International news

As reported on this website on 9 October 2017 and as delegates to the CMS COP12 in Manila will know, the CMS Secretariat worked with “Territory”, a professional and experienced design team from Hamburg, to produce “TRACKS”, a special publication in the format of an airline inflight magazine. An extended 102-page electronic version was also produced as published on the CMS website on 24 October.

The UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) held the 21st meeting of its Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA) on 11-14 December 2017. One of the main agenda items discussed was how to mainstream ¬biodiversity conservation into the sectors of energy and mining, infrastructure, manufacturing and processing industry, and health. Members of the CMS Energy Task Force were present, and held a side event to share guidance, lessons learned and recommendations for integrating biodiversity considerations into renewable energy and powerline developments.

The Twelfth Meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP12) held from 23 to 28 October 2017 in Manila, the Philippines, endorsed the Secretariat’s Programme of Work for 2018-2020.

Institutions and organizations from 14 countries in the Balkans, Middle East and Africa have come together under a flyway conservation project for the Egyptian Vulture. The aim to reinforce the easternmost Egyptian Vulture populations in Europe by implementing urgent conservation measures to address major known threats at the breeding grounds and along the flyway.

The 48^th Meeting of the CMS Standing Committee will take place from Tuesday, 23 October to Wednesday, 24 October 2018 at the UNEP/CMS Secretariat premises, P

The CMS Secretariat is pleased to announce the addition of Przewalski’s Horse, Gobi Bear, and Steppe Eagle, all proposed by Mongolia, to the CMS Appendices at COP12. Przewalski’s Horses were last seen in 1969 in the wild near Mongolian border in Trans-Altai Gobi. The population is currently estimated to consist of more than 50 mature individuals free-living in the wild for the past seven years.

Birders identify rare species of migratory pelagic birds that have made a winter home on the hospitable shores of Arichal Munai and Dhanushkodi

In the margins of the third session of the United Nations Environment Assembly being held in Nairobi this week, a signing ceremony took place setting the seal on a multi-million-Euro project bringing together three United Nations agencies – the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES) and CMS.

As part of a 30m Euro intervention, the EU today signed a 17.2m Euro agreement with three UN institutions working jointly to reduce the illegal killing of wildlife and the trafficking of wildlife products throughout Eastern and Southern Africa and the Indian Ocean. The new ‘cross-regional wildlife programme’ will focus its activities in the regions’ most important protected areas, national transit points, and in some of Africa’s most important transboundary ecosystems.

The third session of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA3) is taking place in Nairobi from 4 to 6 December with the theme “Towards a Pollution-free Planet”.