Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos)
Eastern Imperial Eagle (A. heliaca)
Steppe Eagle (A. nipalensis)
Tawny Eagle (A. rapax)
Bonelli’s Eagle (A. fasciata)
Lesser and Greater Spotted Eagles (A. clanga, A. pomarina)
Booted Eagle (Hieraaetus pennatus)
Mountain Hawk-Eagle (Nisaetus nipalensis)
White-Tailed Sea Eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla)
Steller's Sea Eagle (H. pelagicus)
Pallas's Fish Eagle (H. leucoryphus)
Short-Toed Eagle (Circaetus gallicus)
Osprey (Pandion haliaetus).

Satellite events could potentially expand this list to include all representatives of the orders of diurnal raptors and owls.

• Eagle populations – status and trends
• Threats – hunting (by people), poisoning, electric shock, and collision
• Conservation – approaches and methods, international cooperation
• Eagle study methods
• Breeding biology, ecology
• Movements – habitat usage, migration studies including ringing and trackers
• Genetics, evolution, phylogeny, and eagles phylogeography, taxonomy
• Climate change – potential influence and impact
• Captive breeding and sustainable use
• Eagles as environmental indicators

Anatoly Fedorovich Kovshar (Conference Chair), Doctor of Biological Sciences, Prof., Bird Conservation Union of Kazakhstan, Almaty, Kazakhstan

Todd Katzner (Conference Co-chair), PhD, Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center U.S. Geological Survey, Boise, Idaho, USA

Miroslav Vyacheslavovich Babushkin, PhD, Darwin State Natural Biosphere Reserve, Cherepovets, Vologda Region, Russia

Arkady Petrovich Isaev, DSci, Institute of Biological Problems of the Cryolithozone, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Yakutsk, Russia

Richard E. Harness, Certified Wildlife Biologist, EDM International, Inc.

Marton Horvath, PhD, MME BirdLife Hungary

Igor V. Karyakin, RRRCN, Sibecocenter LLC, Novosibirsk, Russia

Vitalij Kovalev, NABU, Germany

Michael McGrady, PhD, International Avian Research, Austria

Bernd-Ulrich Meyburg, PhD, Prof., NABU, Germany

Alexander Leonidovich Mishchenko, PhD, Institute of Ecology and Evolution Problems named after A.N. Severtsov RAS, Moscow, Russia

Eugene Potapov, PhD, Bryn Athyn College, Pennsylvania, USA

Matyas Prommer, PhD, Herman Otto Institute, Hungary

Ilya Eduardovich Smelansky, ACBK, Kazakhstan

Sergey Lvovich Sklyarenko, ACBK, Kazakhstan

Ekaterina Akentyeva, Institute of Zoology Republic of Kazakhstan, Almaty, Kazakhstan

Rinur Bekmansurov, RRRCN, Nizhnyaya Kama National Park, Yelabuga, Republic of Tatarstan, Russia

Alyona Kaptyonkina, Institute of Zoology Republic of Kazakhstan, BRCC, Karaganda, Kazakhstan

Igor Karyakin, RRRCN, Sibecocenter LLC, Novosibirsk, Russia

Vitalij Kovalev, NABU, Germany

Jennifer Castner, Earth Island Institute/The Altai Project, Michigan, USA

Dmitry Malakhov, Institute of Zoology Republic of Kazakhstan, Almaty, Kazakhstan

Elvira Nikolenko (Conference Secretary), RRRCN, Sibecocenter LLC, Novosibirsk, Russia

Nurlan Ongarbayev, BRCC, Karaganda, Kazakhstan

Genrietta Pulikova, BRCC, Karaganda, Kazakhstan

Elena Shnayder, PhD, RRRCN, Sibecocenter LLC, Novosibirsk, Russia

The conference program includes the following sessions and events (draft).

1. Workshop: Saker Falcon (Falco cherrug)
   Organizers invite presenters to summarize the status of national or regional populations for the period 2019 – 2023. The conference’s main aim is to update the status of threatened Saker Falcon populations. The workshop’s focus will be on Asian and East-European breeding populations of the species, but presentations from Central and Southern Europe are also welcomed.
2. Plenary session on topical issues of study and protection of eagles.
3. Session 1. Distribution, population status, ecology, and conservation of Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos), Bonelli’s Eagle (Aquila fasciata), Booted Eagle (Hieraaetus pennatus), Greater and Lesser Spotted Eagles (Aquila clanga, A. Pomarina), Mountain Hawk-Eagle (Nisaetus nipalensis), White-Tailed Eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla), Steller’s Sea Eagle (H. pelagicus), Pallas’s Fish Eagle (H. leucoryphus) and Short-toed Eagle (Circaetus gallicus).
4. Session 2. Eagle migrations.
5. Session 3. Raptors and Energy Infrastructure Scientific and Applied Seminars
   a) Power line round table
   During this event, experts will share solutions to the issue of safety of power lines for birds in the following aspects: (1) regulatory and legal regulation, including national safety standards for power lines, (2) zoning for priority installation with BPD or retrofitting of power lines; (3) need to ensure safety of birds on power lines during migration and wintering as a matter of international cooperation.
   b) Wind farm round table
   The round table on wind farms will summarize world experience on the negative impacts of wind turbines on raptor populations and mechanisms to reduce this impact. Particular attention will be paid to wind farm design  in Central Asia, where there are no pronounced “bottlenecks” and the migration zone for raptors from northern populations is very wide.
6. Session 4. Distribution, status, ecological features, and protection of Imperial Eagle and Steppe Eagle.
7. IX International Conference on the Conservation of the Eastern Imperial Eagle (Aquila heliaca).
   The most recent conference occurred in Altai Republic, Russia in 2018. The main aim of the conference is to update the global status of threatened Eastern Imperial Eagles. Organizers invite presenters to summarize the status of national or regional populations for the period 2019 – 2023. Focused research topics are also welcomed, including studies on dispersal (satellite tracking, ringing), diet, population dynamics, genetics, threats or the efficiency of conservation activities.
8. 2nd International Meeting – Steppe Eagle (Aquila nipalensis) Conservation.
   The first meeting was held in the Republic of Altai in Russia in 2018, where experts expressed concern about the state of the species, its poor knowledge over a large part of its range, as well as the many threats that the species faces both in nesting areas and on migrations. The main purpose of the meeting is to update the global status of the species, the trend in abundance in different parts of the range, as well as current threats.
9. Session 5. Use of GIS technologies in bird study and conservation.
10. Seminar: Modeling the distribution of species and ecological niches – moderators I.V. Karyakin, D.V. Malakhov.
    The seminar is designed for beginner and intermediate levels of knowledge of GIS modeling.
    The seminar program includes: (1) econiches – identifying the features of the interaction of a species with its environment, and how this differs from species distribution models; (2) suitable habitat modeling from unclassified Landsat, ALOS, Sentinel images; (3) image classification through linear regression and Random Forest, and how it differs from MaxEnt; (4) use of cloud services and Google capabilities; (5) population modeling by SDM (Distance, regular networks, distances between neighbors and generation of random points).
11. Session 6. Birds of prey in mythology and traditional beliefs as an instrument for raptor conservation.
    This seminar seeks to collect information on traditional and spiritual practices related to birds of prey with subsequent application of traditional beliefs for conservation benefits. Spiritual practices related to birds of prey are commonly found on all continents and have been described in relation to most ethnic groups around the planet. Indeed, beliefs related to falcons and eagles play an important role in the beliefs of several peoples, clans, and tribes. Archaeologists have documented special burials of birds of prey since the Neolithic period. Spiritual beliefs related to birds of prey resulted in human worship of these birds, which may have saved some species from persecution.
12. Visiting Sunkar Bird Nursery: Pavel Pfander's falcon performance >>> – on a conference day to be determined, from 17:00 to 19:00. The cost is 6,000 tenge and includes an entrance ticket and transport.
13. Field trip to Charyn River canyon >>> – on the fifth day of the conference (September 29), duration 12 – 14 hours.
    Charyn Canyon in the Charyn State National Natural Park  is a unique natural monument located 200 km east of Almaty, in the middle mountains of the Zailiyskiy Alatau. This is a beautiful canyon, 150–300 m deep, composed of 12-million year old sedimentary rocks. The cost is 6,000 tenge – includes an entrance ticket to the Charyn Natural Park and lunch.