ACAP’s Eighth Session of the Meeting of the Parties commences with a Māori welcome

Attendees gather for a group photograph on the first day of MoP8

The Eighth Session of ACAP's Meeting of the Parties (MoP8) commenced yesterday in Dunedin, New Zealand, with all 13 Parties to the Agreement present.  It will run until this Friday the 23rd.  Following a traditional Māori welcome (Mihi Whakatau), the first order of the day was an opening speech by New Zealand, followed by the appointment of Danica Stent as MoP8 Chair and Dr Mike Double, Chair of the ACAP Advisory Committee, as MoP8 Vice-Chair.

Danica Stent, Chair, MoP8

Danica Stent leads the New Zealand Department of Conservation’s International Policy Team.  She has 15 years of experience working within international environmental governance frameworks.  Her experience includes representing New Zealand and pursuing conservation outcomes in the South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organisation, the Antarctic Treaty System, and UN Ocean processes.  Before working on international environmental issues, Danica worked in domestic marine protection processes in New Zealand.  Mike Double leads the Australian Marine Mammal Centre, based at the Australian Antarctic Division i Hobart, Tasmania.

Mike Double, Vice-Chair MoP8

The day’s proceedings included a report (MoP8 Doc 08) from the ACAP Secretariat.  To close the first day of the Eighth Session, New Zealand hosted a welcome reception for all the MoP8 attendees in the Dunedin Leisure Lodge, the meeting venue.  The event allowed attendees to network and hear a presentation from Stephanie Rowe, the Department of Conservation's Deputy Director-General Biodiversity, Heritage and Visitors on New Zealand’s seabird conservation work.

Stephanie Rowe gives her talk at the evening reception, photograph by Johan de Goede

Access the MoP8 agenda, schedule and meeting documents and information papers from here.

John Cooper, Emeritus Information Officer, Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels. 19 May 2025