To follow up on this challenge, the first gathering of Western Hemisphere countries to focus on co-operative efforts to conserve migratory wildlife met at the edge of Puyehue National Park, Termas de Puyehue, in the Chilean Lake District, from 6-8 October 2003. Representatives from 26 countries attended the First Western Hemisphere Migratory Species Conference, co-hosted by the United States Department of State and the US Fish and Wildlife Service. The Conference met in parallel with the Seventh Neotropical Ornithological Congress.

The 60 Conference attendees, which included inter- and non-governmental organisations, were invited to prioritise migratory species conservation issues, identify tools to address the issues and how to implement relevant action and identify follow-up actions, including recommendations for a strategy to follow-up on prioritisation needs.

The meeting was very well organised, relied on professional facilitation led in part by a representative from the IUCN Conservation Breeding Specialist Group and broke into two working groups. The first day was devoted to the governmental representatives identifying priority areas for international co-operation. The scope of the undertaking was the only potentially contentious issue. A “synthesis group” resolved that the scope of the initial work under the initiative would be migratory birds, to be extended to all other migratory species within two years.

During the tool identification stage, the CMS Secretariat, represented by Agreements Officer Lyle Glowka, was given an important opportunity to describe the Convention, its operational tools and its achievements over the last 25 years. This provided a foundation for supportive comments that had been made throughout the meeting about CMS’ possible role from the representatives of those CMS Contracting Parties that attended the meeting: Argentina, Bolivia, The Netherlands (represented by the Netherlands Antilles), Paraguay and Uruguay. The CMS Contracting Parties and the CMS Secretariat also hosted a CMS briefing session and reception on the evening of 6 October.

The synthesis group met on the evening of 7 October. It distilled the results and proposed to the wider group some follow-up steps that would comprise a strategic way forward. The Conference agreed to create a process to establish the basis for a hemisphere-wide dialogue on migratory species. Its initial focus would be on migratory birds. An interim Steering Committee was created with regional governmental representation, NGO membership and membership by interested intergovernmental organisations. CMS was invited to sit on the interim Steering Committee.

NGO representation for the Standing Committee was organised around bird and non-bird themes. Three NGOs will represent different bird issues: American Bird Conservancy (North American terrestrial birds); BirdLife International (terrestrial birds of South America, Meso-America and the Caribbean); and Wetlands International (waterbirds and wetlands). BirdLife International and Wetlands International are key CMS partners. The WWF Central American office will lead on non-bird taxa. Each country will designate a focal point responsible for two-way communication with its regional representative to the Steering Committee.

The interim Steering Committee, which will be chaired by the United States representing North America under the leadership of Mr Herb Raffaele, Chief of the US Fish and Wildlife Service Division of International Affairs. Uruguay, a CMS Party, will sit on the interim Steering Committee and represent countries from Southern South America. The US and Uruguay will be joined by other representatives from Meso-America (Costa Rica), Northern South America (Colombia) and the Caribbean (St. Lucia). Among other things, the interim Steering Committee will be responsible for keeping the process alive, producing a baseline report on the status of top-priority needs within the hemisphere, raising money for future meetings, developing a formula for the future and preparing progress reports to the summit of the Americas and other intergovernmental processes and meetings, such as the CMS Conference of Parties.