CMS Executive Secretary Robert Hepworth delivered an address to the twenty-fourth session of the Governing Council/Global Ministerial Environment Forum of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in Nairobi, Kenya, from 5 to 9 February 2007.

Speaking to the Committee of the Whole on 7 February, he explained CMS’ interests in “governance” and “globalization”, the two key Ministerial policy priorities for the meeting which attracted Ministers from more than 50 countries. The Executive Secretary’s address, which covered wildlife watching, avian influenza, alien species, forest destruction, public-private partnerships, “Friends of CMS”, the merger of CMS-ASCOBANS Secretariats, on-line reporting by 2009, marine mammals, sharks, by-catch and North African Antelopes and co-operation with UNEP and MEAs. He also thanked Italy for its offer to host the next CMS Conference of the Parties, to be held in November 2008.

Mr. Hepworth also re-launched the Convention’s report on climate change and migratory species, which was published three months ago at the UNFCCC conference. He commented: “the growing impact of climate change is now central to biodiversity conservation. The cold facts presented so brilliantly last year by Al Gore in his film, and more systematically in last week’s IPCC report, tell us that one primate species has now overheated the planet to such an extent that many thousands of our fellow species across the globe face an even greater risk of extinction than ever ever before. The scientific certainty of climate change means that CMS Parties and partners have to do even more in all the other areas – safeguarding habitats, creating protected pathways for animals by land and sea, outlawing indiscriminate fishing methods and exposing global wildlife abusers who use the opportunity of international travel to hunt down the last specimens of endangered species such as the Sahelo-Saharan antelopes.”

A special exhibition for the Governing Council on “24 Hours in the Life of UNEP” included three panels on CMS and the Year of the Dolphin. Pictured below in front of the panels are the Executive Secretary (left) and Dr Wolfgang Burhenne, Editor-in-Chief of the Environmental Policy and Law Journal and one of the original “drafting architects” of the Convention.

For a summary of the results of the GC24/GMEF see, please consult the following websites:

www.unep.org

Click here to download the publication “ Migratory Species and Climate Change"