Joint Meeting of Bern Convention SFPs and CMS MIKT on Illegal Killing, Taking and Trade of Wild Birds (MIKT 2)

Red Back Shrike caught on a limestick @ Mindy El Bashir, NCE

The second meeting of the MIKT took place in Sliema (Malta), on 22 and 23 June 2017. This was the first joint meeting between the Bern Convention Network of Special Focal Points (SFPs) on Eradication of Illegal Killing, Trapping and Trade in Wild Birds (Bern SFPs Network) and the Intergovernmental Task Force on Illegal Killing, Taking and Trade of Migratory Birds in the Mediterranean (MIKT).

The Illegal Killing, Taking and Trade of Migratory Birds (IKB) is still of great concern globally, and some bird populations are declining rapidly. Even though IKB is happening in every part of the world, the Mediterranean is in need of special attention since the challenges in this area are particularly acute.

In 2014, the CMS 11^th Conference of the Parties mandated the establishment of the Intergovernmental Task Force on Illegal Killing, Taking and Trade of Migratory Birds in the Mediterranean (MIKT). Since the attention given to IKB differed between the Range States, the need for a joint approach to tackle the problem in this region was urgent. The meetings of the MIKT are therefore an important platform where governments and international organizations can improve mutual cooperation and exchange experiences on this issue.

The first meeting of the MIKT took place in Cairo in 2016. During this meeting, the government representatives adopted the Cairo Declaration which highlighted, among other things, the need for social, economic and cultural approaches to the problem, and reaffirmed their zero tolerance towards IKB. The meeting also resulted in a Programme of Work (PoW) for 2016 to 2020 focused on three priority areas to address IKB in the Mediterranean: legal and enforcement aspects, conservation and monitoring and finally education and public awareness.

The objective of this first Joint meeting, which counted with representation of 24 countries and 29 stakeholders was the exchange of best practices and facilitation of concerted actions of both networks to support each other in their fight against IKB. Country representatives reported on the advances made since the last meeting of MIKT and the Bern SFPs Network in 2016. One of the main achievements of this meeting has been the agreement on setting up a common benchmarking tool to monitor the countries’ progress in eradicating IKB. This tool is a “Scoreboard” that will compile the relevant information provided by the countries in order to evaluate and rank the progress made at national and regional level. The first step will be a self-assessment carried out by the national authorities in cooperation with relevant stakeholders. By enabling comparison and the exchange of best practice, this “Scoreboard” aims also to provide countries with a tool to identify the national deficiencies and eventually promote concerted action to address them. These assessments will take place periodically in 2018, 2020 and every three years thereafter within the geographical scope of the contracting parties of the Bern Convention and the MIKT.

This activity has also been kindly sponsored by the Bern Convention and the Government of Malta.

* Please note that the same meeting and information documents can be found on the Council of Europe/Bern Convention website.