Congratulations to all the people involved in AEWA on the 25th anniversary of the Agreement. It is excellent that we have come this far, and it is good to see detailed activities undertaken at the practical level, which we believed from the start could be provided by a conservation and management tool such as AEWA. Developing a flyway conservation plan was not an entirely new concept when work on AEWA started in the late eighties. For a long time, bird conservationists believed that the protection and management of birds should be implemented across the entire range: the breeding, stopover and wintering sites.

On Saturday, 9 May 2020, people around the world will celebrate World Migratory Bird Day (WMBD) – a global campaign dedicated to raising awareness of migratory birds and the need for international cooperation to conserve them.  This year the theme of World Migratory Bird Day is “Birds Connect Our World” and was chosen to highlight the importance of conserving and restoring the ecological connectivity and integrity of ecosystems that support the natural cycles that are essential for the survival and well-being of migratory birds.

The successful implementation of AEWA relies on the cooperation and engagement of multiple stakeholders – first and foremost the Contracting Parties to the Agreement. Currently, the AEWA family unites a total of 80 Parties, 42 of them from Eurasia and 38 from Africa. Here is an example – in pictures - of what AEWA implementation looks like in Côte d’Ivoire, highlighting three of the AEWA-related activities carried out by the national AEWA implementing agency, the Department of Wildlife and Hunting (DFRC) of the Ministry of Water and Forestry (MINEF) in Côte d’Ivoire.

The Grey Crowned-crane (Balearica regulorum), a tall and majestic bird, which occurs in eastern and southern Africa, is listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. It has been facing various threats such as habitat degradation and loss, disturbance from livestock and people during the breeding season and the illegal removal of birds and eggs from the wild. Through co-funding under the AEWA Small Grants Fund activities were supported in Zimbabwe focusing on the conservation of the Grey Crowned-crane as well as the Vulnerable Wattled Crane (Bugeranus carunculatus).