Bonn, 22 March 2012 - The Capacity Building Work Plan for the triennium 2012-2014 was adopted at COP10 in order to enhance the national capacity to implement the mandate of the Convention. This initiative aims at identifying capacity building gaps of Parties to be addressed through various targeted building activities. All stakeholders and partners shall be encouraged to exchange resources, experience and information. In a further step, decision-makers shall be guided towards creating and maintaining a favorable conservation status of migratory species at national and international level.

CMS together with AEWA received financial support to implement the joint capacity building activities for the next 3 years in line with the adopted CMS Capacity Building Work Plan for 2012-2014. This contribution is being made through the Thematic Programme for Environment and Sustainable Management of Natural Resources including Energy (ENRTP) Strategic Cooperation Agreement (SCA) between the European Commission - Directorate General Environment and UNEP.

The focus of the activities will be for now mainly on the African region and more specifically on strengthening the capacities to implement CMS and its instruments, such as AEWA, since reviews clearly indicate that the region has been lagging behind in many aspects of implementation.

Steps have already been taken to develop a handbook and an interactive e-learning tool for the national focal points and focal points for the CMS instruments. The handbook will clearly explain the roles and responsibilities of the focal points in order to strengthen the national institutions responsible for managing migratory species conservation. Similarly the complementary training workshops will be organized for this target group during the next triennium.