We would like to welcome Robert Hepworth who arrived in Bonn to the CMS Secretariat as Acting Executive Secretary on 27 August. He is bringing with him many years’ experience of implementing and negotiating international wildlife conventions and legislation. Robert acted for a number of years as Head of Global Wildlife in the UK (DEFRA) and joined UNEP as Deputy Director of the Division for Environmental Conventions in 2000. Having served as Chair of the CMS Standing Committee in the early 1990s and as chair of several Conferences of the Parties, he will bring the perspective of CMS Parties as well as UNEP to his new post. He has also served as Vice Chair and Chair of the CITES Standing Committee during the period between 1994-2000.

As a main objective Robert would like to strengthen institutional cooperation with IUCN and CBD, CITES, Ramsar and World Heritage conventions. To this end he has already established and renewed contacts with counterparts in these institutions. Reaching out to form new or revitalised partnerships with other bodies, including individual Party states, UNEP, IUCN, the other biodiversity-related Conventions, non-governmental organisations will considerably promote the conservation of migratory animals. Specific species groups would also benefit from programmes such as the Great Ape Survival Project, which Robert helped to develop in UNEP, and established initiatives such as the Marine Mammal Action Plan. Under its new management the CMS Secretariat is also looking forward to strengthening its fruitful cooperation with the Host Government and the City of Bonn.

Extending multilateral co-operation on a global scale helps to position CMS so that we can make a tangible contribution towards the global biodiversity targets established for 2010 by CBD and WSSD. It is vital for CMS to increase the number of Parties to CMS particularly in Asia and North America. Another major objective of CMS, which he has set himself, is to generate additional resources to support Parties in implementing the Convention, especially in developing countries. He believes that partnerships, which include private and charitable sectors are the key to unlock these resources.

Robert is also ready to face the immediate challenges in organising the next CMS Conference of the Parties in 2005, and in the same year moving CMS Headquarters to the new Secretariat offices generously offered by our host country of Germany on the new UN "campus" in Bonn.

The CMS Secretariat staff is looking forward to working with Robert in its continuing endeavour for conservation in the months and years ahead.

Welcoming Statement of Robert Hepworth