Dubbed the ‘Serengeti of the North,’ Central Asia stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to China in the east and from Afghanistan in the south to Russia in the north. The vast deserts, semi‑deserts, grasslands and high mountains of Central Asia and adjacent regions, support some of the world’s last remaining large mammal migrations. Yet, unlike its African counterpart, it has been largely overlooked by conservation efforts.

Un plan multinacional para detener el repentino y grave declive de los buitres en África, Asia y Europa será presentado en una importante cumbre sobre especies migratorias este mes. Los expertos estiman que la mayoría de los buitres de África y Eurasia se encuentran en peligro crítico y tienen un "riesgo muy alto" de extinción en su estado silvestre, debido principalmente al envenenamiento. A menos que se apliquen medidas efectivas de conservación, es muy probable que varias de estas especies se extingan en un futuro cercano, dicen los expertos.

Officials from all 12 Range States of the Snow Leopard met in Bishkek last week to discuss the possibility of further strengthening their collaborative efforts to conserve the mountain-dwelling cats. The Snow Leopard faces significant threats in the shape of poaching, targeted killing by herders protecting their livestock, lack of prey, shrinking habitats and climate change.

The third pre-COP12 workshop took place at the UN Campus in Bonn from 15 to 17 August for participants representing Parties in Asia.

Bonn, 4 July 2017– the CMS Secretariat is holding a series of regional preparatory workshops in the run-up to COP12.  The first is taking place in La Paz, Bolivia from 18 to 20 Jul

The 41st session of the World Heritage Committee is taking place in Cracow, Poland from 2 to 12 July 2017. Like every year, the representatives from 21 States Parties to the Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage will identify, based on nominations submitted by States Parties, cultural and natural properties that need to be protected and decide which of those will be added to the World Heritage List.

Great Bustard experts from across the globe met in Ulaanbaatar from 24 to 30 May to plan the conservation of the Great Bustard in Asia. The Great Bustard is the heaviest bird capable of flight and in Asia are even rarer than snow leopards. The conference hosted experts from nine countries, including China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, the Russian Federation, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, the United Kingdom and the USA, and included contributions from Iran and Turkmenistan.

Members of the Energy Task Force, including the CMS and AEWA Secretariats, BirdLife International, and the German Ministry for the Environment (BMUB) joined forces at the UNFCCC Bonn Climate Change Conference to raise awareness of the importance of reconciling migratory species conservation with the deployment of renewable energy and power lines globally.