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 The
recently published study by a team of scientists from the
Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB)
and the BirdLife
European Division indicates alarming trends
showing that migratory bird species, flying between the
continents of Africa and Europe, suffered a sustained and
often severe population decline in the last 30 years. The
research also compared migrant and resident birds with similar
characteristics. It was evident, that trends of inter-continental
migrants were significantly more negative than those of
short-distance migrants or residents. This negative trend
appeared to be largely, although not entirely, due to declines
in species wintering in dry, open habitats in Africa.
There are many reasons for these dramatic long-term population
declines but ascertaining the cause of any population decline
is difficult. Different factors or combinations of factors
may be implicated for different species. The reasons range
from climate change, habitat loss or deterioration on the
wintering and/or breeding grounds, loss of staging areas,
hunting pressure to climate change. The scientists are calling
for more research into the causes for the declines and to
halt the loss of biodiversity.
The roll call of affected species in this study is long.
Fifty-four percent of 121 long-distant migratory birds studied
showed high rates of losses or had even become extinct since
1970. Some of these long-distance migrants covered by AEWA
are: the Little Bittern (Lxobrychus
minutus), the Garganey (Anas
querquedula), the Corncrake (Crex
crex), the Black-winged Pratincole (Glareola
nordmanni), the Great Snipe (Gallinago
media) or the Sandwich Tern (Sterna
sandvicensis). Although AEWA together with its
Contracting Parties engages in a wide range of conservation
actions we agree with the authors that more research is
needed to better understand the causes of the decline in
migratory birds species.
Source: “Long-term
population declines in Afro-Palearctic migrant birds.”
Fiona J. Sanderson et al., 2006, Biological Conservation
131 (2006) 93-105
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