Bonn, 20 March 2024 - The 19th Meeting of the AEWA Technical Committee (TC19) was successfully held as a virtual event on 12 – 14 March 2024. The three-day meeting brought together a total of 62 participants from across Africa and Eurasia, including regional representatives, experts from a wide spectrum of fields as well as 16 Party Observers and several key implementing partner organizations of the Agreement. 

The 19th meeting of the Technical Committee was convened mid-way between the 8th Session of the Meeting of the Parties to AEWA (AEWA MOP8) held in Budapest in 2022 and the next AEWA MOP due to take place in the second half of 2025.  Its primary focus was to assess the status of the implementation of the Technical Committee’s Work Plan for the period 2023-2025 and to decide on how to move forward and maximise the delivery against the mandate given by MOP8.   

The meeting was formally opened by Taulant Bino, of Albania in his role as Vice-Chair and representative of Central Europe on the Technical Committee, who took over for Melissa Lewis, from South Africa, who had resigned as the Chair of the AEWA Technical Committee due to having recently accepted a new position at the AEWA Secretariat.   

At the start of the meeting, Mohammed Shobrak – of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and regional representative of South-Western Asia - was elected as the new Chair of the AEWA Technical Committee. Before proceeding with the regular agenda, a special tribute was paid to Richard (Rich) Hern, a much-appreciated and active member of the AEWA Technical Committee, who recently passed away due to illness. 

Group picture of TC19 participants © Florian Keil 

Over the course of the three-day meeting, the Technical Committee reviewed the implementation of a total of 48 individual tasks that comprise the current TC Work Plan. These tasks are assigned to eight dedicated working groups that facilitate carrying out the work forward over the course of the triennium. In addition to ad hoc virtual meetings of task groups throughout the inter-sessional period, the TC also works on the implementation of its work plan via the AEWA Technical Committee Workspace, a web-based communication and collaboration space and working area custom made for the TC.  

The Committee also agreed on recommendations for submission to the Standing Committee on several important items, including on changes to the delineation of boundaries for several AEWA populations and the revised National Report Format for the period 2021-2024 to be used in the reporting to MOP9.  

TC19 also engaged in a discussion around the challenge of identifying AEWA populations particularly hit by Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) and the importance for countries to step up their monitoring efforts and improve their surveillance systems to better identify populations affected by HPAI within the AEWA region.  

The Committee also reviewed tasks linked to developing international guidance on the topic of adaptive management as well as proposals for a set of projects relating to the sustainable harvest of waterbird species. These include the development of guidance on methods and tools used for harvest data collection, a rapid assessment of the sustainability of harvest as well as a report on the nature and extent of waterbird harvest and the socio-economic importance of waterbirds in the Agreement area. 

Other tasks the Technical Committee will be working on over the remainder of the triennium include a thorough review of the seabird conservation priorities under AEWA, the development of a site monitoring protocol and a new approach and draft work plan for Communication, Education and Public Awareness (CEPA) for the Agreement which will support the delivery of AEWA’s objectives.   

The next meeting of the AEWA Technical Committee is scheduled to take place in the first quarter of 2025 and is planned to be held as an in-person meeting. 

All documents related to the TC19 meeting can be accessed here. 

Red-breasted Geese © Emil Enchev