Prof Dr Evgeny Bragin was a superb field-scientist from the start of his career. Working at Naurzum reserve in northern Kazakhstan, he studied raptors nesting in the sparse stands of trees that fringed the open steppe to the south, using motorbikes with side-cars for colleagues and stability. He was always courteous, gentle to offer practical advice, pragmatic in terms of support for sustainable-use as a conservation technique and reliable as a friend and scientist. It is therefore no surprise that he became a pillar of the academic establishment in Kazakhstan. Colleagues have prepared a more detailed obituary in Russian on Facebook and in translation as a download. Complications from a Covid-19 infection took him from us on 25 August 2020, leaving his wife Prof Dr Tatyana Bragina to help us remember him.

A lot of ‘wildlife crime’ occurs because local traditions are rendered illegal by decisions made in English at international conventions without the awareness, let alone with consultation in their own language, of those affected. Such crime can be addressed by giving more scope for local people to act legally and explaining in local languages why that is important. Recommendations to that effect were one outcome of a workshop organised on 27 August in Abu Dhabi by the International Association for Falconry and Conservation of Birds of Prey, the Convention on Conservation of Migratory Species and the Bern Convention. After a talk by members of European Sustainable Use Group and IUCN, the network to promote legal use of Saker Falcons was re-launched in 10 languages by Emirati diplomat, HE Awadh Ali Saleh, by pressing the button to publish www.sakernet.org.

A SUME talk covering the Sakernet and Perdixnet portal operations was given for the Raptor Research Foundation conference of 2018 at Kruger National Park in South Africa.

After a a month of testing the Practitioner Portal and Survey in Arabic, Pashto, Persian and Russian, the Board Meeting in Brussels of the International Association for Falconry and Conservation of Birds of Prey authorises launch. Here is an English version of the site, and publicity material for the survey, and the site, in English, Arabic, Pashto, Persian and Russian.

Delegates gather in Abu Dabi for the Second Meeting of the Technical Advisory Group to the CMS Raptors MOU during 16-19 March 2015.