The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change in collaboration with the United Nations Environment Programme/ Convention on Migratory Species (UNEP/CMS) had organized a meeting of Range Countries to strengthen conservation efforts for migratory birds and their habitats in the Central Asian Flyway (CAF) from 2nd to 4th May, 2023 in New Delhi.
Key highlights
- The meeting was attended by the 11 countries of CAF region including Armenia, Bangladesh, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Kuwait, Mongolia, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.
- The delegates deliberated and agreed on an institutional framework for the Central Asian Flyway, discussed priority areas for implementation, and agreed on a draft roadmap for updating the CMS CAF Action Plan.
- The formalization of the Central Asian Flyway initiative, was seen as a significant step towards the conservation of migratory birds and their habitats.
About Central Asian Flyway
- A flyway is a geographical region within which a single migratory species, a group of migratory species – or a distinct popul ation of a given migratory species – completes all components of its annual cycle (breeding, moulting, staging, nonbreeding etc.).
- The Central Asian Flyway (CAF) covers a large continental area of Eurasia between the Arctic and Indian Oceans and the associated island chains.
- The CAF comprises several important migration routes of waterbirds, most of which extend from the northernmost breeding grounds in the Russian Federation (Siberia) to the southernmost non-breeding (wintering) grounds in West and South Asia, the Maldives and the British Indian Ocean Territory.
- The birds on their annual migration cross the borders of several countries.
- Geographically the flyway region covers 30 countries of North, Central and South Asia and Trans-Caucasus.
