On 12 July, during the 33rd Session of the FAO Committee on Fisheries (COFI33), held in Rome, management solutions for ghost gear, also known as abandoned, lost, or otherwise discarded fishing gear (ALDFG), and bycatch were discussed in a side event. FAO Member States Vanuatu, Samoa, Fiji, Palau, Belgium, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and Panama served as hosts for the event organized in collaboration with FAO, the International Whaling Commission (IWC), World Animal Protection, WWF and CMS.

At a second special ceremony held yesterday in the margins of the UNFCCC COP23 in Bonn, Minister Anne Désirée Ouloto of Côte d’Ivoire signed the Memoranda of Understanding on the Conservation of Migratory Sharks and on the Conservation of Migratory Birds of Prey in Africa and Eurasia (Raptors MOU). Côte d’Ivoire thus becomes the 48th Signatory to the Sharks MOU and the 59th Signatory to the Raptors MOU.

At a ceremony held during the CMS COP and presided over by CMS Executive Secretary, Bradnee Chambers, four countries became members of CMS Memoranda of Understanding while the WWF and the Peregrine Trust became cooperating partners to the Sharks MOU and Raptors MOU respectively. Burkina Faso signed the Memorandum of Understanding on the Conservation of Migratory Birds of Prey in Africa and Eurasia becoming the 58th Signatory to do so.

The Twelfth Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS COP12) will be held in Manila, at the kind invitation of the Gov