Online Workshop on the Scoreboard to Asses the Progress on Combating Illegal Killing, Taking and Trade of Wild Birds (IKB)

The Scoreboard to assess the progress in combating illegal killing, taking and trade of wild birds (IKB) was adopted as a self-assessment tool for countries to evaluate and rank the progress made at combating IKB at national and regional level. The Scoreboard was developed jointly by the Bern Convention and the members of the Task Force on Illegal Killing, Taking and Trade of Migratory Birds in the Mediterranean (MIKT) and was adopted by the Bern Convention at the 37^th Standing Committee in December 2017 by Recommendation No. 196 (2017) and by the CMS as Annex 1 to Resolution 11.16, by CMS COP12 in 2017.

The Scoreboard is divided in five Sections: A. National monitoring of IKB (data management of scope and scale of IKB); B. Comprehensiveness of national legislation; C. Enforcement response (preparedness of law enforcement bodies and coordination of national institutions); D. Prosecution and sentencing (effectiveness of judicial procedures); E. Prevention (other instruments used to address IKB)). Each of these sections includes several questions which correspond to indicators. There is a total of 28 questions to be completed and some require the uploading of data in excel format. Most questions require self-scoring from 0 to 3, and include a “Comments Section” for free text.

To date, the Scoreboard exercise has been run two times, in 2018 and 2020. Both exercises were completed online using the CMS Online Reporting System (ORS). Country representatives had to obtain credentials to log in to the ORS and complete the Scoreboard. The Scoreboard is available in English, French and Spanish.

In the 2018 and 2020 Scoreboard exercises, fifty-four (54) countries were invited to complete the exercise representing the geographical scope of MIKT and the Bern Convention. Of those, thirty countries (30) completed the exercise in 2018, and twenty-four (24) in 2020. In total thirty-five (35) countries of the 54 have completed the Scoreboard at least once. The analysis of the results of the 2nd Scoreboard exercise in 2020, which includes comparisons between 2018 and 2020, was presented at the Bern Convention Standing Committee in December 2021 and in the MIKT meeting of June 2021.

Under the framework of Future Periodic Assessment in the Framework of the Rome Strategic Plan and Frequency and Format of Future Joint Meetings, the next Scoreboard exercise will run from April to June 2023.

Furthermore, in order to improve the Contracting Parties’ self-assessment of the progress made in the implementation of the Rome Strategic Plan 2020-2030: Eradicating Illegal Killing, Taking and Trade in Wild Birds in Europe and the Mediterranean region, in 2022, additional narrative text to support Scoreboard submissions was adopted by the Bern Convention Standing Committee at its 42nd meeting and by MIKT members in Valencia in June 2022 at MIKT5.

Finally, in 2021, the CMS and the Bern Convention Secretariats jointly approached the countries that had completed the Scoreboard to obtain their consent to upload their actual answers online, as downloaded from the CMS ORS. Of the 35 countries that completed the Scoreboard in 2018 and/or 2020, up to March 2023, twenty-four (24) have given permission for their answers to be uploaded online. The answers have been uploaded in a dedicated Bern Convention website.