Bonn, 3 February 2012 - Large infrastructure projects such as roads, railroads, mining sites, pipelines and fences can have detrimental effects on migratory gazelles, Wild Asses and Saiga Antelopes, causing not only habitat fragmentation but also direct mortality. This is the result of a recent study from WWF Mongolia (click here), which analyses the barrier effect of infrastructure development in Mongolia on migratory ungulates. The study was commissioned by the UNEP/CMS Secretariat with funding from the Principality of Monaco, and was discussed at the 17th Scientific Council Meeting in Bergen (17/18 November 2012).

CMS has identified barriers to migration as a key priority for the conservation of migratory species. In Central Asia and Mongolia in particular, the number of planned and constructed large infrastructure projects increased rapidly over the last years, causing serious threats to major migratory ungulates such as Goitered and Mongolian Gazelles, Asiatic Wild Asses, Wild Camels and Saiga Antelopes. Negative effects include habitat fragmentation and barriers to migration routes, genetic isolation and splitting of population as well as direct mortality when animals run into trucks or die hanging in wired fences.

[Read on]

* To read more about the COP, read the special edition of the CMS Bulletin

Bonn, 2 February 2012 - The theme for World Wetlands Day 2012 being celebrated around the world today is "Wetland Tourism: A Great Experience."

World Wetlands Day 2012 draws attention to the world's wetlands as popular tourist destinations and is an opportunity for governments, NGOs and civil society to raise awareness on the wise use of wetlands and sustainable tourism.

Wetland tourism, when developed and managed in a sustainable way, can support wetland conservation and can be beneficial to both the wildlife and the human communities found living in and around wetlands. At the same time the uncontrolled and unsustainable use of wetlands for tourism can also have a grave negative impact upon wetlands, their wildlife and the people which depend on them.

World Wetlands Day is celebrated around the world on 2 February each year. The global event marks the date of the adoption of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands in the Iranian city of Ramsar on the shores of the Caspian Sea. This year, the Ramsar Convention has joined forces with the UN World Tourism Organization to try to focus attention on the issues and to address the challenge of achieving sustainable tourism in and around wetlands.

* Ramsar / UN WTO Press Release: [English] [français]
* World Wetlands Day 2012 Website

Colombo, 31 January 2012 - Sri Lanka has pledged its support to the long-term survival of the dugongs and the protection of their critical seagrass habitats by becoming a signatory state to the Memorandum of Understanding on the Conservation and Management of Dugongs and their Habitats throughout their Range (Dugong MOU).

The MOU was signed at a ceremony held at the Department of Wildlife Conservation in Colombo by Mr. Udeni Wickramasinghe, Secretary of the Ministry of Agrarian Services and Wildlife, Sri Lanka.

[Press Release]

Bonn, 27 January 2012 - Following the proposal of the European Union and its Member States, the Saker Falcon (Falco cherrug) was, after extensive discussions, uplisted to CMS Appendix I at COP10 (20-25 November 2011).

A Working Group of 38 members gathered seven times during the COP10 to consider the listing proposal and to develop a package of measures designed to enhance the conservation status of the Saker Falcon throughout its range. In particular, the Working Group assisted in the drafting of COP Resolution 10.28 on the Saker Falcon, available here. This Resolution acknowledges the listing of the Saker Falcon on CMS Appendix I, excluding the population in Mongolia, and decides to establish an immediate Concerted Action supported by all concerned.

[Read on]

Apia, 23 January 2012 - Having graduated from the University of Auckland with a Bachelor of Science majoring in Marine Ecology and Biology, Penina’s interest in migratory species became focused when tasked with building a marine species programme for WWF South Pacific office operating out of the Fiji Islands.

Over the span of nine years, Penina has engaged school children, local communities, government, non-government and intergovernmental agencies, corporate bodies and the media to strengthen the protection of marine turtles and whales in Fiji and other parts of the Pacific.

[Read on]

Bonn, 23 January 2012 - The World Migratory Bird Day Team is pleased to announce this year’s theme and invite you to join us to celebrate, protect and raise awareness for migratory birds this year on May 12th-13th.

World Migratory Bird Day 2012 and this year’s theme Migratory birds and people - together through time will stress the indispensible relationship between birds and people.

[Read on] [français] [español]

Bonn, 20 January 2012 - Following the proposal of Tajikistan and Kazakhstan, the Argali mountain sheep (Ovis ammon) was listed on CMS Appendix II at COP10 (20-25 November 2011).

The Argali is a threatened migratory mountain ungulate inhabiting mountains, steppe valleys and rocky outcrops in Central Asia. The transboundary populations in mountainous frontier regions between Afghanistan, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan suffer from grazing pressure, habitat loss and excessive poaching that have caused dramatic declines in many local populations.

[Read on]

17 January 2012 - the Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences is calling for entries for the 2012 Pablo Canevari Award. There is a prize of US$2,000 for the winning individual or organization, who must come from Latin America and demonstrate an outstanding commitment to shorebird conservation. The prize is named after Pablo Canevari (1951-2000), well known and much admired in CMS circles, having served three years as the Convention’s Technical Officer.

For details of the 2012 Award, the closing date for which is 15 March, click here.

Bonn, 13 January 2012 - Following the proposal of Ecuador the Giant Manta Ray (Manta birostris) was listed on CMS Appendices I and II at COP10 (20-25 November 2011). As a result, harvesting of this giant filter feeder with wingspans of up to 6.5m is now no longer permitted internationally. Exceptions include traditional subsistence users.

Since 2011 this highly migratory ray is listed as vulnerable under the IUCN Red List due to growing exploitation both directly for gill-rakers and other body parts and indirectly as bycatch. Illegal trade in manta parts to Asiatic markets is a concern. Similar to other Elasmobranchs, mantas have a low reproductive rate, which makes them particularly vulnerable to overexploitation. It is suspected that Giant Manta Rays have declined by as much as 80% in some regions over the last three generations (approximately 75 years) and by more than a third globally.

[Read on]

Bonn, 5 January 2012 - CMS Executive Secretary, Ms. Elizabeth Maruma Mrema has been appointed Deputy Director of the Division of Environmental Policy Implementation (DEPI) at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) as of 9 January. Ms. Mrema joined the UNEP/CMS Secretariat as Officer in Charge in July 2009. At the end of the same year, UNEP Executive Director, Mr. Achim Steiner appointed her as the new Executive Secretary of the UNEP/CMS Secretariat.

Her longstanding expertise as a senior environmental lawyer at UNEP with a particular focus on international environmental law, compliance and enforcement of environmental conventions proved to be a huge asset in leading the CMS Secretariat. Building on her work at the UNEP/Division of Environmental Law and Conventions (DELC) with a focus on Multilateral Environmental Agreements Support and Cooperation and later as the Head of the Biodiversity, Law and Governance Branch, Ms Mrema succeeded in shaping CMS as a lead partner of other biodiversity related Conventions.

[Read on]

Bonn, 29 December 2011 - Lahcen El Kabiri joined the CMS Secretariat as Deputy Executive Secretary in the autumn of 2004, where the extensive knowledge of North African conservation issues he had gained while working in the Moroccan Ministry of Environment stood him in good stead to lead CMS’s flagship Sahelo-Saharan antelope project to restore their populations in 14 countries in North Africa.

During his time in Bonn, a number of instruments were developed, notably the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on the Monk Seal, the Dugong and Raptors. He was also closely involved in the coordination with SINEPAD (Secrétariat Intérimaire du Volet Environnement du NEPAD) of the interim secretariat overseeing the MOU on the marine turtles of the eastern Atlantic.

[Read on]

27 December 2011 - The proceedings of the international symposium on community-based natural resource management (CBNRM), and its relevance to the conservation and sustainable use of CITES-listed species in exporting countries (18-20 May 2011, Vienna), which CMS supported, have just been published by the IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC).

The symposium which was co-organized by the Austrian Ministry of the Environment and the European Commission highlighted the importance of creating incentives for the conservation of terrestrial biodiversity, including migratory species. In their paper, CMS Executive Secretary Elizabeth Maruma Mrema and Associate Scientific and Technical Officer Aline Kühl highlighted that communities play a vital role for conserving animals on the move, but that due to the large ranges of migratory species, often across numerous countries, it was not an easy task for communities to fairly and sustainably manage their resources. Biodiversity treaties such as CITES and CMS have a significant responsibility in creating sound incentives for community-based conservation.

The full publication is available on the IUCN SSC website.

Bonn, 14 December 2011 - UNEP/CMS participated in the Fifth Pan-American meeting of the Convention on Wetlands held in Kingston, Jamaica from 6-10 December 2011. Hosted by the Ministry of Housing, Environment and Water and the National Environment and Planning Agency-NEPA, the meeting focused mainly on issues to be addressed by the 11th Conference of the Parties (COP11) to the Ramsar Convention to be held in Bucharest, Rumania, 6-13 July 2012. Also discussed were the evaluation of the Regional Strategy for the Americas and the implementation of associated projects. CMS Information and Capacity-Building Officer, Francisco Rilla, was one of more than fifty delegates from parties, NGOs and MEAs who participated in the meeting.

The meeting provided an important opportunity to assess the progress made in the implementation in the Americas of the Ramsar Convention’s Strategic Plan 2009-2015 and review experiences in the region regarding the achievement of the commitments agreed to by the Contracting Parties to the Convention during the last triennium.

[Read on]

[more information on th Ramsar website]

A new Partnership Agreement between HSI Australia (Humane Society International Australia) and the CMS Secretariat was signed on 15 November 2011 in Bonn. By doing so, CMS has expanded its cooperation with this partner with a view to jointly pursuing shared targets.

HSI Australia is part of an international organization working to protect wildlife on a global scale. It provides support and advice on policy development and trade issues as well as promoting local capacity building and community education.

[Read on]

Bonn, 2 November 2011 - The Secretariat would like to seek initial offers to host the 11th Meeting of the CMS Conference of Parties in 2014.

CoP 11 will be due in the period October - December 2014. By then CMS is expecting to have 120 Parties. Total attendance including observers is estimated at 450-500. The normal cycle for CMS CoP meetings is a two-day Scientific Council, followed by a further two-day period (which can be a weekend) during which a Standing Committee is held and side meetings convened (including possible MoPs of species agreements) and the Scientific Council Report prepared.

[Read on]

Bonn, 7 November 2011 - The Global Environment Facility (GEF) has just published a list of the best twenty projects it has funded to showcase twenty years of engagement in the field of environmental protection.

Among the top twenty are two projects with strong involvement from the CMS Family. One is the “Development of a Wetland Site and Flyway Network for Conservation of the Siberian Crane and Other Migratory Waterbirds in Asia”. This project was closely linked to the CMS MOU for the species and both the CMS Secretariat and its main MOU-partner, the Wisconsin-based NGO, the International Crane Foundation, played a significant part. The second is “Enhancing Conservation of the Critical Network of Sites of Wetlands Required by Migratory Waterbirds on the African/Eurasian Flyways (Wings Over Wetlands) WOW”, in which the AEWA Secretariat was part of the implementing partnership. This is a further accolade for the WOW project, which has already won the Esri award for the best interactive web map for its Critical Site Network Tool.

UNEP is, along with UNDP and the World Bank, an Implementing Agency of the GEF and is the only GEF Agency whose core business is the environment.

[see the full Top-20 list on the GEF Website]

Abu Dhabi, 2 November 2011 -The Interim Coordinating Unit for the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the Conservation of Migratory Birds of Prey in Africa and Eurasia welcomed a new Programme Officer this week as Mr Nick P. Williams joined the UNEP/CMS Office in Abu Dhabi.

Nick has held a lifelong interest in birds, particularly raptors. Whilst still at school, he began voluntary fieldwork with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) and other non-governmental conservation organizations. He has travelled extensively to study raptors in over 50 countries and has gained practical field experience of a wide range of species. Nick is a qualified bird ringer and has published a range of scientific research papers, mostly related to birds.

[Read on]

Gland/Bonn, 2 November 2011 - With the generous support of Seosan City (Republic of Korea), the Government of Switzerland and the Secretariat of the East Asian-Australasian Flyway Partnership (EAAFP), an international workshop to review good practice in international initiatives for the conservation of migratory waterbirds and other migratory birds was convened by the Secretariats of the Ramsar Convention, the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS), the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA), the EAAFP and BirdLife International as well as Wetlands International.

[Read on - on the AEWA website]

Entebbe/Bonn, 28 October 2011 - A three-day Preparatory Negotiation Workshop for Africa took place from 26-28 October 2011 in Entebbe, Uganda. The workshop, which targeted CMS national focal points as well as a number of national focal points from AEWA in the African region, was jointly organized by the UNEP/CMS and UNEP/AEWA Secretariats, with support from the Division of Environmental Law and Conventions (DELC) of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The workshop was also supported by Wetlands International and made possible by a financial contribution from the Governments of Germany, Sweden, Switzerland and from BirdLife International.

[Read on] [for the Workshop documents, click here]

Bonn, 24 October 2011 - The CMS Secretariat joined 18 UN Bonn-based agencies and several other international organizations in celebrating the annual UN Day in Bonn this weekend.

UN Day is celebrated globally to highlight the aims and achievements of the United Nations. The day marks the anniversary of the signing of the UN Charter on 24 October 1945 and has been observed annually in Bonn in 1996 when several United Nations organizations moved to the city, joining the CMS Secretariat which has been there since being set up in 1984.

[Read on]

Bonn, 24 October 2011 – For 86 per cent of all toothed whale species, entanglement in gillnets, traps, weirs, purse seines, longlines and trawls is resulting in an unsustainably high death toll.  This is among the findings of a report published today by the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals under the UN Environment Programme. (UNEP/CMS).

The report is an encyclopedia on the 72 species of toothed whales compiled by Professor Boris Culik of Kiel University in Germany and represents the most recent scientific findings on the distribution, migration, behaviour and threats to this suborder of the cetaceans, which includes sperm whales, beaked whales, porpoises and dolphins which have teeth rather than the baleen of other whales. 

Click here to read the press release

Note: The UNEP/CMS Secretariat will present a free copy of the publication to each participant in the upcoming 17th Meeting of the Scientific Council.

Bonn, 20 October 2011 - in a powerful video message, Hannes Jaenicke, the Chair of the Friends of CMS, addresses various threats to migratory animals and the urgent need for conservation activities on the ground. The famous German actor calls for action to support projects aiming to protect endangered migratory animals.

Friends of CMS, a German based NGO, was founded to support the work of CMS through fundraising and awareness raising initiatives.

Click here for the Video (on Youtube)

Bonn, 19 October 2011 - The Report on the 2011 UNEP/CMS Thesis Award on Migratory Species Conservation has been published.

The report includes a summary of the top fourteen theses submitted for consideration. In total, 61 theses were received from 25 different countries representing five continents. The winning thesis authored by Dr. Lucy King dealt with the interaction between the African elephant and the African honeybee. Dr. Franziska Tanneberger with her thesis on the Aquatic Warbler, Dr. J. Grant C. Hopcraft findings on herbivores in the Serengeti and Dr. Christiane Trierweiler’s research on the Montagu Harrier were recognized as laureates.

The Award with its first prize of €10,000 was sponsored by Deutsche Lufthansa, the German airline, and was organized by the CMS Secretariat and the Zoological Museum, Alexander Koenig in Bonn.

Click here for the Report

Bonn, 29 September 2011 - With support from Sweden, Switzerland, Germany and Birdlife International, the CMS Secretariat will jointly organize with UNEP’s Division of Environmental Law and Conventions, a Preparatory Negotiation Workshop to the Tenth CMS Conference of the Parties (COP 10) for the Africa region from 26th-28th October 2011 in Entebbe, Uganda. This will address the need to enhance the capacity of CMS national focal points negotiators from African countries for which the occasion will also be utilized to enable the participants to prepare themselves, discuss common issues and possibly agree on common positions and negotiate effectively at CMS COP10 due to take place from 20th-25th November 2011 at Bergen, Norway.

[Read on]

Bonn, 26 September 2011 - The Secretariat welcomes the news that Malaysia has joined the Indian Ocean – South-East Asian Marine Turtle Memorandum of Understanding, making it the instrument’s 33rd Signatory State. The Honourable Dato’ Ahamad Sabki bin Mahmood, Director-General of the Department of Fisheries Malaysia, signed the agreement on 19 September 2011. It can be said that Malaysia is the birthplace of this particular Memorandum of Understanding, because the text of the IOSEA agreement was negotiated and concluded in July 2000 in Kuantan.

Deputy Executive Secretary Bert Lenten said “I am delighted that Malaysia has joined the CMS Family by signing IOSEA and I hope to be able to welcome Malaysia as a Party to CMS in the near future, because it is a Range State to many other migratory animals including numerous species of birds.”

[Read the full story on the IOSEA MOU website]

Bonn, 20 September 2011 - The British biologist Dr Lucy E. King is the winner of the UNEP/CMS Thesis Award 2011.  At a meeting in the Zoological Museum Alexander Koenig in Bonn, the Jury voted with a vast majority in favour of this highly innovative thesis that recommends a natural deterrent to African Elephants.

She submitted her thesis on “The interaction between the African elephant (Loxodonta africana africana) and the African honeybee (Apis mellifera scutellata) and its potential application as an elephant deterrent” to Oxford University in 2010.

[Read on]

Bonn, 14 September 2011 - The CMS Secretariat and the recently launched Migratory Wildlife Network have signed a Partnership Agreement today seeking to enhance the engagement of conservation NGOs, wildlife scientists and wildlife policy specialists to coordinate and progress the conservation of migratory wildlife through the CMS.

CMS Executive Secretary Elizabeth Maruma Mrema said: “CMS and the Migratory Wildlife Network pursue common goals in the conservation and sustainable use of migratory species, which can only be successfully met by concerted actions among all actors involved.”

[Read on]

Munich, 12 September 2011 - Friends of CMS organized the launch of an impressive  Species Conservation Calendar together with CMS, AGA (Arbeitsgemeinschaft Artenschutz, Working Group on Species Conservation), ZGF (Frankfurt Zoological Society and Berggorilla & Regenwald Direkthilfe  e.V. that works to conserve mountain gorillas. These organizations will all benefit from the proceeds of the sale of this calendar.

[Read on]

Click here to read the press release in German

Bonn, 3 September 2011 - UNEP Executive Director, Achim Steiner, took the opportunity of his attendance at the 64th Conference for NGOs in Bonn to visit the staff of the CMS Secretariat.

Mr Steiner set out the challenges facing the United Nations in turbulent times – both politically and financially - and stressed the importance of engaging Parties so that the relevance of the UN as the prime forum for international discussion of key global issues was universally recognized. He praised staff for their dedication, promised continuing support from HQ in recruiting new Parties and expressed his confidence that COP10 would bring satisfactory results.

Bonn, 2 September 2011 - A new Memorandum of Understanding between the IUCN Environmental Law Centre (IUCN ELC) and the CMS Family Secretariats, of CMS, AEWA, EUROBATS and ASCOBANS has been signed at the UN premises in Bonn today.

More than 30 years ago, legal experts of the IUCN ELC produced the text of the Convention, and later on, the drafts of a number of its daughter instruments.

[Read on]

Bonn, 2 September 2011 - ACAP’s Advisory Committee working groups met in Guayaquil (Ecuador) to discuss issues related to seabird bycatch, breeding sites and status and trends.

Bycatch in Seabirds

The meeting of the Seabirds Bycatch Working Group of the Agreement of Albatrosses and Petrels took place in Guayaquil (Ecuador) the 22-24 August and was chaired by Barry Baker, CMS Appointed Scientific Councillor for bycatch. The group assessed the global impact of bycatch of seabirds in longline fisheries and reviewed a number of research papers on mitigation measures.

[Read on]

Bonn, August 2011 - An amazing 205 registered events in 64 countries worldwide made World Migratory Bird Day (WMBD) 2011, which was celebrated on 14-15 May 2011, an absolute record breaker!

WMBD is a global initiative devoted to celebrating migratory birds and for promoting their conservation worldwide. It is jointly organized by the Secretariats of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species (CMS) and the African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbird Agreement (AEWA).

The WMBD 2011 campaign has also received support from UNEP, BirdLife International, Wetlands International and the Partnership for the East Asian - Australasian Flyway (EAAFP) and was made possible through a voluntary contribution given to the CMS and AEWA Secretariats by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU).

[Read on][version française]

Bonn, 9 August 2011 - the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society has launched the “Diversity Database for the Pacific Cetaceans MoU” - an excellent initiative applauded by the Secretariat. Now fully online, ready with over 400 records, many of which link through to Google mapping, the multi-lingual tool makes Country/Territory and species specific information freely and easily available to all Pacific Islands Governments.

It includes tracking information on habitat type, behaviour during the sighting, numbers of animals per sighting, and any related threats if the sighting is of a stranding incident.

[Read on][version française]

Bonn, 3 August 2011 - the Secretariat has added a new feature on the CMS website’s news pages. Called “Media Watch”, this new element draws together press and media coverage of issues of relevance to the CMS Family. “Media Watch” can be accessed here. The Secretariat would be grateful if readers suggested further interesting articles to be included.