El Kala, 2 June 2013 - It followed the 2nd regional workshop of the support programme for the International Waterbird Census (IWC) in the Mediterranean. The AEWA Focal Points from North African countries (from Morocco to Sudan) were thus able to meet and discuss with the IWC national coordinators.

This sub-regional workshop was organized by the Direction Générale des Forêts (General Directorate for Forests) in partnership with the El Kala National Park, Tour du Valat, the Technical Support Unit to the AEWA African Initiative (TSU) and the UNEP/AEWA Secretariat, with the support of the French Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy and the MAVA Foundation.

The purpose of this sub-regional workshop was to set activity priorities based on the AEWA Plan of Action for Africa for this region and to elect the sub-regional representative from among the national focal points. To begin with, the initiatives taken in favour of waterbirds within the framework of the IWC and the AEWA application in each country were presented.

A representative from the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF) also presented the CEPF’s funding programme for environmental NGOs worldwide and more specifically in the Mediterranean basin. Many projects in North Africa are funded by this programme.

In order to determine the training needs in this region, available tools for teacher training on waterbird conservation and monitoring were presented: the Flyway Training Kit, tools for monitoring and identifying waterbirds (CD, Guide downloadable from http://www.oncfs.gouv.fr), the information and discussion website, the data improvement module (the training in database/GIS being developed by TSU) and the population data viewing site (CSN Tool).

The participants agreed that the training for field observers should be organized in each country but with the support of a regional cooperation to develop a training methodology at North African level and to reinforce the capacities of the heads of the national networks.

A key point of this workshop was to identify which of the initiatives in the AEWA Plan of Action for Africa should be taken in North Africa. Each country outlined its priorities by initiative or by objective, and a summary was drawn up by objective. Objective 3 of the Plan of Action for Africa, which focuses on the monitoring of species, emerged as a priority at regional level, the priority measures to that end being:

1. Reinforcing the capacities of the national networks (trainer and observer training, optical equipment, atlas, etc.).
    
2. Regional coordination: setting up databases, analysing the data, publications.
    
3. Improving the IWC coverage of the wetlands and setting up monitoring, other than the IWC.

Dr Ammar Boumezbeur, AEWA’s National Focal Point in Algeria and member of the AEWA Standing Committee, was elected sub-regional Coordinator for North Africa by the National Focal Points (or their representatives). His role will be to facilitate implementation of the Plan of Action for Africa in the north of Africa with the support of the National Focal Points, the UNEP/AEWA Secretariat and the TSU.