The Convention for Migratory Species (CMS) aims to conserve terrestrial, marine and avian migratory species throughout their range. It is an intergovernmental treaty, under the aegis of the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP). CMS provides a platform for cooperation on aspects of conservation and sustainable use of migratory animals and their habitats on a global scale. It brings together Range States along routes of migration with the objective of laying out a legal and institutional foundation for international coordination of conservation and management measures.

Three meetings have taken place to identify and discuss options for international cooperation on migratory sharks under the CMS (SHARKS-I meeting, 11-13 December 2007 in the Seychelles; SHARKS-II meeting 6-8 December 2008 in Rome; SHARKS-III meeting 10-12 February 2010 in the Philippines). The final meeting concluded more than three years of work with the adoption of a CMS Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the Conservation of Migratory Sharks.

The MoU came into force on March 1, 2010 and so far 11 countries have signed the agreement, including the Philippines, Senegal, Togo, United States, Congo, Costa Rica, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Palau and Kenya. A total of 7 species are protected under this MoU, including the basking, great white, whale, porbeagle, spiny dogfish, long-fin and short-fin mako sharks. A Conservation Plan (CP) is currently being revised which will be adopted into the Annex of the MoU in the First Meeting of the Signatories to the Sharks MoU, which is tentatively scheduled to be held between the end of 2011/beginning of 2012. This would also establish a permanent MoU Secretariat based in an appropriate organization or institution.

We are working hard to get more countries on board before the first meeting of the signatories.

Documents from the meetings can be found here.