The International Working Group for Northern Bald Ibis (NBI) was formally created at a meeting held in Jazan, Saudi Arabia in 2012, and which led to successfully updating the AEWA NBI Single Species Action Plan in 2015.

The next phase was to agree a three year implementation plan for priority actions and most of the NBI range state governments and their national experts were kindly hosted by the Moroccan Government (High Commission for Water and Forests, & the fight against Desertification), meeting in Agadir late last year to take this forward. The Implementation plans for each country have taken a bit longer to finalise, but we are very pleased to circulate this report which details the full meeting and background discussions on how these actions were agreed, as well as the detailed implementation plans for each country.

The meeting also involved a unique opportunity for an interactive session (through Skype link at the meeting) between the experts and the IUCN Red data book team in Cambridge regarding the proposed downlisting from Critical to Endangered. These discussions are also detailed in the report, and note that the meeting unanimously expressed its concern for maintaining the profile and momentum of efforts in future if downlisting proceeds. At the same time acknowledging that the sustained net increase of the Moroccan population over the past 20 years is a huge credit and achievement to be very proud of which is the main criterion behind the proposal.

Here is a link for accessing the latest report, and a further link to the meeting webpage with the other associated documentation.

(info Chris Bowden, Coordinator of the AEWA Northern Bald Ibis International Working Group, c/o International Species Recovery, RSPB, The Lodge, Sandy, Beds UK  SG19 2DL)