World Migratory Bird Day 2007

The second ever World Migratory Bird Day (WMBD) was successfully celebrated with 107 separate events taking place in 58 countries around the world on 12-13 May 2007. The events, which were all registered on the WMBD website, were celebrated across the world’s flyways and helped to bring the message of this year’s World Migratory Bird Day campaign to local communities in many parts of the world. The WMBD campaign also generated an unprecedented wave of global media coverage specifically focussed on the impacts of climate change on migratory birds. The event was also featured on many government, NGO and other international partner websites. [read on]

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WOW Project Partnership helps highlight WMBD - celebrations take place at key sites - across the AEWA region

Several World Migratory Bird Day (WMBD) 2007 highlights took place at some of the most critical sites required by migratory waterbirds across the African-Eurasian region. A number of these activities were also conducted at wetlands, which have been chosen as demonstration sites for best-practice of wetland management across the African-Eurasian Flyways under the 4-year Wings over Wetlands project. [read on]

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Project of the month: Workshop on Sustainable Hunting of Migratory Birds in the Mediterranean Third Countries, 13-14 May 2007, Amman, Jordan

This was the second workshop in the framework of the LIFE project on Building Capacity for Sustainable Hunting of Migratory Birds in the Mediterranean Third Countries (namely Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine Authority, Syria, and Tunisia). The project is being implemented by BirdLife International and BirdLife's national partners in Tunisia and Lebanon. The AEWA Secretariat is partnering by co-funding two workshops. [read on]

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AEWA addresses hunters at CIC 54th General Assembly - urges to turn words into action

On 2-5 May 2007 the 54th General Assembly of CIC, "Passion for wildlife means caring for people" took place in Belgrade, Serbia. On the request of Mr. Dieter Schramm, President of the International Council of Game and Wildlife Conservation (CIC), the Executive Secretary of AEWA gave a welcome address during the official opening ceremony which took place in the Serbian Parliament. In his welcome address, Bert Lenten stressed that over the years, CIC had adopted several decisions that were also of interest for the work of CMS and/ or AEWA, such as on phasing out lead shot for hunting in wetlands. However, he also pointed out that more could be done to implement these decisions. In order to approach the problem of lacking resources, Mr. Lenten suggested launching an initiative whereby each hunter contributes, for example, € 1 annually, which would, in Europe alone, lead to an amount of at least € 7 million. [read on]

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7th meeting of the Group of Experts on Invasive Alien Species (IAS)

The 7th meeting of the Group of Experts on Invasive Alien Species (IAS) organised by the Bern Convention took place from 22-24 May 2007 in Reykjavik, Iceland. The Executive Secretary participated in this meeting and distributed many copies of the AEWA Guideline on Avoidance of Introductions of Non-native Waterbird Species (Technical Series No. 12). During this meeting Contracting Parties of the Bern Convention and organisations involved in IAS shared information about activities that take place in order to eradicate or control IAS, which in many cases lead directly or indirectly to huge economic losses. [read on]

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Outcomes of recent AEWA calls for tenders

In March the AEWA Secretariat announced two calls for tenders for the following projects:
1. Implementing AEWA Resolution 3.17 on climate change and the migratory waterbirds and
2. Developing guidelines on minimizing/mitigating the impact of infrastructure developments and related disturbance affecting waterbirds. [read on]

 

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Preparations for MOP 4 started

At the end of the 3rd Meeting of the Parties the Government of Madagascar offered to host the next MOP, which will take place end of 2008. To kick off the logistical preparations for MOP 4, Bert Lenten (Executive Secretary) and Catherine Lehmann (Programme Officer) visited Madagascar from 7-13 May 2007. The Minister of Environment Dr. Koto Bernard reiterated the offer of the Government of Madagascar to host MOP 4 in 2008 during a meeting that was held in order to discuss the organisation of MOP 4. [read on]

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Voluntary contributions received

In 2007 voluntary contributions have been received from the European Committee to draft the 4th Conservation Status report on migratory waterbirds in the Agreement Area. Furthermore funds have been received for the development of information materials from the Government of Germany. Agreement has been reached with the Government of Belgium that funding will be provided for the development of a Guideline on the impact on waterbirds and infrastructural developments. [read on]

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