Bonn,
18 December 2009 - Efforts towards the conservation
of migratory waterbirds along the coast of West Africa will
hopefully soon be strengthened through a project being developed
under the leadership of BirdLife International and funded
by the MAVA
Foundation.

A four-day project development workshop,
jointly organised by BirdLife
International and Wetlands
International, took place in Dakar, Senegal
from 16 - 19 November 2009 to develop a logical framework
for the project proposal.

The workshop brought together representatives
of government institutions and civil society organizations
in the implementing countries along the coast of West Africa
(Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Senegal, Sierra Leone and
Mauritania), BirdLife International partner organizations
(including the African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbird Agreement
(AEWA),
Wetlands International and the International Union for Conservation
of Nature (IUCN)),
as well as international experts in the field of migratory
waterbird conservation. The AEWA Secretariat was represented
at the workshop by Ms. Evelyn Moloko, Coordinator for the
African Initiative who informed the participants about AEWA
activities, including the newly developed African
Initiative.

The main outcome of this workshop was a
proposed list of key sites and waterbird species for future
field conservation activities along the coast of West Africa;
the identification of major threats to migratory waterbirds
and their habitats in this area; the identification of gaps
in legislative policy and advocacy framework; and the identification
of relevant existing activities and initiatives for future
collaboration. It was recommended that the flyway approach
for migratory waterbird conservation, the distinctive feature
of AEWA, be emphasized in this project, as it covers several
countries and a large part of the AEWA Agreement Area. In
addition, the complete AEWA List of Species was recommended
for consideration in research and monitoring activities,
with particular attention to species occurring in and/or
passing through West Africa.

The final product of this workshop will
be a 4-year project proposal aimed at guiding BirdLife International’s
conservation measures along the coast of West Africa and
involving an indispensable international coalition of stakeholders
and partners for the management and implementation of conservation,
research and monitoring activities.

One of the strengths of this project will
be the involvement of a wide range of relevant stakeholders
concerned with migratory waterbird conservation in the project
area. The AEWA Secretariat was pleased to be able to participate
in this workshop and looks forward to future collaboration
in the framework of existing activities and initiatives
involving the West African Coast; the Wings
Over Wetlands Project, the WetCap
Project and the African
Initiative, amongst others. For more information
on the workshop and the project proposal, please see the
BirdLife
International website.