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Elizabeth Maruma Mrema Takes Up New Assignment
in Nairobi |
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]
|
Lahcen
El Kabiri Retires |
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]
|
International
Symposium on Community-Based Natural Resource
Management |
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.
|
UNEP/CMS Participates in the Fifth Pan-American
Meeting of the Convention on Wetlands |
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]
|
CMS Signs Partnership Agreement with HSI Australia |
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]
|
COP 11 - First Call for Offers to Host CMS COP11
in 2014! |
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]
|
Two Top-Twenty Spots for CMS Family Projects |
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]
|
Welcome to Nick P Williams as Programme Officer
(Raptors) |
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]
|
Global
Flyway Initiatives Workshop in South Korea Establishes
a “Global Interflyway Network” (GIN) |
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]
|
African
Preparatory Negotiation Workshop Empowers CMS
Negotiators |
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]
|
UN
Day Celebrations in Bonn |
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]
|
Whales, Dolphins and Porpoises Suffer Dramatic Declines from Bycatch in Fishing Nets |
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.
|
Call for Action from Friends of CMS |
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)
|
Thesis Award Report Published |
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
|
CMS to Hold COP Preparatory Workshop for the African Region |
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]
|
Malaysia Signs IOSEA Marine Turtle
MOU |
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]
|
UNEP/CMS Thesis Award Goes To Researcher on African Elephants |
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]
|
CMS Welcomes Migratory Wildlife Network Civil Society Support |
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]
|
Friends of CMS Launch Species Conservation Calendar 2012 |
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
|
UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner Visits CMS Family in Bonn
|
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.
|
New Agreement Governs the Relationship between the IUCN Environmental Law Centre and the CMS Family |
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]
|
ACAP
Working Groups Review Bycatch, Status and Trends
of Albatrosses and Petrels
|
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]
|
World Migratory Bird Day 2011 Breaks All Records!
|
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]
|
Launch of the Pacific Cetaceans MoU Diversity
Database
|
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]
|
New
Feature on CMS News Page – Media Watch
|
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.
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