Please join us on Friday, 14 May 2010 from 13:15 - 14:45 in Conference Room no. 6 (Lower Floor) as the WOW project’s implementing partners summarise some of the successes and notable achievements of this exciting initiative. If you plan on attending the launch event please contact Edoardo Zandri (edoardo.zandri@unep.org, +254 20 762 4380) at least two days in advance, so that an entry pass to the UN Compound may be arranged on your behalf.
Dr. George Owiti from the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) Training Institute will also officially present the very first copies of the Flyway Training Kit to the representatives of The GEF (Global Environment Facility), the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany and to the Secretariat of the UNEP-administered African-Eurasian Waterbird Agreement (AEWA), who have all invested significant resources into the WOW project and to the conservation of migratory waterbirds and their critical habitats.
One of two innovative conservation tools being launched this year by the WOW project, the Flyway Training Kit is designed to build capacity to plan, implement, monitor and engage in effective flyway-scale conservation of migratory waterbirds and wetland habitats in Africa and Eurasia.
The result of a broad collaborative effort among many donors, partners and training institutes across the African-Eurasian region, the Flyway Training Kit will be available in English, French, Arabic and Russian. The package includes three modules with example-rich text, case studies and exercises, presented in a flexible ring-bound format and supported by a comprehensive set of PowerPoint presentations, as well as accompanying CDs with a range of supporting material. The kit is designed to assist in targeted trainings that can be customized by topic as they relate to flyway conservation, wetland management and migratory waterbird conservation.
The new Flyway Training Kit is a one-of-a-kind resource in flyway-scale conservation and represents an important step towards meeting core strategic objectives of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands and AEWA.
Note to Editors:
The Wings Over Wetlands (WOW) UNEP-GEF African-Eurasian Flyways Project is funded by The GEF, the German Government, UNEP-AEWA and many other donors. The project is a joint effort between UNEP-GEF, Wetlands International, BirdLife International, UNEP-AEWA, the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation, the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, UNOPS, UNEP-WCMC and a range of other local partners along the African- Eurasian flyways.
The area covered by the initiative includes all 118 Range States of the UNEP-administered African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbird Agreement, covering all of Africa, all of Europe, south-west Asia (including the Middle East and Central Asian States), Greenland and the Canadian Archipelago.
For more information on the WOW project please visit: www.wingsoverwetlands.org
Or download our latest Project Newsletter: Flyway Conservation at Work - Across Africa and Eurasia which also contains further information on the WOW Flyway Training Programme & Flyway Training Kit.
The full Flyway Training Kit will be made available electronically in PDF Format on 14 May 2010 at: www.wingsoverwetlands.org/flywaytrainingkit
Copies of the Flyway Training Kit are available for purchase through Wetlands International by contacting Umberto.Gallo-Orsi@wetlands.org
For further information, please contact:
Camillo Ponziani, Operations Manager, +49 228 815 2471, camillop@unops.org
Florian Keil, Communications Officer, +49 228 815 2451, fkeil@unep.de
Umberto Gallo-Orsi, Wetlands International WOW Project Coordinator, +39 0141 85 63 63, Umberto.Gallo-Orsi@wetlands.org