Towards the Development of a Capacity Building Strategy for the Agreement on the Conservation for Albatrosses and Petrels

FAVERO, M; M TASKER & W PAPWORTH

Bergen

Encuentro; Third Meeting of the Parties, ACAP; 2009

Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels

According to the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED, 1992) capacity building encompasses the country’s human, cientific, technological, organizational, institutional and resource capabilities. The concept was also adopted by CMS in its strategy recently presented to its Conference of Parties (CMS COP Doc. 30). A question is, why is capacity building needed, and particularly why does the Agreement need a capacity building strategy? To date, work on capacity building has been largely ad-hoc, matching the Agreement’s short term needs with available opportunities (see appendix A). However, a strategic approach will (1), allow the development of a long term Capacity Building programme to be analyzed, agreed, and endorsed by the Meeting of the Parties for implementation by the Advisory Committee, and (2) make a rational and more efficient use of ACAP’s limited human and financial resources.