Press releases

Confronted with stark new evidence that many migratory species are moving closer to extinction, governments at a major UN wildlife conservation meeting today agreed on expanded conservation efforts, including new or enhanced treaty protections for 40 species and populations of birds, aquatic wildlife, and terrestrial animals.

A powerful new online tool mapping the full annual journeys of an initial 89 highly vulnerable migratory bird species across the Americas was unveiled today at the UN wildlife conservation meeting, CMS COP15, giving governments, scientists and conservationists an unprecedented view of where action is most urgently needed to protect them.

Illegal and unsustainable taking of wildlife—driven largely by domestic use for food, local markets, cultural practices, and weak governance—has become one of the most urgent and escalating threats to migratory species worldwide. While global attention has largely focused on high-value illegal international trade, which can include trade in migratory species, for most of these species, taking linked to domestic motivations is a much greater threat.

Some of the longest, most important migrations of species on Earth are happening beneath the surface of the world’s rivers and many are rapidly collapsing, according to a major new assessment by the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS), an environmental treaty of the United Nations.

The 15th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP15) to the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) opens here on Monday March 23 as a new reports reveals that almost half (49%) of all CMS-listed species have decreasing population trends, and nearly one in four are global threatened with extinction. Launched days before the summit, the State of the World's Migratory Species: Interim Report (2026) paints a stark picture of animals under pressure from a combination of overexploitation and habitat destruction, as well as pollution, climate change and invasive species.

An interim report which provides an update to the landmark State of the World’s Migratory Species (2024) warns that 49% of migratory species populations conserved by the global UN treaty are declining, (5% more in just two years), and 24% of species face extinction (2% more).

Parties to the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) have submitted proposals to add 42 new migratory species to the Convention’s appendices as needing international conservation. Due to its increasing population, one species – the Bukhara deer – is proposed to be removed from the list requiring the highest protection.

The 9th Session of the Meeting of the Parties (MOP9) to the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) opened today in Bonn, Germany, under the theme “United for Flyways.”

Nearly one-third of the Earth’s land surface has already been profoundly transformed by human activity, leaving ecosystems degraded and fragmented, according to the Global Land Outlook Thematic Report on Ecological Connectivity and Land Restoration, launched today at the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) World Conservation Congress in Abu Dhabi.