As Observer, OMPO participated in the 11th Meeting of the AEWA Technical Committee which took place from 27 to 30 August 2012 in Accra on the invitation of the Government of Ghana (The Forestry Commission of Ghana -Wildlife Division).

Guy-Noël Olivier (OMPO Secretary General from 1994 to 2010), who, from the start in 1995, followed the developments of AEWA and was the representative of OMPO at the Technical Committee, has handed over the baton to Dr. Patrick Triplet who at OMPO is in charge with Africa.

Also note that Dr. Saulius Svazas, Director of the Regional Unit OMPO-Vilnius (Lithuania), recently joined the Technical Committee as representative for Eastern Europe.

The first act of this Technical Committee was the unanimous appointment of David Stroud (Great-Britain) as Chairman, Jelena Krajl (Croatia) having reached the end of term. This nomination strengthens the relations between AEWA and the Ramsar Convention which is fundamental for the development of the African Initiative (http://www.unep-aewa.org/activities/africaninitiative_fr.htm).

The submission of regional reports highlighted serious bird conservation problems connected with the increasing impact of human activities on their habitats. These problems are even more amplified by the economic crisis and climate change which severely affect the distribution and the behavior of the migratory birds. Formerly unknown zoonoses appear… All this has consequences on the demographic health of their populations and severely endangers some species.

Distributed in small working groups, the delegates defined the action program of AEWA for the 3 next years (2013-2015) identifying 10 major issues.

Among the most important, can be pointed out: species monitoring, conservation guidelines, climate change, lead poisoning, hunting and trade.

Patrick Triplet and most delegates with a « hunting sensibility » involved themselves on « disturbance ». The group will focus on defining the concept through its various wording; it will then identify all human activities, hunting being one of them, having an impact on birds and study their specific impact. A synthesis will identify the role of hunting and of other activities as source of disturbance of species.

Lien AEWA : 11th Meeting of the Technical Committee (TC 11) http://www.unep-aewa.org/meetings/en/tc_meetings/tc11/tc11.htm

Lien AEWA : l’Initiative africaine