Tomorrow is World Wetlands Day, organized as ever by the Ramsar Convention and this year being conducted under the slogan “we are not powerless against climate change”. Wetlands are not only important as waterbird habitat, which explains why AEWA and Ramsar work so closely together, but their natural power can be harnessed to help in the fight against climate change.

The UNEP/AEWA Secretariat is pleased to announce the accession of the Central African Republic as AEWA’s 78th Party. The country’s membership to the Agreement took effect on 1 January. The Central African Republic is a landlocked country in the heart of the continent bordering with Cameroon, Chad, Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Sudan and Sudan. The country has an area of just over 620,000 km2 and a population of 4.6 million (2016 estimates); the capital is Bangui.

Discussion of substantive business got under way on the second day of the Seventh Session of the Meeting of Parties to AEWA on Wednesday, 5 December 2018. The first item discussed was the AEWA Strategic Plan 2019-2027, with Parties acknowledging that it contained ambitious objectives and for full implementation more resources would be required. Given current financial constraints, priority should be focused on the most pressing actions.

The seventh Meeting of the Parties (MOP7) to the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) opened on Tuesday, 4 December in Durban, Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa, under the theme “Beyond 2020: Shaping Flyway Conservation for the Future”. The meeting was officially opened by Fernando Spina as Chair of AEWA MOP6, who thanked the Government of South Africa and the Municipality of Durban for hosting the meeting.