A First Action Plan Results from the Workshop on the International Waterbirds Census (IWC) in North Africa
Tunis, 24 October 2012 - The first regional brainstorming workshop on the IWC in North Africa was held on 8 and 9 October 2012 in Tunis. It was organized by Association "Les Amis des Oiseaux" (AAO) with the support of five organizations that have initiated a regional support programme of IWC and wetland conservation in the Mediterranean: Tour du Valat research centre, the French National Game and Wildlife Agency, Wetlands International, the French Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy and the MAVA Foundation (for more details about this programme see the following link). Representatives of NGOs, universities and administrations from the five North African countries (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt) were present at this workshop.
After
a review of IWC monitoring carried out in each North African
country in recent years, participants identified and discussed
their needs in terms ofcapacity building
for improving performance of their national IWC scheme.
Several other topics were also discussed, such as data sharing,
training of trainers, utilization of standardized methods,
as well as processing, analysis and publication of waterbird
data and their use for wetlands management and conservation.
After two days of intense discussions, all participants agreed on the two following concrete actions for early 2013:
- National and regional databases: Morocco is currently developing a database which can be used as a national database by all North African countries. The regional programme will support the finalization of this database and its test run by Tunisia. In 2013, each country will choose the most suitable database tool among the existing tools (Moroccan database developed by GREPOM, observado.org developed by Wetlands International, medwaterbird.net developed by Tour du Valat). A common regional database platform will also be chosen to facilitate dataflow between countries.
- Mid-January census: all representatives agreed on coordinated waterbird counts in January 2013. Participants will pool results from the five North African countries to publish a regional synthesis.
Organizers and participants are confident that the support programme will allow the start of a genuine regional programme on waterbird monitoring, first in North Africa, then in the whole Mediterranean. This regional project aims to improve the overall quality of waterbird monitoring in the Mediterranean, thus helping countries to take coordinated measures to maintain or restore migratory waterbird species in a favorable conservation status according to AEWA Action Plan.
Contact : Anne-Laure Brochet - 0033 (0)4 90 97 29 50 - [email protected]