Bonn, 22 November 2012
- The 2nd Meeting of the AEWA Lesser White-fronted
Goose International Working Group took place at the Villa
Belles Hotel at Lake Kerkini from 9 to 11 November as representatives
from 15 range states as well as international conservation
organizations came together in Greece to assess progress
made in the implementation of the Lesser White-fronted Goose
Single Species Action Plan.

To ease the assessment of progress made
in the conservation of the species during the inter-sessional
period 2011-2012, range states were asked to submit national
reports using the CMS Family Online Reporting System. A
total of 16 out of 22 key range states submitted reports
to the meeting. Based on the reports submitted, it would
appear that the steep decline of the two Western Palearctic
sub-populations (Fennoscandian and Western main) has at
least slowed down, with only one country (Turkmenistan)
reporting the species as declining. However, much remains
unknown about the actual population status of the Lesser
White-fronted Goose and range states will continue their
efforts to close major knowledge gaps such as the exact
location of the wintering areas of the Western main sub-population.

The Working Group also kicked-off the revision
of the AEWA Single Species Action Plan for the Lesser White-fronted
Goose, which is due to be completed in 2013. Range states
re-evaluated the threats to the species and re-prioritized
urgent conservation activities to be implemented in the
short to medium term.

Meeting participants also
decided to establish a network of critical sites as well
as a common monitoring scheme for the Lesser White-fronted
Goose. To this end, range states selected sites critical
for the survival of the species today to be prioritized
for conservation measures as well as funding. The common
monitoring scheme will build on the monitoring network being
established along the European migratory routes of the species
by WWF Finland within the framework of the current EU LIFE+
project. The scheme includes common monitoring and identification
instructions to be used in all range states, a network of
national monitoring teams consisting of at least two field
experts per country as well as a common
database for all Lesser White-fronted Goose
observations, which has been developed by the Norwegian
Ornithological Society.

In addition, the meeting marked
the official launch of a new
website and internal workspace for the Lesser White-fronted
Goose, developed by the UNEP/AEWA Secretariat
to help facilitate the inter-sessional communication between
Working Group members.

The meeting concluded on Sunday
with an excursion to Lake Kerkini, which is a designated
Ramsar Site as well as an Important Bird Area (IBA) and
is host to more than 300 bird species - including Lesser
White-fronted Geese, 54 of which meeting participants were
lucky to observe.

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