International news

The international community hasn’t met any of the biodiversity targets it set

The UN Summit on Biodiversity was meant to galvanize commitments to stop the impending biodiversity crisis, and to underscore the need for effective actions in a new Global Biodiversity Framework.  Few could predict that it would take place in the middle of a deadly global pandemic -- which in all likelihood was brought about by human activities that exploit wild animals and nature.  

Birds can be found everywhere: in cities and in the countryside; in parks and backyards, in forests and mountains, and in wetlands and along the shores.  They connect all these habitats and they connect us, reminding us of our own connection to the planet, the environment, wildlife and each other.  Through their seasonal movements, migratory birds also remind us of nature’s cycles.

More than 450 long-finned pilot whales became stranded in harbour in Tasmania

The 9th Meeting of the Parties (MOP9) to ASCOBANS concluded last Friday, 11 September 2020. Originally scheduled to take place in Brussels, the meeting was held virtually as a result of travel restrictions caused by the corona crisis. New resolutions were adopted on the critically endangered Harbour Porpoise population of the Baltic proper, on marine debris and on food availability and resource depletion.  Delegates also approved the Best Practice on Cetacean Post-mortem Investigation and Tissue Sampling and approved amendments to existing resolutions on the conservation of the Common Dolphin, bycatch, underwater noise and responses to stranding incidents.

The Central African Republic has ratified the Convention bringing the number of Parties to 131.

The Secretariat of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wil