The Republic of Malawi is acceding to AEWA becoming the 80th Party on 1 September. It is at the same time joining the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS). Malawi, capital Lilongwe, is a landlocked country of Southern Africa with a population of 18 million people and an area of 118, 484 km2. It has borders with Zambia and the United Republic of Tanzania to the north and with Mozambique to the south. The Great Rift Valley runs through the country, which also has shores on the west side of Lake Malawi (also known as Lake Nyasa).

The AEWA International Working Group for the Grey Crowned-crane (GCC IWG) met for the first time in Entebbe, Uganda from 24 to 26 July. After intensive discussions, considerable progress was made in drawing up a concrete implementation plan covering the period to 2022, with specific national activities complementing wider regional and international tasks.

The International Working Group for the Grey Crowned-crane is meeting for the first time from 24 to 26 July following the adoption of the associated International Single Species Action Plan at AEWA MOP6 in 2015. The primary aim of the meeting is to operationalize the Action Plan by agreeing implementation priorities for the Range States both individually and collectively at a supranational level. Initial focus will concentrate on the next three and half years covering the period 2019-2022. Encouragingly, most of the principal Range States are registered to participate.

An AEWA Training of Trainers (ToT) workshop on the flyway approach to the conservation and wise use of waterbirds and wetlands took place from 6 to 10 May in Benin. The workshop was jointly organized by the UNEP/AEWA Secretariat and the Directorate General of Water, Forests and Hunting (DGEFC) of Benin, in cooperation with the Ramsar Secretariat and the Wadden Sea Flyway Initiative (WSFI). It was made possible thanks to generous financial and in-kind support from the Government of Benin and the European Commission’s Global Public Goods and Challenges (GPGC) Thematic Programme Strategic Cooperation Agreement (SCA) with UN Environment and the WSFI.