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Bonn, 6 August 2002 - In September, Government officials,
scientists, representatives of international organizations
and non-governmental organizations from all over the world
will gather in Bonn, Germany -- headquarters of the Convention
on Migratory Species -- to consider strategies for
conserving a wide array of migratory animals. More than
100 countries are expected to be represented at the Seventh
Meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP7)
of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species
of Wild Animals (also known as CMS) from 18 to 24 September.
A related meeting on African-Eurasian migratory waterbirds
will follow immediately thereafter. The meetings are being
convened at the invitation of the Ministry of Environment,
in the former German capital where the Convention on Migratory
Species was adopted 23 years ago.
An alarming 24 percent of all mammals and 12 percent of
bird species are currently regarded as globally threatened.
Many of these are migratory species, which are especially
vulnerable to indiscriminate fishing, unsustainable hunting,
habitat degradation and pollution. By way of example, the
Pacific Leatherback turtle, once thought to number as many
as 90,000 nesting females, has declined by some 95% in just
two decades; six species of Sahelo-Saharan Antelopes have
disappeared almost entirely from North Africa; and the majestic
Siberian cranes that winter in Iran and India have dwindled
to less than a dozen individuals. Equally disturbing, some
populations of marine mammals are seriously affected by
by-catch, disease and infection associated with exposure
to industrial pollutants.
CMS aims to conserve migratory animals over the whole
of their range. The Convention provides a framework within
which Governments and supportive non-governmental organizations
around the world can join forces to safeguard migratory
species through concerted and co-ordinated actions. Since
its entry into force in 1983, eighty countries from around
the globe have become CMS members, with Libya being the
latest to join. The United Nations Environment Programme
(UNEP), based in Nairobi, provides administrative support
to the Convention.
For further information, please address:
UNEP/CMS Secretariat
Veronika Lenarz
Tel.: 0228/815 2409
Fax: 0228/815 2449
e-mail: vlenarz@cms.unep.de
http://www.unep-wcmc.org/cms
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