CMS-COP15: "Hundreds of migratory fish species need urgent, coordinated cross-border collaboration"

"Hundreds of migratory fish species need urgent, coordinated cross-border collaboration. These migratory freshwater fish — a group of species that maintain river health, underpin some of the world’s largest inland fisheries, and sustain hundreds of millions of people — are among the most imperiled wildlife on the planet".

These are the main conclusions of the Global Assessment of Migratory Freshwater Fishes, launched at the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals 15^th Meeting of the COP 15 in Brazil, on 24/03/2026.

The analysis identifies 325 migratory freshwater fish species as candidates for coordinated international conservation efforts (beyond the 24 species already listed in Appendices I and II), "highlighting a largely overlooked biodiversity crisis unfolding across the world’s shared river basins".

Indeed, migratory freshwater fish populations worldwide "have declined by roughly 81% since 1970 and nearly all (97%) of the 58 CMS-listed migratory fish species (including fresh and salt-water species) are threatened with extinction".

The priority river basins include…