From October 23 to 28, Nereus Program Principal Investigator Daniel Dunn (Duke University) will be attending the 12th Conference of the Parties (COP) to the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species (CMS) of Wild Animals in Manila. The CMS COP will focus on the fact that migratory animals provide vital services that satisfy people’s everyday needs – as a source of food and medicine, as pollinators and seed dispersers, and as a means of pest control. Participants will emphasize how meting Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) must met the needs of both people and wildlife.

Dunn will be hosting a side event on the “Development of a New System to Describe Migratory Connectivity in the Ocean (MiCO)” on Monday October 23 from 12:45pm to 1:30pm.

Side event abstract:

Marine areas beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ) encompass nearly half of the Earth’s surface but have lagged behind coastal areas in both conservation and governance. Recently, attention has focused on ABNJ as the CBD has progressed its Ecologically or Biologically Significant Area (EBSA) process, the UN General Assembly has been considering a new treaty to conserve and sustainably use biodiversity in ABNJ, and CMS has advanced work on ecological networks and the importance of connectivity to address the needs of migratory species across their range. These efforts seek to inform or provide a framework for the development of area-based management tools in ABNJ. Information on connectivity is vital for such initiatives, but has not been effectively synthesized as actionable knowledge. The Marine Geospatial Ecology Lab (MGEL) of Duke University is leading a consortium of partners to develop the Migratory Connectivity in the Ocean (MiCO) system to fill this gap for approximately 1,000 species utilizing ABNJ. MiCO seeks to support CMS’s work on ecological networks, connectivity and the CMS Global Atlas of Migratory Animal Movement.