CMS has acquired a new member of its family of regional species agreements – an MoU to conserve small whales and manatees in western Africa.

The second inter-governmental meeting on Western African and Macaronesian aquatic mammals, titled “WATCH – Western African Talks on Cetaceans and their Habitats”, was hosted by the Ministry of Environment of Togo in Lomé, Togo on 2-3 of October. 22 of the 29 Range States were represented at the meeting, which had almost 50 participants, including scientific advisors and members of the CMS staff.

At the conclusion of the meeting, 15 country representatives (Angola, Benin, Cape Verde, Chad, Congo Brazzaville, Cote d'Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Togo) signed a new CMS Memorandum of Understanding Concerning the Conservation of the Manatee and Small Cetaceans of Western Africa and Macaronesia and adopted two Action Plans for these species as annexes to the MoU.

Read the entire press release here