International Action Plan for Common Eider adopted 1st October 2022
One of the long-awaited outcomes of the 8th Meeting of the Parties to the African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbird Agreement (AEWA) was the final adoption of the International Single Species Action Plan (ISSAP) for Common Eider.
By Iben Hove Sørensen, Waterfowlers' Network
Photo by Niklas Liljebäck, Svenska Jägareförbundet
Due to the ongoing decline of the species, the development of an ISSAP for Common Eider was prioritized by AEWA, and in December 2019 Waterfowlers’ Network received an invitation to join the initial workshop aimed at developing such a plan. Roderick Enzerink participated on behalf of Waterfowlers’ Network.
Since Common Eider is listed in the category A4 of Table 1 to the Agreement, hunting may continue only if conducted within the framework of an international species action plan and implementing the principles of adaptive harvest management. To develop an adaptive harvest management programme (AHMP), ultimately to ensure that any harvest of the Common Eider is sustainable, a technical group was established in December 2020. Claus Lind Christensen represented Waterfowlers’ Network in the technical group, which was led by Mikko Alhainen from the Finnish Wildlife Agency.
During the first half of 2021, initial steps towards an AHMP were taken, yet the work was paused while waiting for the final adoption of the plan. During the 8th Meeting of Parties to AEWA, held in Budapest on September 26-30, 2022, the Action Plan was finally adopted, and the technical group will now be reconvened to discuss and finalize the AHMP for Common Eider.