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Migratory Bird Day Celebrated in the Western Hemisphere!

Sun, 13 Dec 2009 21:45:54 +0000

On the weekend of 13/14 May 2006, hundreds of people across the Western Hemisphere are observing International Migratory Bird Day (IMBD) by

focusing their attention and activities on the IMBD theme of "Boreal Forest: Bird Nursery of the North". The IMBD, similar to the recently initiated World Migratory Bird Day (WMBD), is an annual event created to specifically highlight the migration of close to 350 migratory bird species between nesting habitats in North America and non-breeding grounds in South and Central America, Mexico and the Caribbean. The International Migratory Bird Day was created in 1993 by visionaries at the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center and the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology and is now being supported by the U.S. National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

World Migratory Bird Day (WMBD) launched in Africa and around the World!

Sun, 13 Dec 2009 21:42:49 +0000

On the occasion of the first World Migratory Bird Day (WMBD), Kuki Gallmann and The Great Rift Valley Trust together with the African-Eurasian

Waterbird Agreement (AEWA) and the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS), hosted WINGS, a cultural and artistic show inspired by the phenomenon of bird migration. The event took place on the Laikipia Nature Conservancy, a 350 km2 nature reserve and biodiversity oasis overlooking the Kenyan part of the 7200 km long Great Rift Valley - a bird migration route of global importance. It brought

together key individuals from leading organizations such as BirdLife and Wetlands International dedicated to bird conservation and was the heart of a new global initiative initiated by CMS and AEWA to celebrate and inform about the phenomenon of bird migration annually.

Migratory birds need our support now!

Sun, 13 Dec 2009 21:38:33 +0000

Participate in World Migratory Bird Day and register your activity online!

AEWA, together with the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) and other partner organizations, is launching the first World Migratory Bird Day (WMBD) on the weekend of 8/9 April 2006. To help make this a truly global initiative we would like to ask you to take part in this upcoming event. We are therefore appealing to all stakeholders to engage in activities to help highlight that on this weekend and from this year onward, people throughout the world will be concentrating on the phenomenon of bird migration.

From “Migratory Waterbird Days” to “World Migratory Bird Days”!

Sun, 13 Dec 2009 21:36:38 +0000

In 2006 the "Migratory Waterbird Days" (MWD) will be expanded to "World Migratory Bird Days" (WMBD) to be celebrated the world over and covering all species of migratory birds.

The idea of broadening the scope of the MWD, created early this year on the occasion of the 10th Anniversary of AEWA and celebrated in 22 countries, was born when the AEWA Executive Secretary and his Information Officer met Kuki Gallmann, who showed great interest in cooperating to launch such an event. Ms Gallmann is well known for her novels such as "I Dreamed of Africa" and "African Nights" and is the founder of the Gallmann Memorial Foundation and Africa Conservancy which engages in cultural, educational and environmental research.

UNEP Press Release: The environmental dimension behind the avian flu pandemic

Sun, 13 Dec 2009 21:34:47 +0000

The emergence of avian flu as a challenge to human health is clearly a reflection of major changes taking place in the environment, underlined by Shafqat Kakakhel, Deputy-Executive-Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) on the occasion of the International Pledging Conference on Avian and Human Influenza in Beijing (17-18.1.2006). The conference will assess the financing needs of countries and regions, and explore how these needs can be met.
Avian flu is not the only one disease with an environmental health background - a startling number of similar vector-born diseases have emerged in recent years - Lassa, SARS, Ebola, Marburg and recently the threat of an avian flu pandemic. A common factor is that such diseases evolve when humans intensively interact with the natural environment.

Migratory birds: from messengers of life to ambassadors of death?

Sun, 13 Dec 2009 21:28:45 +0000

While some media are still portraying birds as the main vectors of the spread of avian flu, the United Nations Environment Programme with its associated Convention on Migratory Species and the African Eurasian Waterbird Agreement are launching a campaign to remind the world that migrations are essential to natural processes for the effective functioning of our ecosystems. We must not make the mistake of blaming migratory birds for the creation and spread of deadly new viruses when human destruction of the natural world is the real culprit.