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New Lesser White-fronted Goose Flyway Project Approved under EU LIFE

Lesser White-fronted Goose © Tomas Aarvak/NOF

A new five-year flyway project ‘Providing a climate resilient network of critical sites for the Lesser White-fronted Goose in Europe’ (LIFE19 NAT/LT/000898) has received final approval under the EU LIFE funding mechanism, and is expected to provide a considerable boost to the implementation of coordinated conservation action for this globally threatened species.

18 November 2020

East Atlantic Flyway Webinar Held to Mark World Migratory Bird Day

A BirdLife webinar entitled “Birds connect people along the East Atlantic Flyway” took place on 8 October 2020 and attracted over 100 participants.

As part of the global celebration of this year’s World Migratory Bird Day (WMBD), the UNEP/AEWA Secretariat joined several national BirdLife partners in a special webinar organized by BirdLife International focussing on the East Atlantic Flyway. The East Atlantic Flyway, which extends from Arctic regions of Canada, Greenland, Iceland and the Russian Federation to the southern tip of Africa is an important migration pathway covered by the African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbird Agreement (AEWA).  

09 November 2020

Emilia – the Story of a Red-breasted Goose

Red-breasted Goose © Nicky Petkov

To mark World Migratory Bird Day on 10 October, the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds (BSPB/BirdLife Bulgaria) and AEWA Red-breasted Goose International Working Group (AEWA RbG IWG) are presenting a new  video, telling the story of Emilia, a satellite tagged Red-breasted Goose.  Emilia was fitted with a satellite tag as part of the “LIFE for Safe Flight” project in 2019 while in Kazakhstan on her migration north towards her breeding grounds in the Russian Arctic.  Her long stay there suggested that she and her mate had successfully bred.

07 October 2020

Join the global celebration!

© Michelle Risi

Birds can be found everywhere: in cities and in the countryside; in parks and backyards, in forests and mountains, and in wetlands and along the shores.  They connect all these habitats and they connect us, reminding us of our own connection to the planet, the environment, wildlife and each other.  Through their seasonal movements, migratory birds also remind us of nature’s cycles.

06 October 2020

EU Expected to Move towards Ban on Lead Gunshot in Wetlands

An estimated one million waterbirds fall victim every year to lead poisoning after consuming spent shot.

Following a four-year-long process conducted under the auspices of REACH, the EU’s over-arching legal framework for the regulation of the use of chemicals, EU Member States voted in favour of a Union-wide restriction to ban the use of lead gunshot in wetlands with an overwhelming 90 per cent majority in early September.

23 September 2020

AEWA Implementation Review Process (IRP) – First Case Closed

Greenland White-fronted Geese in flight © David Stroud

For the first time a case under the AEWA Implementation Review Process (IRP) has been closed following the announcement that the United Kingdom has removed the Greenland White-fronted Goose (Anser albifrons flavirostris) from the list of huntable species. Not satisfied that the incomplete statutory protection from hunting throughout the United Kingdom was in conformity with the terms of the AEWA Treaty, the Greenland White-fronted Goose Study supported by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust and the Welsh Ornithological Society in June 2017 submitted information for a possible case for consideration under the IRP.

14 July 2020

Fresh Layout for AEWA Plan of Action for Africa

The UNEP/AEWA Secretariat is pleased to present the refreshed layout of the AEWA Plan of Action for Africa (PoAA) 2019-2027

The UNEP/AEWA Secretariat is pleased to present the refreshed layout of the AEWA Plan of Action for Africa (PoAA) 2019-2027. The Plan was adopted through Resolution 7.1 at the 7th Session of the Meeting of the Parties in South Africa in December 2018. At the PoAA Working Group meeting (Senegal, October 2017), the African Contracting Parties made a request to the Secretariat to give the PoAA, once adopted, a user-friendly and vibrant layout in order to visually reflect the content of the plan. We hope that with its new look, the AEWA PoAA will be a useful tool for the wide range of stakeholders involved in the implementation of the Agreement.

02 July 2020

5th Meeting of the AEWA European Goose Management International Working Group (EGM IWG5)

Taiga Bean Geese in flight © Adobe Stock

Originally scheduled to take place in Helsinki, Finland, the 5th Meeting of the AEWA European Goose Management International Working Group (EGM IWG5) went ahead for the first time in an online conference format from 15 to 18 June 2020.  The meeting was chaired by Ms Camilla Uldal from Denmark, who was succeeded as Chair for the next two years by the UK’s Mr Danny Heptinstall. 

02 July 2020

Armenia – AEWA Party No. 81

Flag of the Republic of Armenia

The Republic of Armenia is acceding to AEWA becoming the 81st Party on 1 July. It has been a Party to the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS), since 2011. Armenia, whose capital is Yerevan, is a landlocked country situated in the southern Caucasus, between the Black and Caspian Seas, where Europe meets Asia.  Armenia has a population of 3 million people and an area of just under 30,000 km2.  It shares borders with Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan and the Islamic Republic of Iran.

01 July 2020

25 Years of AEWA – Statement by Dr Christiane Paulus, Director-General, Nature Conservation and Sustainable Use of Natural Resources

25 Years of AEWA – Statement by Dr Christiane Paulus, Director-General, Nature Conservation and Sustainable Use of Natural Resources ©ENB/IISD

On behalf of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety and my Minister, it is my pleasure to congratulate AEWA and its Secretariat to the 25th anniversary of AEWA. We welcome the tireless efforts of AEWA and its Secretariat to improve the conservation status of migratory waterbirds. Among many issues, I would like to highlight in this regard the lead role of AEWA in the international efforts to reduce lead shot in particular in wetlands as well as the ongoing efforts to meaningfully address the illegal killing of birds, in particular in the Mediterranean Region, e.g. through "MIKT".

29 June 2020