International news

CMS Executive Secretary, Bradnee Chambers has been meeting high-level Embassy officials from countries in the Latin American and South-East Asian regions to promote accession to the Convention. On 10 April, Chambers met representatives of El Salvador, Guatemala, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua and Venezuela. Also in attendance was a representative from Honduras, which has been a Party to CMS since 2007.

From 19 to 23 March 2018, the 3rd Adriatic Flyway Conference took place in Fruška Gora National Park, Serbia, organized by EuroNatur and the Bird Protection and Study Society of Serbia (BPSSS, BirdLife Serbia). At this meeting, officials of the Government of Serbia and more than 80 experts and affiliates of Bird Conservation NGOs from central and south-eastern European countries presented and discussed recent findings on the monitoring of migratory bird populations, their conservation status, ecological dynamics and their habitats in the Adriatic Flyway region.

Dr. Bradnee Chambers, CMS Executive Secretary, participated in a live stage interview yesterday at the Global Festival of Action for Sustainable Development. The three-day Festival brings together the global community taking action on the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a set of policies to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all by 2030

Meeting in Medellín, Colombia from 17 to 24 March, the 6th session of the Plenary of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) has adopted five major assessment reports. Three years in development and costing US$5 million, the five reports – one on regional and global land degradation and restoration and four evaluating the contributions of biodiversity and nature to people in four world regions – Africa, the Americas, Asia & the Pacific and Europe & Central Asia – have been prepared by over 550 leading international experts from more than 100 countries.

The 18th International Wildlife Law Conference is taking place from 18 to 19 April 2018 in Tilburg, the Netherlands. The conference is being organized by Tilburg University’s Department of European and International Public Law in partnership with the Institute for Biodiversity Law and Policy of Stetson University College of Law, USA. Participants are drawn from a wide range of professional fields associated with conservation, including lawyers, policymakers and scientists and from all corners of the world with Europe, North America, Africa, Asia and Australia all represented.

Delegates from 13 countries agreed today on transboundary conservation measures for the Middle-European population of the Great Bustard. Germany is one of the signatories to a special agreement concluded under the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS, also known as the Bonn Convention) to better protect the species. CMS and the Brandenburg State Office for Environment (LfU) organized the meeting with support from the Förderverein Großtrappenschutz e.V. (Society for the Protection of the Great Bustard).

Wildlife tourism is not a viable option in Central Asia — the area is inaccessible and lacks the infrastructure which all but the hardiest of travellers want.

Representatives from business, civil society, academia and government will come together in Mexico for the World Ocean Summit, which is being held 7-9 March. The annual event is hosted by The Economist, and seeks to address topics related to oceans such as sustainable seafood, blue economy clusters, ocean governance and marine debris. International attention and cooperation for the control of marine debris is especially important in light of the UNEP/CMS/Resolution 12.20 on the ‘Management of Marine Debris’ which was passed by the CMS Conference of Parties at Manila in 2017.

On the 3rd of March each year is World Wildlife Day, this year being conducted with the theme “Big Cats – Predators under Threat”, highlighting the dramatic declines in numbers and habitat being suffered by Lions Tigers, Leopards and Jaguars as well as Cheetahs, Snow Leopards and Pumas. The campaign also provides an opportunity of publicizing and garnering support for the many conservation initiatives being undertaken worldwide to ensure big cats’ survival.

With World Wildlife Day this year being celebrated under the theme Big Cats - Predators Under Threat, Bradnee Chambers, executive secretary of the UN Convention on Migratory Species, examines some of the difficulties involved in reconciling the interests of wild animals and the people who have to live alongside them.