The Agreement was set up under the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals, which recognises that endangered migratory-species can be properly protected only if activities are carried out over the entire migratory range of the species.

The Bat Agreement aims to protect all 45 species of bats identified in Europe, through legislation, education, conservation measures and international co-operation with Agreement members and with those who have not yet joined.

In 1995, the First Session of the Meeting of Parties to the Agreement formed an Action Plan, which was to be translated into international action. They established an Advisory Committee to carry forward this Plan between the Meetings of Parties.

The most significant items for the Advisory Committee are monitoring and international activities. A pan-European observation study is to identify population trends and then to facilitate the timely introduction of measures to address any problems which the study's results might throw up. The study is based upon representative species, and consistent methods for observing them are to be used.

International-protection measures for bats have, above all, to concentrate on those species which migrate the furthest across Europe, in order to identify and address possible dangers caused by bottle-neck situations in their migratory routes. Therefore, the Advisory Committee is also to examine the available data about the migratory behaviour of representative bat-species.

The results of these studies are intended to lead to a comprehensive international programme for the conservation of the most endangered bat-species in Europe.

About the EUROBATS Secretariat

The EUROBATS Secretariat was established by the First Session of the Meeting of Parties in 1995. It started working in Bonn, Germany in 1996, and has been co-located with the Secretariat of the Bonn Convention and other environment and development-related United Nations institutions in Bonn, Germany.

Its particular functions are to:

• be a point for exchanging information, and co-ordinate international research and monitoring initiatives;
• arrange Meetings of the Parties and the Advisory Committee;
• stimulate proposals for improving the effectiveness of the Agreement, and attract more countries to participate in and join the Agreement;
• stimulate public awareness, by all media open to it, of the threats to bat populations in Europe and what can be done at all levels to prevent their numbers dwindling further.

read on about: Bat Conservation