Bonn, 23 March 2021 – The AEWA Action Plan requires the Secretariat and the Technical Committee (TC) to develop a series of Conservation Guidelines to help the Parties implement the Agreement. As part of this series, guidelines on how to avoid, minimise or mitigate the impact of infrastructure developments and related disturbance affecting waterbirds have been produced. They were endorsed by the 5th Meeting of the AEWA Standing Committee in June 2008 and approved by the 4th Session of the Meeting of the Parties (September 2008, Antananarivo, Madagascar).

Infrastructure developments can have a range of potentially significant impacts on waterbirds and their habitats. It is therefore recommended that each Party should take steps to avoid, minimize or mitigate such potential impacts by applying Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) and project Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) as part of a robust and transparent system for planning and implementing sustainable development.

These guidelines are setting out two sets of steps that may need to be followed. Each country should apply the appropriate steps according to the planning stage that has been reached in the development process. However, the steps should be seen as components of a partly iterative process, such that if necessary steps are returned to and revised in response to new information and decisions. Consultations with stakeholders should also take place throughout the SEA and EIA processes as necessary.

The Guidelines, published as AEWA Technical Series No. 26, were produced by Ecological Solutions and Treweek Environmental Consultants and funded by The Agency for Nature and Forests, Ministry of the Flemish Community (ANF), Belgium.

A new collaborative report from WWF and partners provides the first truly comprehensive look at whale migrations and the threats they face across all oceans, highlighting how the cumulative impacts from industrial fishing, ship strikes, pollution, habitat loss, and climate change are creating a hazardous and sometimes fatal obstacle course for the marine species.

Protecting Blue Corridors visualises the satellite tracks of over 1000 migratory whales worldwide. The report outlines how whales are encountering multiple and growing threats in their critical ocean habitats – areas where they feed, mate, give birth, and nurse their young – and along their migration superhighways, or ‘blue corridors’.

CMS has strengthened its engagement in Central Asia to conserve migratory mammals, their habitats and the vital role they play in preserving intact ecosystems. The Central Asian Mammals Initiative (CAMI) (Resolution 11.24 (Rev.COP13)) and its associated Programme of Work were adopted by CMS Parties at the Eleventh Meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP11) and revised at COP13 in Ghandinagar, India (February 2020). With an initiative to strengthen the conservation of Central Asian migratory mammals, CMS aims to provide a common framework to coordinate conservation activities in the region and to coherently address major threats to migratory species. It is based on activities focused on single species (including existing MOUs/Action Plans and those in development) and activities to address urgent and major threats faced by all or most of the species.

CMS provides an international policy framework to facilitate close collaboration amongst stakeholders. Priority areas for action under CMS include the removal of barriers to migration, the maintenance and restoration of transboundary ecological networks and the preservation of animal migrations in the Central Asian region as one of the last global “migration hotspots”. By developing an initiative for Central Asian mammals, the treaty is acting as a catalyst to foster collaboration between all stakeholders, with the aim of harmonizing and strengthening the implementation of CMS and its instruments targeting large mammals.

The Global Initiative on Ungulate Migration was created in 2020. The main aim of the initiative is to work collaboratively to: 1) create a Global Atlas of Ungulate Migration (an inventory) using tracking data and expert knowledge; and 2) stimulate research on drivers, mechanisms, threats and conservation solutions common to ungulate migration worldwide. Initiative participants include global experts representing the world’s major terrestrial regions and most if not all of its longest migrations (e.g., Serengeti wildebeest, arctic caribou, Mongolian saiga, white-eared kob, African elephants, among many others). We seek to spark conservation efforts worldwide by sharing and discussing new, ongoing, and proven approaches to maintain migration corridors across large landscapes.

Conservation Management Plans (CMPs) are an important conservation initiative of the IWC.  They provide a framework for countries within the range of vulnerable cetacean populations (known as range states) to work together, and in collaboration with other relevant stakeholders, to protect and rebuild those populations.

The International Whaling Commission – IWC

The IWC was established in 1946 as the global body responsible for management of whaling and conservation of whales. Today the IWC has 88 member countries. The mandate has not changed but many new conservation concerns exist and the IWC work programme now also includes bycatch & entanglement, ship strikes, ocean noise, pollution and debris, and sustainable whale watching.

The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) has focused in recent years on protected areas (PAs) and other effective area-based conservation measures (OECMs). While these areas play a central role in future conservation efforts, it is also vital to recognise the importance of the expanses of land and water that connect them: ecological corridors. Ecological corridors are areas that are governed and managed over the long-term to maintain or restore ecological connectivity – the unimpeded movement of species and the flow of natural processes that sustain life on Earth.

The Qinling landscape supports a large population of Giant pandas (Ailuropoda melanoleuca). In the 1970s National Road 108 was constructed through the previously intact forest, splitting the panda populations apart into distinct groups in the east and west. The eastern subgroup of pandas is at high risk of extinction. Habitat fragmentation like this limits resources and genetic movement for both groups of pandas. In 2000 a tunnel was built by the government to accommodate the new road and the opportunity to reconnect the panda population. The old roads, above ground, were closed so that habitat could be re-established. In 2003 the Shaanxi Guanyinshan Nature Reserve was legally established, and in 2005 the World Wildlife Fund together with the reserve launched the G108 Qinling vehicle tunnel corridor restoration project. The main activities of the project included baseline surveys of the panda population, bamboo plantings to improve habitat quality, local community engagement and wildlife monitoring.

In Costa Rica, land management plans are a tool that local governments can use to generate regulations that complement protected areas and ecological corridors. These three  elements are complementary and must be developed in an integrated fashion to achieve a systematic approach to planning. Management plans implement ecological corridors through tools such as the establishment of specific areas for focal species; the preservation of agricultural areas that function as biological, conservation and sustainable tourism corridors; the creation of buffer zones; and the zoning of aquifer recharge zones for the protection of water resources. Through the University of Costa Rica’s Sustainable Urban Development Research Program (UCR-ProDUS in Spanish), land management plans for more than a dozen municipalities have been developed, including the protected areas Corcovado National Park, Piedras Blancas National Park, Ballena Marine National Park, Juan Castro Blanco Water National Park and Carara National Park.

The world’s largest coral reef system, the Great Barrier reef, is an extremely biodiverse habitat. The corals that comprise the reef are the backbone of the ecosystem that many marine animals depend on. Ocean currents drive the population dynamics of corral and the entire reef system. Connection of fishing zones to no-take zones and connection between inshore and offshore habitats along with zones of high larvae dispersal would be the most effective way to conserve the delicate reef habitat. Without data on larvae dispersal, it was critical to determine the best spots for connectivity. The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park (GBRMP) was substantially rezoned and expanded in 2003, based on systematic planning principles. Eleven biophysical operating principles (BOPs) were devised to protect representative examples of each of the GBR’s 70 bioregions. The maintenance of connectivity was also an explicit goal of the marine park – both the total size of the no-take marine reserves and their individual locations were considered.

The IWC Southern Ocean Research Partnership (IWC-SORP) was established in 2009 as an integrated, collaborative consortium for cetacean research, which aims to maximise conservation-orientated outcomes for Southern Ocean cetaceans through an understanding of the post-exploitation status, health, dynamics and environmental linkages of their populations, and the threats they face.

Task Teams aim to provide rapid and targeted responses to situations where significant and swift population decline is happening, and a real threat of extinction exists at either global or individual population level.

As an environmental treaty of the United Nations, CMS provides a global platform for the conservation and sustainable use of migratory animals and their habitats. CMS brings together the States through which migratory animals pass, the Range States, and lays the legal foundation for internationally coordinated conservation measures throughout a migratory range.

As the only global convention specializing in the conservation of migratory species, their habitats and migration routes, CMS complements and co-operates with a number of other international organizations, NGOs and partners in the media as well as in the corporate sector.

Migratory species threatened with extinction are listed on Appendix I of the Convention. CMS Parties strive towards strictly protecting these animals, conserving or restoring the places where they live, mitigating obstacles to migration and controlling other factors that might endanger them. Besides establishing obligations for each State joining the Convention, CMS promotes concerted action among the Range States of many of these species.

Migratory species that need or would significantly benefit from international co-operation are listed in Appendix II of the Convention. For this reason, the Convention encourages the Range States to conclude global or regional agreements.

In this respect, CMS acts as a framework Convention. The agreements may range from legally binding treaties (called Agreements) to less formal instruments, such as Memoranda of Understanding, and can be adapted to the requirements of particular regions. The development of models tailored according to the conservation needs throughout the migratory range is a unique capacity to CMS.

Conservation Management Plans (CMPs) are an important conservation initiative of the IWC.  They provide a framework for countries within the range of vulnerable cetacean populations (known as range states) to work together, and in collaboration with other relevant stakeholders, to protect and rebuild those populations.

WWF’s global site-based conservation programs cover vast areas of countries and continents and, via its landscape approach, invariably has large programs that transcend national boundaries be it for species conservation, forest and habitat protection, or to maintain environmental f lows and sustainable use. Past global studies have looked at guidelines and criteria for successful transboundary conservation programs, but a review of practical lessons from the field is lacking. This report reflects on the strengths and challenges of transboundary conservation programs, illustrated by a compilation of lessons from over two decades of work on the ground, and builds on previous knowledge, fills some knowledge gaps, and draws on firsthand practitioners’ experiences from 16 of WWF’s transboundary landscapes across Europe, Africa, Central America and Asia.

As an environmental treaty of the United Nations, CMS provides a global platform for the conservation and sustainable use of migratory animals and their habitats. CMS brings together the States through which migratory animals pass, the Range States, and lays the legal foundation for internationally coordinated conservation measures throughout a migratory range.

As the only global convention specializing in the conservation of migratory species, their habitats and migration routes, CMS complements and co-operates with a number of other international organizations, NGOs and partners in the media as well as in the corporate sector.

Migratory species threatened with extinction are listed on Appendix I of the Convention. CMS Parties strive towards strictly protecting these animals, conserving or restoring the places where they live, mitigating obstacles to migration and controlling other factors that might endanger them. Besides establishing obligations for each State joining the Convention, CMS promotes concerted action among the Range States of many of these species.

Migratory species that need or would significantly benefit from international co-operation are listed in Appendix II of the Convention. For this reason, the Convention encourages the Range States to conclude global or regional agreements.

In this respect, CMS acts as a framework Convention. The agreements may range from legally binding treaties (called Agreements) to less formal instruments, such as Memoranda of Understanding, and can be adapted to the requirements of particular regions. The development of models tailored according to the conservation needs throughout the migratory range is a unique capacity to CMS.

The IWC Southern Ocean Research Partnership (IWC-SORP) was established in 2009 as an integrated, collaborative consortium for cetacean research, which aims to maximise conservation-orientated outcomes for Southern Ocean cetaceans through an understanding of the post-exploitation status, health, dynamics and environmental linkages of their populations, and the threats they face.

Task Teams aim to provide rapid and targeted responses to situations where significant and swift population decline is happening, and a real threat of extinction exists at either global or individual population level.

Regional ocean governance in the Western Indian Ocean requires active collaboration among institutions, countries, and stakeholders for a healthy and sustainable ocean. Regional leaders acknowledge the need for improved cross-sectoral cooperation to tackle the triple planetary crisis. Nairobi Convention and Partners support the co-development of a regional ocean governance strategy (ROGS), in response to the Africa Ministerial Conference on Environment and the Nairobi Convention Conference of Parties. Through Nairobi Convention Focal Points, a ROGS Task Force with representatives from Convention Parties, the African Union and other Regional Economic Communities, the Indian Ocean Commission, private sector, civil society, and regional experts leads the co-design of technical dialogues that shape the ROGS by fostering consensus on priority actions and proposing institutional and resourcing arrangements. A Support Team hosted by the Convention made up of experts from WIOMSA, GIZ, and CLI supports the Task Force.