UNEP/AEWA Secretariat Joins CMS and WHMSI in Flyway Meetings

From 11 to 14 March 2014 representatives from the Western Hemisphere Migratory Species Initiative (WHMSI) and members of the CMS Flyway Working Group met in Montego Bay, Jamaica to discuss the conservation of flyways of the Americas and the CMS Global Programme of Work (POW) for Flyways 2014-2020.

Bert Lenten, AEWA’s Acting Executive Secretary and Deputiy Executive Secretary of CMS and Sergey Dereliev, AEWA’s Technical Officer attended the two meetings on behalf of the UNEP/AEWA Secretariat, providing input to the discussions relating to the CMS Global Programme of Work on Flyways and on the discussions relating to the development of a framework and strategy for the Flyway-scale conservation in the Americas.

After reviewing the many activities and initiatives that are currently taking place in the Western Hemisphere, including the “Integrating Migratory Bird Conservation Initiatives in the Americas” plan developed by WHMSI, meeting participants felt a need to develop an overarching strategy or framework for the “Flyways of the Americas”. Such a strategy will be open to participation by all national and international stakeholders in the region. A separate “Action Plan” based on “Integrating Migratory Bird Conservation Initiatives in the Americas” would be finalized as well; this would specifically take account of WHMSI’s contribution to the strategy.

The “Flyways of the Americas” strategy will be submitted to CMS Scientific Council in July for review and proposed inclusion within the CMS Global POW for Flyways 2014-2020. The final POW will then be submitted for formal adoption to the 11th Meeting of the Conference of Parties to CMS (COP11), which will take place from 4-9 November 2014 in Quito, Ecuador. Furthermore it was agreed that implementation of activities under the “Flyways of the Americas” strategy would benefit from adequate institutional arrangements and coordination support from WHMSI and/or CMS. These discussions will be continued with the Range States and relevant regional stakeholders during a side meeting in the margins of COP11.

The second part of the meeting was focused on reviewing and further improving the current draft CMS Global POW for Flyways 2014-2020, inclusive of considerations for activities in the Americas.