Eastern and Southern African Sub-Regions Unite Efforts to Advance Implementation of AEWA Plan of Action for Africa 2012-2017

Cape Town, South Africa, 30 October 2013- An AEWA Sub-regional National Focal Point (NFP) Meeting for the Implementation of theAEWA Plan of Action for Africa 2012-2017was concluded in Cape Town, South Africa. The meeting, which took place from 27 - 28 October 2013, brought together the eleven AEWA Contracting Parties from Eastern and Southern Africa, namely Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe.

This was the second sub-regional meeting of its kind, after a previous meeting for the Northern African sub-region had taken place in Algeria in June 2013. For Central and Western Africa, a similar meeting focusing on advancing the implementation of the Plan of Action for Africa is taking place in December 2013 in Senegal.

During the meeting, participants were updated on activities by the UNEP/AEWA Secretariat and the Technical Support Unit (TSU) to the AEWA African Initiative, aimed at implementing the AEWA Plan of Action for Africa since its adoption in May 2012. The TSU also presented and tested a number of training tools available for waterbird monitoring and survey.

Each national representative delivered a presentation on national activities for the implementation of the Plan of Action for Africa 2012-2017, including on related priorities and challenges. These presentations provided valuable and up-to-date information and illustrated that much is being done, including at the policy level with national legislations being updated to take into consideration migratory waterbird conservation issues. Other activities relate to awareness raising at different levels, including participation in the World Migratory Bird Day Campaign, research, monitoring and survey on migratory waterbirds and their habitats, identification, conservation and designation of sites, and development and implementation of national Single Species Action Plans.

In the course of this AEWA sub-regional meeting, the National Focal Points agreed on a set of common priorities for the two sub-regions:

• management planning for protected sites of importance for migratory waterbirds;
• increase in quantity and quality of migratory waterbird population data;
• awareness raising, in particular with regard to Eastern Africa; and
• incorporation of the Flyway Training Kit into the curricula of wildlife colleges, specifically for Southern Africa.

This prioritization is also important in order to enable the Technical Support Unit (TSU) to the African Initiative to provide targeted technical assistance, at the national and (sub-)regional level, with the implementation of the Plan of Action. The TSU is a co-operation between the Tour du Valat research centre, where it is located, the national hunting and wildlife agency Office National de la Chasse et de la Faune Sauvage (ONCFS), the Direction of National Parks (DPN), Senegal and the Direction of Water and Biodiversity (DEB), France. It is kindly being funded by the Government of France which had offered its creation and related funding at the most recent, 5th Session of the Meeting of the Parties to AEWA.

The sub-regional priorities identified at the AEWA meeting will be translated into sub-regional projects aimed at implementing the AEWA Plan of Action for Africa, and using the limited financial and human resources available to benefit the maximum possible number of countries in the sub-region.

Another important item on the meeting agenda was the election of Sub-regional Focal Point Coordinators, whose role it will be to guide the implementation of the Plan of Action for Africa in their sub-region, with the support of the the UNEP/AEWA Secretariat and the TSU. For Eastern Africa, Mr Barirega Akankwasah - AEWA National Focal Point for Uganda as well as Vice-Chair and Regional Representative of the AEWA Standing Committee - was elected for this role. For Southern Africa, Mr Wisdom Dlamini, representing the AEWA National Focal Point for Swaziland was chosen from among the AEWA National Focal Points.

This sub-regional meeting was organized by the UNEP/AEWA Secretariat, in collaboration with the Technical Support Unit (TSU) to the AEWA African Initiative, and was kindly being hosted by the Republic of South Africa.

The UNEP/AEWA Secretariat was represented by its Acting Executive Secretary, Mr Bert Lenten, who thanked the Government of the Republic of South Africa for hosting this important meeting. In addition to facilitation by the Coordinator for the African Initiative, Ms Evelyn Moloko, as well as by Ms Clémence Deschamps and Mr Abdoulaye Ndiaye of the TSU, the meeting also benefited from the contribution of a number of national and regional coordinators for the International Waterbird Census, namely Mr Doug Harebottle (South Africa), Mr John Musina (Kenya) and Mr Rivo Rabarisoa (Madagascar). These experts provided information and support to the National Focal Points with regard to waterbird monitoring issues.

The UNEP/AEWA Secretariat would like to thank the host as well as all participants - including the newly elected Sub-regional Focal Point Coordinators - and facilitators for their active and enthusiastic support to make this meeting possible and successful.

This AEWA sub-regional meeting was organized to take place back to back with the currently ongoing, joint CMS Family Capacity Building Workshop. The latter aims to introduce CMS and AEWA African National Focal Points to the new CMS Family NFP Manual and has been made possible by funding in the framework of the Thematic Programme for Environment and Sustainable Management of Natural Resources including Energy (ENRTP) Strategic Cooperation Agreement (SCA) between the European Commission - DG Environment and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).