developing a strategic plan for AEWA had been launched by the AEWA Standing Committee meeting in Bonn, November 2006.
UN-Report and the impact of Climate Change on species protected under AEWA
The UN-Report on Climate Change, published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in February 2007, finds that the observed increase in globally averaged temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in greenhouse gas concentrations caused by mankind. The increase in temperature leads to ocean warming, a change in wind patterns resulting in extreme weather conditions, and a change of vegetations. All this is affecting several species covered by AEWA, e.g. through loss of habitats, decline of breeding populations, and changes in migration. [read on]
The 'Wings Over Wetlands' (WOW) Steering Committee meets for the first time
The first Steering Committee Meeting of the African-Eurasian Flyways GEF project - now called Wings Over Wetlands (WOW) project - took place in Wageningen, the Netherlands at the headquarters of Wetlands International in December 2006. WOW, recently launched in the frame of the AEWA Standing Committee meeting in November 2006, is the largest international wetland and waterbird conservation initiative ever to take place in the African-Eurasian region. This 12 million US dollar project aims to conserve the critical areas needed by waterbirds migrating across these continents. The Steering Committee meeting provided a first time opportunity to assemble representatives of core partner organisations of the project to discuss its progress, review the workplan for 2007 and to set priority actions for the year to come. [read on]
Development of an Online National Reporting System for AEWA
AEWA Secretariat's Information Officer Florian Keil participated in a meeting on online national reporting for the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) and AEWA in the framework of the UNEP Knowledge Management Project in December 2006 in Cambridge, UK. Amongst the topics of this meeting were technical questions related to the creation of a joint online national reporting system for CMS and AEWA, which is a sub-component of the wider UNEP Knowledge Management Project (KNB) being realized through a generous financial contribution from Norway. The project is aimed at strengthening the implementation of multilateral environmental agreements through improved access of knowledge and information management and is being carried out by the UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) which is the biodiversity assessment and policy implementation arm of UNEP. [read on]
Welcome to Dunia Sforzin and Jolanta Kremer
The AEWA Secretariat has recruited two new staff members as envisaged in the approved budget 2006-2008. Ms Dunia Sforzin (German/Italian) has joined the Secretariat as an Information Assistant working on publications and supporting the work of the Information Officer. Ms Jolanta Kremer (British) in her position of Team Assistant provides administrative and organisational support and helps out with translations and proofreading. Both posts are on a part-time basis. The AEWA Secretariat is glad to welcome the new members to the AEWA team! [read on]
MOP3 Proceedings published
The AEWA Secretariat has recently published the Proceedings of the Third Meeting of the Parties, which took place on 23 - 27 October 2005 in Dakar, Senegal. Part I of the publication contains the report of the session including all adopted resolutions and decisions as well as the list of participants and the list of documents. The statements delivered during the session are made available in part II of the document. To order a print copy of the proceedings please contact the AEWA Secretariat at aewa@unep.de or download it from the AEWA website at http://www.unep-aewa.org/meetings/en/mop/mop3_docs/proceedings/mop3_proceedings_engl_complete.pdf.
Seven new Stickers featuring "AEWA waterbirds"
The AEWA Secretariat, with the generous support from the government of Luxemburg, has published seven new stickers featuring different birds covered by AEWA, namely the Ferruginous Duck (Aythya nyroca), the Great Snipe (Gallinago media), the Bald Ibis (Geronticus eremita), the Black-winged Pratincole (Glareola nordmanni), the White-headed Duck (Oxyura leucocephala), the Lesser White-fronted Goose (Anser erythropus), the Dark-bellied Brent Goose (Branta bernicla bernicla), and the Lesser Flamingo (Phoenicopterus minor). To view the stickers please visit http://www.unep-aewa.org/publications/stickers.htm , which could be ordered from the Secretariat at aewa@unep.de.
“Waterbirds around the World” book to be released soon
On 12 March 2007, the much anticipated book "Waterbirds around the World" will be officially released at an international ceremony in The Hague, The Netherlands. The book represents a combination of the work and research of several hundred leading experts and organisations from around the world, and integrates data collected by tens of thousands of globally active volunteers. It provides one of the most comprehensive overviews on topics related to waterbirds and their global migration routes to date. [read on]
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