Bonn, 20 June 2012 - Regional UNEP Biodiversity MEA Focal Points last week visited the Secretariats of CMS, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands. Intensive briefing sessions over 1½ days at CMS have left the focal points with a deeper understanding of the work of the CMS Secretariat as well as the Secretariats of its daughter Agreements, its priority areas and activities, and its niche in the biodiversity MEA world working to address the unique challenges faced by migratory species.

UNEP hosts a biodiversity MEA Focal Point in each of five UNEP regional offices - Africa, Latin America & the Caribbean, West Asia, Asia & the Pacific, and Europe. The Focal Points’ role is to provide technical and advisory support directly to MEA secretariats, as well as to enhance countries' capacities to implement biodiversity-related agreements, such as CMS, CITES and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). They work at the regional and national level with countries by providing technical and advisory services, information exchange and capacity-building for synergistic implementation of MEAs.

The Focal Points’ pilot phase was established in 2009. Now, thanks to generous funding from the governments of Norway, Spain and Sweden, UNEP, and a project called the “ENRTP Strategic Cooperation Agreement (SCA) between European Commission and UNEP”, the Focal Point posts, as well as an operational budget, are in place for the next three years.

The assistance that will be provided to CMS from the Focal Points, on top of the implementation of new CMS joint work plans with the other biodiversity-related conventions - CITES, Ramsar and CBD - bodes well for enhanced synergies among the Conventions at the national level.