Nr. 187/04
Berlin, 23.06.2004

More protection for migratory species - a contribution to biological diversity

Federal Environment Minister applauds the success of the "Bonn Convention"

On the 25th anniversary of the Bonn Convention, which protects migratory species of wild animals, Federal Environment Minister Jürgen Trittin highlighted the success of this international convention for nature conservation. At an event held today in Berlin to mark the occasion, Minister Trittin said that the Convention had prepared the way for "new understanding of transboundary nature conservation. Such internationally coordinated measures are the only way to successfully conserve many endangered animal species and their habitats, which cross political borders, for future generations. The fact that the number of white-tailed eagles, bats, seals and small cetaceans has been secured or even increased is in no small way the result of internationally coordinated nature conservation efforts." He emphasised, however, that this success is by no means reason to relax. "Many other animal species will only survive if the countries concerned cooperate in a targeted way and put national interests aside in favour of conservation needs."

The President of the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation, Dr Hartmut Vogtmann: "The Bonn Convention must be used to an even greater degree to halt the decline in biological diversity. The vision of a world without storks, antelopes and marine turtles is a sad one."

So far 86 countries and the European Union have signed and ratified the Bonn Convention (status: 1 June 2004). Around 1200 species or regionally restricted populations that are threatened with extinction or whose stocks are critically endangered are protected by this Convention. A range of regional agreements on protecting specific animal species stem from the Convention. Germany is, for instance, party to regional agreements on the conservation of seals in the Wadden Sea, small cetaceans in the North and Baltic Seas, European bat populations and African-Eurasian migratory waterbird populations.

At the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in 2002, the world's heads of state and government committed themselves to significantly reducing the decline in biological diversity by the year 2010. Federal Environment Minister Trittin: "The major success that has been achieved with the Bonn Convention and its Agreements over the past 25 years is an important foundation for our efforts to achieve the 2010 goal. To me it is important that the success at European, national and local level was only possible thanks to support from thousands of enthusiastic supporters."