This year the biennial BirdLife International Pacific Business and Partnership Meetings were held in Palau, co-hosted by the Palau Conservation Society (PCS), from the 14th to the 18th of this month. This year will mark the first time that the Pacific Partnership has held its meetings outside of Fiji, home to the BirdLife International Pacific Secretariat. BirdLife International is a global Partnership of national conservation organizations that strives to conserve birds, their habitats, and global biodiversity, while working with people towards sustainability in the use of natural resources. Partners operate in over one hundred countries and territories worldwide. Last year PCS became the Pacific’s first Small Island Partner Designate to the BirdLife International Network.
Initiated in 1999, the Pacific Partnership is the newest of BirdLife International’s regional Partnerships, comprising a network of eight national NGOs from Australia, the Cook Islands, French Polynesia, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Palau, Samoa, and Fiji. All of BirdLife International’s programs are driven by national NGO partners.
The Pacific Partnership Meeting addressed key issues at the local, national, regional, and global levels. Issues pertaining to IBA Monitoring Framework, IBA Local Conservation Groups, Species Guardians and Champions, the Global Seabird Programme, Global Strategy, Climate Change, Flyways and particularly Important Bird Areas (IBA) were discussed. Participants also had a chance to share the outcomes of their work, past experiences, as well as future or potential threats within their respective countries.
Those in attendance were international partners as well as local partners.