An agreement aimed at strengthening the protection of the world’s thousands of migratory species was signed by the World Conservation Union (IUCN) and the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) at the World Parks Congress in Durban on Monday.
The category includes South Africa’s elephant and southern right whale populations.
The IUCN and the CMS have had a close working relationship since 1979, when the convention, also known as the Bonn Convention, came into being.
The new agreement aims to make this interaction more effective, strengthen ties with key international organisations, and speed up the pace at which the convention is being implemented.
The CMS aims to guarantee the conservation of species whose migration routes cross political borders, making their protection, and that of their habitat, the responsibility of more than one country.
”Migratory species are the responsibility of everyone, and so, very often, the responsibility of no one,” IUCN director general Achim Steiner said at the signing.
South Africa is a signatory to the convention, and is required to forward annual reports to the CMS on the various listed migratory species that move within its territory.
This list includes the endangered southern right whale and leatherback turtle, as well as the country’s migratory elephant herds. Birdlife includes the white stork, which migrates between Europe and South Africa each year, and various species of wading birds. — Sapa