Dark-bellied Brent Goose Workshop held in Bonn

Participants of the Dark-bellied Brent Goose Workshop in Bonn (15-16 December 2009) / Photo: Florian Keil (UNEP/AEWA)Bonn,
15-16 December 2009
- International experts, government
officials and stakeholders from five of the six Range States
of the Dark-bellied Brent Goose (Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands,
France and the United Kingdom) gathered in Bonn, Germany
for a two day workshop in order to decide how to proceed
with the proposed AEWA Single Species Action Plan for the
subspecies.

Due to the current favourable conservation
status of the Dark-bellied Brent Goose (Branta bernicla
bernicla
) the group decided not to go through the process
of drafting a full-fledged AEWA Action Plan at this stage.
Instead, it was decided to gather all relevant information,
recommendations, conservation objectives and activities
in a conservation report for the species.

Nevertheless, experts also agreed that
possible changes along the flyway such as competition on
the staging grounds with growing numbers of Barnacle Geese
or habitat changes due to eutrophication and climate change
as well as constant high predation in the breeding grounds
due to lack of peak years in the lemming cycle could cause
Dark-bellied Brent Geese numbers to drop again. In addition,
many knowledge gaps remain, even though the Dark-bellied
Brent Goose is a much studied species, especially concerning
the staging and breeding grounds in Russia.

Therefore the report will also set a threshold
of 200,000 individuals under which the population should
not drop. This will provide a warning signal for stronger
conservation measures and the drafting of an Action Plan
for the species, when needed.



For more information please contact: Mr.
Sergey Dereliev
, AEWA Technical Officer.

Last updated on 16 June 2014