Outcomes of CoP-14 to the Convention on Migratory Species

In February 2024, leadership and members from the IUCN WCPA Connectivity Conservation Specialist Group joined countries, partners, and experts in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, to increase commitments and contributions to conserve migratory wildlife and their habitats around the world.

Under the motto “Nature Knows No Borders,” more than 1,000 participants attended the 14th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Migratory Species, the first to be hosted in a Central Asian country.

The conference centered around the 133 country “Parties” and focused on several tasks:

• considering the endangered status and management of specific species, including 14 new species, subspecies, and populations added to the Convention on Migratory Species Appendices;
• examining country reporting;
• setting priorities such as targeted conservation plans;
• and agreeing on a budget for implementing overall aims of the convention.

The conference built on momentum gained since adoption of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework in 2022 and brought additional focus to the vital role that ecological connectivity plays in conserving species and habitats across migratory ranges. Parties to the Convention have adopted the following connectivity-related resolutions and decisions to drive implementation over the next three years (full text available in English, French, and Spanish):

• ECOLOGICAL CONNECTIVITY, including passages such as:
  • Enhancement of the definition to “[…] ecological connectivity (hereafter “connectivity”) is the unimpeded movement of species, connection of habitats without hindrance and the flow of natural processes that sustain life on Earth”; and
  • Inoperative paragraph 12: Further concerned that infrastructure projects that constitute barriers to migration with negative impacts on migratory species, including at population scale, continue to be authorized and built, including at critical points in migratory routes,
  • Operative paragraph 3: Encourages Parties to adopt and implement those guidelines developed within CMS and other relevant processes, which aim to promote connectivity and halt its loss, for example through the provision of practical guidance to avoid infrastructure development projects disrupting the movement of migratory species;
  • Operative paragraph 8: Encourages Parties and other Range States, when identifying areas of importance to migratory terrestrial, avian and aquatic species, to take into account and make explicit by description, schematic maps or conceptual models the relationship between those areas and other areas which may be ecologically linked to them, in physical terms, for example as connecting corridors, or in other ecological terms, for example as breeding areas related to non-breeding areas, stopover sites, feeding and resting places;

• IMPACT ASSESSMENT AND MIGRATORY SPECIES, including passages such as:
  • Operative paragraph 4: Asks Parties to include migratory species when revising legal requirements for impact assessment and when generating considerations for screening criteria, including the construction of barriers such as fences and walls when these might be an impediment for ecological connectivity; and
  • Operative paragraph 13: Encourages project proponents that are designing mitigation measures for the impacts of linear infrastructure for migratory species, to take into account benefits for associated species and their habitats.

• INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT AND MIGRATORY SPECIES with passages directed to Parties, the Scientific Council, and the Secretariat requesting that each more comprehensively cooperate on specific actions such as:
  • Enhancing gathering and applying data;
  • Identifying existing, planned, and foreseen development;
  • Using “the green infrastructure approach, and taking into account ecological connectivity and ecological restoration”;
  • Having robust means of monitoring, evaluation, and reporting on effectiveness; and
  • Building capacity across sectors concerned with linear infrastructure development and requirements of migratory species.

• CMS CONTRIBUTION TO THE KUNMING-MONTREAL GLOBAL BIODIVERSITY FRAMEWORK, including the passage in the related Decision, paragraph 14.BB.d) as follows:
  • Consider how to support and apply the monitoring framework agreed under the CBD for the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, in measuring progress towards the goals and targets of the Strategic Plan for Migratory Species 2024-2032, including promoting the status of migratory species as headline indicators, as well as disaggregating the current headline indicators and strengthening complementary indicators for better measuring of progress towards achieving the ecological connectivity and integrity elements of the framework;

• SAMARKAND STRATEGIC PLAN FOR MIGRATORY SPECIES 2024-2032, including:
  • Goal 2. The habitats and ranges of migratory species are maintained and restored, supporting their connectivity; and
  • Target 3.2. By 2032, the direct mortality of migratory species caused by human-made infrastructure is significantly reduced to levels that are not harmful to species’ viability.

 Although many species-specific and cross-cutting decisions were reached throughout the week, extinction risk levels continue to rise, and climate change and habitat loss continue unabated. These challenges combine with chronic underfunding of the convention and a new budget that does not allow for even modest growth.

The implementation of ongoing and new mandates will require strong, combined efforts across governments, organizations, and experts. The CCSG and its partners look forward to advancing ecological connectivity conservation as an innovative way for many multilateral environmental agreements to achieve their individual and joint objectives in a more comprehensive, efficient, and effective manner to stop fragmentation, reverse biodiversity loss, and increase resilience to climate change.

Please note: This digest is intended to provide up-to-date information on policy development from a neutral, unaffiliated position as it relates to connectivity and corridor science and management.

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