Vulture MsAP Endorsed by the Sessional Committee of the CMS Scientific Council

Abu Dhabi, 20 July 2017 - The Coordinating Unit of the CMS Raptors MOU is pleased to announce that the Final Draft of the Multi-species Action Plan to Conserve African-Eurasian Vultures (Vulture MsAP) was endorsed by the Sessional Committee of the CMS Scientific Council (ScC-SC) which held its second meeting last week in Bonn, Germany.

The meeting commended the Vulture MsAP as a comprehensive and excellent piece of work and recommended it, together with the Draft Resolution, for adoption at the 12th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP12) to CMS which is to be held in October this year.  The Vulture MsAP and associated documents are available on the COP12 website. In addition, a short Summary of the Vulture MsAP will be posted online in due course.

The development of the Vulture MsAP was overseen by the Coordinating Unit of the Raptors MOU, in partnership with BirdLife International, the Vulture Conservation Foundation and the IUCN SSC Vulture Specialist Group, supported by members of the African-Eurasian Vulture Working Group (Vulture WG), its Vulture Steering Group (Vulture SG), and in particular the Overarching Coordinator and three Regional Coordinators covering Africa, Asia and Europe.

A month-long public consultation exercise on the second draft of the Vulture MsAP was launched in mid-March 2017, with the aim of reaching out even further by inviting comments and improvements from anyone who recognized the importance of vultures and the critical need to conserve them. Almost 60 responses were received, raising over 250 issues for consideration. Each response was carefully reviewed and, where appropriate, integrated into a final version of the Vulture MsAP, which was submitted to the CMS Secretariat in May 2017.

The Coordinating Unit would like to sincerely thank all who participated in the development of the Vulture MsAP, in particular the Overarching and Regional Coordinators.

One of the key actions included in the Vulture MsAP is to ensure that the most threatened species are afforded international legal protection by being listed on CMS Appendix I.  Accordingly, four CMS Parties submitted Listing Proposals to include 10 species of Old World vultures on CMS Appendix I for consideration at COP12, namely five vulture species occurring in sub-Saharan Africa submitted by Kenya; four vulture species occurring in Asia submitted by Pakistan; and proposals for inclusion of the Lappet-faced Vulture (Torgos tracheliotos) submitted by Israel and Saudi Arabia respectively.  The Asian and sub-Saharan African vultures proposals were recommended for inclusion in CMS Appendix I with small revisions; and the Lappet-faced Vulture proposals were endorsed by the ScC-SC without amendments.

In addition to the vulture species proposals, Saudi Arabia and Mongolia submitted a Listing Proposal on the Steppe Eagle (Aquila nipalensis).  Both proposals were recommended by the ScC-SC for inclusion on Appendix I of the Convention without amendments.  All Proposals for amendment of CMS Appendices (and comments from the ScC-SC) can be found on the COP12 webpage.

The Coordinating Unit looks forward to Parties’ and other stakeholders’ support at CMS COP12 to conserve African-Eurasian vultures. Any questions can be addressed to the Coordinating Unit at cmsoffice.ae(a)cms.int.

 

Last updated on 17 February 2020

Type: 
News
Species: 
Aegypius monachus
Aquila nipalensis
Gypaetus barbatus
Gyps africanus
Gyps bengalensis
Gyps coprotheres
Gyps fulvus
Gyps himalayensis
Gyps indicus
Gyps rueppelli
Gyps tenuirostris
Necrosyrtes monachus
Neophron percnopterus
Sarcogyps calvus
Torgos tracheliotos
Trigonoceps occipitalis
Species group: 
Birds