Abu Dhabi, 16 March 2017 – Twenty-three countries agreed to enhance efforts to help local communities to better protect dugongs, also known as sea cows, and their seagrass habitats. The endangered species, which is primarily threatened by entanglement in fishing gear, collision with boats and habitat loss, occurs across the East coast of Africa, South-East Asia, Pacific Islands and Australia. Government officials, and the world’s leading dugong and seagrass experts, met this week in Abu Dhabi to discuss solutions to stop the rapid decline of dugongs and the seagrass meadows where they live.

An International Action Plan for vultures is being developed at an expert meeting convened by the Coordinating Unit of the Raptors MoU under the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) in from 16 to 19 February in Toledo, Spain. The plan aims to prevent the further decline of vultures which are nature’s primary scavengers, providing indispensable ecological services as carrion feeders and disposers of disease-carrying carcasses.

Governments throughout the Mediterranean have agreed the need for tougher penalties and stricter surveillance in order to enforce a new “zero tolerance” policy that seeks to clamp down on the annual slaughter of millions of migratory birds in the region.

In a historic move, representatives of 28 African lion Range States have reached broad agreement to secure the survival of this iconic species in the wild across Africa. The continent-wide consensus on the conservation, management and restoration of the lion (Panthera leo) and its habitat in Africa was reached at a meeting hosted by the Ugandan Government and jointly convened by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) from 30 to 31 May in Entebbe.