Global Flyways Workshop establishing a GIN © 2011 EAAFP

With the generous support of Seosan City, Republic of Korea, the government of Switzerland and the Secretariat of the East Asian-Australasian Flyway Partnership (EAAFP), an international workshop to review good practice in international initiatives for the conservation of migratory waterbirds and other migratory bird taxa was convened by the Ramsar Convention Secretariat, the UNEP Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) and the UNEP/AEWA Secretariats, BirdLife International, Wetlands International and the EAAFP Secretariat. The workshop, held from 17-20 October 2011 and attended by 35 representatives and observers from 14 international organisations and seven Korean organisations, was hosted by Seosan City at Hanseo University. The workshop participants were unanimous in their recognition of the value of knowledge and information sharing across flyway initiatives, and agreed to establish an open and inclusive network of flyway-scale initiatives, so as to facilitate future networking, collaboration and information-sharing between initiatives and their personnel, entitled the “Global Interflyway Network” (GIN). A summary report of the workshop’s conclusions and recommendations is being prepared for consideration by CMS Scientific Council in November 2011, and a full workshop report is in preparation for publication as a joint Ramsar /CMS/AEWA Technical Report.