An international meeting, held recently in Minsk from 29-30 April 2003, finalized and adopted a Memorandum of Understanding and Action Plan concerning Conservation Measures for the Aquatic Warbler under the auspices of the Convention on Migratory Species.

The two-day meeting was hosted and chaired by the Belarussian Minister of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection, Leonty I. Khoruzhik, in cooperation with the CMS Secretariat, BirdLife International, Achova Ptushak Belarusi, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, and UNDP. The MoU expresses countries’ intentions to identify, protect and manage sites where the globally threatened Aquatic Warblers breed (central Europe and Western Siberia), rest on migration (Western Europe) or spend the winter (central west Africa). Annexed to the Memorandum is a detailed Action Plan summarizing the distribution, biology and threat status of the Aquatic Warbler, and describing precise actions to be taken by relevant countries. Conservationists see this as a significant milestone in the protection of this globally threatened bird and its habitat. More information is available online at: http://www.wcmc.org.uk/cms