The project will now receive added support for migratory waterbird conservation through further collaboration with two Wadden Sea projects on capacity building and monitoring for waterbird conservation, as well as with an up-coming CMS/AEWA capacity-building project.

The CMB project runs over a period of four years and aims to “establish sustainable and participatory NGO-government partnerships for research, monitoring and conservation action, especially to mitigate threats to migratory birds and their habitats along the west coast of Africa”. This is to be achieved through a series of activities in the areas of science/research, monitoring, capacity building, livelihoods and policy and advocacy. The Flyway Approach adopted by the project and its activities directly contribute to the implementation of the African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbird Agreement, particularly in the areas of waterbird research and monitoring and capacity-building.

Each of the seven project countries was represented by their Government and participating NGO. The host Government was represented by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry & Food Security, Environmental Protection Agency and CSSL. International partner organizations included Wetlands International Africa - WIA, BLI, VBN, the Fondation International du Banc d’Arguin - FIBA and AEWA.

Some significant advances had been recorded with the project activities both at the regional and national levels. At the regional level, sub contracts had been established for all participating NGOs, and MOU signed with WIA and the project management structure set up in the CSSL office in Freetown, Sierra Leone, amongst others.

New projects identified to support and complement the CMB activities in the project area included the Wadden Sea Flyway Initiative projects on capacity building (funded by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment & Nature Conservation) and monitoring (funded by the Dutch Ministry of Economic affairs, Agriculture and Innovation and to be implemented by the Dutch Centre for Field Ornithology - SOVON), the CMS/AEWA capacity building project expected to be funded under the European Union Thematic Programme for Environment and Sustainable Management of Natural Resources including Energy (EU ENRTP) and the capacity building activities conducted by FIBA.

The implementation of the project is based, as far as possible, on the use of existing tools and materials developed for the conservation of migratory birds in the African-Eurasian region, such as the Wings over Wetlands (WOW) Critical Site Network Tool and Flyway Training Kit (FTK) and the recently updated ONCFS training module on the survey of migratory waterbird populations in Sub-Saharan Africa. Training courses will be conducted under the CMB project and partner projects/initiatives, making use of these tools. The AEWA Secretariat and the WIA office handed out one French copy and four English copies of the WOW FTK.

The CMB and partner projects targets a series of activities for 2012, particularly on capacity building for different target groups and addressing different issues related to the conservation of waterbirds and their habitats, waterbird monitoring and improving community livelihoods.

The project countries yet to accede to the relevant MEAs have been encouraged to do so and the Coordinator for the AEWA African Initiative met with officials from the Sierra Leone Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry & Food Security to encourage the country’s accession to both CMS and AEWA.

It is hoped that the success of this project could serve as an example for the development of further initiatives in other sub-regions of Africa.