About the Convention on Migratory Species
While any country can pass legislation to protect species in its territory or jurisdictional area, it can only offer protection for migratory species until they leave its shores or waters. To extend this protection along migratory routes that cross national boundaries, conservation agreements between countries are needed. The Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species (CMS) was established in Bonn, Germany on 23 June 1979 and provides a framework for generating these agreements.
Leathery turtle
There are 110 countries signed up to the Convention (March 2009); in doing so they agree to promote co-operation in identifying, understanding and conserving endangered migratory species and their habitats, and taking action to prevent other migratory species becoming endangered. Principal tools for this work are research and the development of formal international agreements or conservation instruments relating to the Parties' migratory species.
The Convention lists, in two appendices, migratory species that are endangered (Appendix I) and others that would significantly benefit from the co-operation that could be achieved from international agreements (Appendix II).
It encourages signatory countries (called Range Parties) to provide immediate protection for their species included in Appendix I and to conclude agreements covering the management of species included in Appendix II. Its work is supported by other international conventions, such as the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels and the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands.
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