Joint press release of the Federal Environment Ministry and the Secretariat of the Convention on the Conservation of Wild Animals (CMS)
The Bonn Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) of the United Nations celebrates the joining of Yemen as 100th State Party today. Federal Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel congratulated the Bonn based Convention Secretariat on the event. "This is a milestone in the development of global biodiversity conservation. We will continue to canvass further countries to join the Convention", Gabriel noted. Now the CMS Secretariat hopes to win over countries like China and Russia to join the Convention since they are of particular importance for biodiversity.
"Yemen's membership takes the development of a global environmental agreement which allows transboundary measures for the conservation of wild animals in all regions of the world to the next level" CMS Executive Secretary Robert Hepworth added. Yemen has a wealth of natural habitats. The coastal and marine ecosystems with extensive mangrove forests, coral reefs and seaweeds are of particular significance and along the Red Sea coast live many marine mammals such as the dugong, a manatee species, and several dolphin and whale species.
The CMS will now visit the embassies of Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait and Iraq in Berlin and try to improve the conservation of migratory species in the region.
The Federal Environment Ministry and the CMS Secretariat will hold a reception today in the Lange Eugen building on the UN Campus in Bonn in honour of Angola as 99th and Yemen as 100th member state. The main speakers will be Yemen’s Environment Minister Abdul-Rahman F. Al-Eryani, the Director General for Nature Conservation of the Federal Environment Ministry, Jochen Flasbarth and the Lord Mayor of the City of Bonn, Bärbel Dieckmann.