Governments Commit to Step up Action for Migratory Animals at UN Wildlife Conference

Governments Commit to Step up Action for Migratory Animals at UN Wildlife Conference

Quito, Ecuador, 9 November 2014 - The Eleventh Meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) concluded today after six days of intense negotiations aiming to establish conservation actions for the benefit of the world's migratory species for the coming years.

The Conference, held in Latin America for the first time, attracted over 900 delegates - a record for the CMS - representing Parties, non-Parties, IGOs, NGOs and the media, together with a large number of leading experts guiding global conservation efforts for the world's avian, aquatic and terrestrial migratory species.

"The Conference in Quito has generated an unprecedented level of attention for the Convention," said Bradnee Chambers, the Convention's Executive Secretary. "Like never before in the 35-year history of CMS, migratory animals have become the global flagships for many of the pressing issues of our time. From plastic pollution in our oceans, to the effects of climate change, to poaching and overexploitation, the threats migratory animals face will eventually affect us all.".

UN Under-Secretary-General and UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner said, "The CMS sets global policies to ensure animals can move freely across international boundaries and establishes rules and guidelines to reduce threats to international wildlife such as by-catch, illegal hunting, trapping, poisoning and capture, and it directly protects some of the rarest and iconic species on the face of the planet."

More:
http://www.unep.org/Documents.Multilingual/Default.asp?DocumentID=2812&ArticleID=11066&l=en