International news

The Republic of Angola has joined the Agreement on the Conservation of Gorillas and Their Habitats, also known as the Gorilla Agreement. Angola is the eighth of ten Range States in which gorillas occur to become a Party to the Agreement, joining the Central African Republic, Congo (Brazzaville), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Kinshasa), Gabon, Nigeria, Rwanda and Uganda. The accession of Angola to the Gorilla Agreement took effect on 1 January 2021.

Turkmenistan has acceded to the Convention becoming the 132nd Party and bringing membership in the Asian region to 20. Turkmenistan has also acceded to the African-Eurasian Waterbird Agreement (AEWA) bringing the number of Parties to that Agreement to 82.

Taking stock of ongoing ocean-related initiatives in light of the COVID-19 pandemic: toward enhanced inter-agency coordination and cooperation on ocean and coastal issues beyond 2020

At the 13th Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP13) to the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) held in Gandhinagar in February this year, Costa Rica, supported by Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay, successfully proposed the listing of the Jaguar (Panthera onca) on both Appendices of the Convention.  Therefore, CMS welcomes the designation of 29 November as International Jaguar Day and the efforts being made to establish a coordinated regional mechanism to promote Jaguar conservation and create a network of connected sites across Central and South America.

As announced in Notification 2020/017 the elections for the posts of Chair and Vice-Chair of the CMS Scientific Council and its Sessional Committee have taken place.  The successful candidates are Narelle Montgomery of Australia, who is the new Chair, and Daniel Fernando of Sri Lanka, who is the new Vice-Chair.  Narelle has worked on wildlife issues for the Australian Government for over 25 years, and attended her first CMS COP in 1999, when COP6 was held in Cape Town, South Africa.

In October each year, communities in the mountainous parts of Northeast India, gather in anticipation of the arrival of a small grey bird, the Amur Falcon, which annually migrates over 30,000 km.

Der umstrittene Fehmarnbelt-Tunnel kann gebaut werden

The report of a workshop on the links between the degradation of nature and increasing risk of pandemics has just been released.  The workshop was convened by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) with the participation of 22 leading experts from around the world.  The experts conclude that it will be possible to minimize the risks of future pandemics, but a seismic shift in approach from reaction to prevention will be required.