The WetCap Steering Committee meets for the first time

Bonn, 25 August 2009 – The first Steering Committee Meeting of the project on “Strengthening waterbird and wetland conservation capacities in North Africa (WetCap)” took place in Bonn, Germany at the UN Campus. The Steering Committee Meeting provided a first-time opportunity to assemble representatives of the core partner organizations involved in the technical and administrative delivery of the project to discuss the work plan for the first year of implementation. The meeting was attended by representatives of AEWA, BirdLife International, the Spanish BirdLife partner SEO and Wetlands International. The role of the Steering Committee is to guide and oversee the project’s technical progress and performance.

The 3-year WetCap project, which was launched in March 2009, is closely linked to the Wings over Wetlands UNEP-GEF African-Eurasian Flyway Project (WOW) with a focus on North Africa. This 1.6 million euro project aims to strengthen the capacities for waterbird and wetland conservation of all the important stakeholders as well as to build knowledge and provide better access to information on the critical network of sites required by migratory waterbirds in the region. In addition it provides a small grants fund to support local waterbird and wetland conservation projects.

Funded by the Spanish agency for international development cooperation, AECID, the WetCap project was developed and is being managed by the AEWA Secretariat in close cooperation with BirdLife/SEO who is providing the regional coordination of project activities.

For more information on the WetCap project please contact:

Regional Coordinator: Mr. Sidi Imad Cherkaoui, icherkaoui@seo.org

AEWA Secretariat: Ms. Catherine Lehmann, clehmann@unep.de