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The Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels (ACAP) is a legally binding international treaty signed in 2001 and entered into force on 1 February 2004 when South Africa ratified as the fifth Party to the Agreement. It was created in order to halt the drastic decline of seabird populations in the Southern Hemisphere, particularly albatrosses and petrels procellariids. The population of black-browed albatrosses, one of the world's abundant albatross species, has declined by more than 40 percent in the last 30 years. Albatrosses and petrels are threatened by introduced species on their breeding islands, pollution, and being taken as bycatch by longline fisheries (which kill more than 300,000 seabirds a year, as well as by trawl and gillnet fisheries. The Agreement requires that measures be taken by signatory governments (Parties) to reduce bycatch (by the use of mitigation measures), protection of breeding colonies and control and removal of introduced species from breeding islands. Currently ACAP protects all the world's albatross species and seven southern-hemisphere petrel species. The Agreement marks the increasing international commitment to protect albatrosses and petrels, and is a considerable step forward in the fight to protect these charismatic seabirds. ==Organization== The executive secretary of ACAP is Warren Papworth, who is supported by a science officer. The Secretariat is located at 27 Salamanca Square, Battery Point, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. The Agreement entered into force on 1 February 2004. National representatives of the signatory countries meet regularly. Six meetings of ACAP's Advisory Committee (AC) have been held to date, the last in Guayaquil, Ecuador from 29 August to 2 September 2011. The AC is currently supported by three working groups (WGs), which usually meet immediately prior to AC meetings. The WGs are for Taxonomy (TWG), Seabird Bycatch (SBWG) and Population and Conservation Status (PaCSWG). Each working group is managed by (co-)convenors who are experts in their fields. Final reports and documented papers for all these meetings are freely available for downloading and consultation on the ACAP (web site ) in the Agreement's three official languages of English, French and Spanish. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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