Mr. President, Excellencies, dear Mr Hammah Arba Diallo, Executive Secretary of the CCD, honourable delegates from State authorities, IGOs & NGOs, ladies and gentlemen:

First of all, I would like to congratulate you, Mr. President, on your election, and to thank you for giving me this opportunity to address this Conference of the Parties.

Bonn is famous for being the birth-place of Ludwig van Beethoven, the well known composer of classical music; - it is also the birth-place and home of the Convention on Migratory Species - also called CMS or the Bonn Convention. This Convention was negotiated here, concluded here and the Permanent Secretariat was established here in 1984. It was the first Secretariat of a UN-sponsored global convention to be established in Bonn.

This and the fact that the President of the Federal Republic of Germany, Dr. Rau, in his key note address yesterday spoke to you about Corncrakes ( Latin: crex crex) and the Northern shovelers (Latin: Anas clypeata), both of which are migratory species and listed in the Appendices of CMS, may justify my speaking on behalf of the 5-10 thousand other migratory species

which form an irreplaceable component of the globe’s biological diversity,

which require international cooperation and concerted action for their successful conservation,

which are excellent indicators for the health of the environment

and which are - as shared biological resources and symbols of the common natural heritage of the community of states - marvellous indicators for the state of international cooperation in the field of environment.

While I hope - of course - that our two secretariats will continue to be good neighbours, I think we should try to do a little more than exchange pleasantries over the garden fence.

Hence, I am pleased to inform you that CMS has been in the vanguard of efforts to find ways and means of inter-Convention cooperation. CMS is in the process of setting out the complementarities of CMS and the Convention on Biological Diversity, which means that we are providing evidence that CMS helps implement a number of important aspects of CBD as well as other biodiversity-related conventions. CMS also actively seeks partnerships with other organisations - both inter-governmental and non-governmental, whose interests coincide with ours - IUCN, BirdLife and Wetlands International being just three prime examples.

To focus on the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, I understand that an area the size of 6 million ha of productive land has been lost to desertification each year since 1990 and that one quarter or, as others estimate, 40 % of the globe’s surface is desert or threatened by desertification. In addition to the loss of vital agricultural and forestry land and the resultant human displacement, it has been rendered uninhabitable for a number of animal species whose habitats have been lost. Compensation must be found for human food by transforming more natural sites into productive land - with unfortunate consequences for biodiversity and migratory wild animals.

The challenge is to reverse the trend and to see whether the old ecosystems can be restored and the species re-established in as short a period as they were degraded. This is vital to humankind as well as the biodiversity which is a fundamental basis for our human species’ survival. And it should be understood that we cannot fight against poverty with species which have become extinct.

(1) Circum-Saharan Africa has lost more higher vertebrate species - birds and mammals - than any other region in the Palearctic.

CMS, in cooperation with the national authorities of the 14 Range States concerned, and experts from around the world, have developed and concluded an Action Plan for the re-establishment of viable populations of six - almost completely eradicated - antelope species in the Sahelo-Saharan region which is, by the way, larger than the continent of Australia. With the assistance of the French Government, a Belgian scientific institute and a number of zoos in Europe and North America, CMS has initiated the reintroduction of captive-bred specimens of these ungulates. I would hope that the instruments of the Convention to Combat Desertification may assist in reaching the goal to bring back the animals to the region as they are part of the people’s history and tradition and the ground for future economic development.

(2) Another concern for CMS are the wild antelopes, gazelles, other ungulates, camels, donkeys and steppe birds - such as Houbara and Great bustards - of the dryland regions of Asia and Central and Eastern Europe. Human pressures, heavy demand on the water supplies for livestock and general degradation of the desert have all contributed to the animals’ decline. But they are characteristic species of the region, and could play an important role in economic development.

(3) A third example of a group of species in decline are the hundreds of bird species migrating thousands of kilometres every year because of weather conditions and for food supply. Many of these animals are under growing pressure through the expansion of the deserts and the transformation of natural and semi-natural land into mono-cultural farmland.

All these animals represent the common natural heritage which can only be handed over to our children and their children if we protect them and use them on a sustainable basis. CMS is prepared to synergise. I would hope that synergies will be gained on all levels including national levels.

Early next year the Secretariats of CMS and CCD will meet to work on a joint work programme, an exchange of information and possible areas of cooperation. I would just take this opportunity to call on all states authorities, international governmental and specialised non-governmental organisations, scientists and sponsors to enable the global conventions to make progress for the benefits of both humankind and nature.