1 июня 2006 г.

First Meeting of the Signatories to the Memorandum of Understanding concerning Conservation, Restoration and Sustainable Use of the Saiga Antelope (Saiga tatarica tatarica)

Almaty, Kazakhstan, 25-26 September 2006.

Pre-registration form / Draft Provisional Agenda / National Report Format / Project Report Format for Saiga Antelope Activities / Информационное письмо от организаторов

Dear Colleagues,

CMS and the CITES are very pleased to announce that the Forestry and Hunting Committee of the Ministry of Agriculture, Kazakhstan, has offered to host the First Meeting of the Signatories to Memorandum of Understanding concerning Conservation, Restoration and Sustainable Use of the Saiga Antelope (Saiga tatarica tatarica).

The meeting is a joint cooperative initiative between CMS and CITES. It has been designed in part to provide an important contribution to the discussion of the saiga antelope by the 54th Meeting of the CITES Standing Committee which will take place in early October 2006 and which will review the implementation of CITES Decisions 13.27-13.35.

The Forestry and Hunting Committee, the European Commission, the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety of Germany, CITES and CMS will co-sponsor the meeting.

The meeting will take place in Almaty, Kazakhstan, from 25-26 September 2006. A half day excursion around the city is planned for 24 September, in the afternoon.

English and Russian interpretation will be provided.

Participation in the meeting

We would like to kindly invite you or your organisation to consider attending the meeting. The deadline for registration is 30 June 2006.

MoU Meeting Objectives

The objectives of the meeting will be to inter alia:

1. Share information on the Saiga ' s conservation status within the respective Range States;
2. Review the status of implementation of the MoU and the Action Plan and determine future priorities;
3. Adopt a report format for future reporting under the MoU; and
4. Discuss a coordination mechanism for the MoU.

MoU Meeting Documentation

A draft provisional agenda is attached for your consideration.

Additional MoU meeting documentation will be available only from the CMS Website:
http://www.cms.int/bodies/Agreement_MoU_Meetings.htm

National reporting

Paragraph 6 of the MoU invites Signatories to prepare a National Report on the implementation of the MoU and Action Plan within their countries. The CMS Secretariat then transmits all National Reports to the Signatories and all the other Range States within the agreement area. The Secretariat is also obliged to prepare an Overview Report compiled on the basis of all information at its disposal pertaining to the Saiga Antelope.

To facilitate the completion of national reports a draft format has been produced and sent to all Range States of Saiga tatarica tatarica. The Range States have been requested to submit their national report to the CMS Secretariat in electronic format no later than 30 June 2006. We have also asked that Mongolia and China use the same template to describe their participation activities with respect to Saiga tatarica mongolica (Mongolia) and international trades of saiga parts and derivatives. We would be particularly grateful if you could offer your support to the Range States, Mongolia and China, to assist them in completing their reports by providing, for example, useful information.

Please note that Range States, that have not signed the MoU, such as the Russian Federation, are also invited to complete a National Report and send it to the Secretariat by the due date to enable the information to be shared and compiled as part of the Secretariat ' s Overview Report.

Saiga Technical Workshop and Partnership Initiative

CMS and CITES are also pleased to announce that following on the successful format for previous CMS MoU Range State meetings, a one and a half day technical workshop and partnership initiative is scheduled in conjunction with the MoU meeting. The IUCN Species Survival Commission Antelope Specialist Group and the European Sustainable use Specialist Group will convene this special event.

The workshop will be financially sponsored by the European Commission, the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety of Germany, the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums, CITES and CMS. Recommendations from this meeting will be available to the MoU meeting. The workshop is scheduled for 23-24 September 2006. Please indicate on the pre-registration form your intention to join the workshop.

A meeting agenda and programme will be circulated in the near future and will be available from the CMS website.

The workshop and the partnership initiative will aim to:

1. Review the Saiga's conservation status;
2. Develop a tabular summary of Saiga-related projects and activities within the Range States; and
3. Recommend priority activities under the Action Plan that could form the basis for a medium term international work programme.

In the near future a reporting template will be circulated for interested organizations to providing information about their Saiga-related activities and projects.

Recent MoU Signatures
We are very pleased to announce that Uzbekistan has joined the MoU. The Ambassador of the Republic of Uzbekistan, H.E. Bakhtiar T. Gulyamov, signed the MoU on behalf of the Nature Protection Committee on 23 May 2006 in Bonn,
see www.cms.int/news/current_news_page.htm

In closing, we hope that you join us for this very important series of events focused on Saiga conservation. Please register for the meeting as soon as possible.

We look forward to seeing you in Almaty in late September. Many thanks for forwarding this message throughout your networks.

Yours sincerely,
Lyle Glowka Tom de Meulenaer
CMS Agreements Officer CITES Senior Scientific Officer

UNEP/CMS Secretariat
Martin-Luther-King-Str. 8, 53175 Bonn, Germany
Tel.: (+49 228) 815 2401; fax: (+49 228) 815 2449
E-Mail: secretariat@cms.int; web: www.cms.int