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November 08, 2004

More of Europe's birds in trouble says RSPB

The number of bird species in trouble across Europe is rising

The number of bird species in trouble across Europe is rising, warns the RSPB today (Monday 8 November, 2004). [1]

The latest assessment, published in BirdLife's International's new in-depth study, Birds in Europe, reveals that 226 species of birds - 43 per cent of all those occurring regularly in Europe - are facing an uncertain future. [2] Many are declining, rare or localised, whilst populations of others remain heavily depleted following huge declines suffered during the 1970s and '80s. Some are now so threatened that they may disappear from parts of Europe in the very near future. [3]

Dr Mark Avery, the RSPB's conservation director, said: "Unfortunately, losing our farmland bird populations is an issue where the UK excels in Europe. This is the first time species such as the house sparrow, snipe, starling, lapwing and corn bunting have been listed as birds of European concern, these species have been declining in the UK countryside for decades.

"The UK's highly intensive agriculture has been mainly to blame for these declines, the great danger is that we will now export intensive agriculture to eastern Europe, destroying their wildlife too."

In the ten years since the publication of BirdLife's original Birds in Europe study, an additional 45 bird species have declined in numbers and now have an unfavourable conservation status. [4]

However, it is not all bad news. 14 bird species have seen their fortunes improve across Europe; thanks, in part, to concentrated conservation efforts. In the UK, the avocet, the RSPB's logo, has increased spectacularly, and the peregrine falcon has recovered well from a severe population decline in the 1950s and 1960s. In southern Europe, the griffon vulture population has done similarly well.

Dr Avery added: "The red kite and the stone-curlew are doing very well in the UK, due to concentrated conservation action - both species are still declining across much of their European range."

Birds in Europe will be launched in the Netherlands on Monday 8 November, at a conference celebrating the 25th anniversary of the European Union's Birds Directive, along with its sister publication, Birds in the European Union, which looks specifically at how the EU has done in bird conservation. [5,6] The publications, which span the whole of Europe from Greenland to Georgia
and from the Canary Islands to Russia, assess population sizes and trends for all of Europe's wild birds from 52 European countries or territories. Birds in the EU, deals solely with the 25 Member States of the European Union.

Across Europe, many bird species have begun to decline alarmingly. [7]
Declining European birds of concern in the UK, include:

* Wading birds, including snipe, curlew and lapwing are declining
rapidly in the UK, largely because of drainage of lowland river valleys and
habitat degradation;

* Migratory birds nesting in the UK and wintering in sub-Saharan
Africa, including wood warbler, wheatear and house martin;

* Woodland birds, including the marsh tit;

* Farmland birds including corn bunting, tree sparrow and linnet;

* Familiar urban birds including house sparrow and starling.

However, the new assessment does provide some welcome news, too. Better protection, partly as a result of the European Union's Birds Directive, has led to increases in the Audouin's gull - formerly one the continent's most threatened seabirds. Other winners include the white-tailed eagle - one of
Europe's largest birds of prey and the largest to nest in the UK.

Dr Mark Avery, the RSPB's Director of Conservation, said: "Conservation works. The increase in avocet and peregrine falcon populations reflects the attention given to these priority species. The European Union and conservation groups are right to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Birds Directive today, but everyone must remain level-headed. The struggles facing many of Europe's birds are immense.

"The European Union has promised to halt the loss of wildlife in Europe by 2010. The latest Birds in Europe assessment highlights the sheer enormity of that task. The third assessment, already planned for ten years' time, will reveal to the world whether the EU has kept its word or broken its promise." Mike Rands, BirdLife International's Director, said: "The fact that more birds in Europe face an uncertain future compared with a decade ago is deeply worrying. Birds are excellent environmental indicators and the continued decline of many species sends a clear signal about the health of
Europe's wildlife and the poor state of our environment."

Notes:

1. BirdLife International is a partnership of people working together
for birds and the environment. It promotes sustainable living as a means of
conserving birds and all other forms of biodiversity and is the leading
authority on the status of birds and their habitats. Over 10 million people
support the BirdLife Partnership of national non-governmental conservation
organisations and local networks. The RSPB is the BirdLife partner for the
UK.

2. Birds in Europe: population estimates, trends and conservation
status, published by BirdLife International (2004), is the second review of
the conservation status of all wild birds in Europe. Like its 1994
predecessor, Birds in Europe, it identifies priority species (known as
Species of European Conservation Concern or SPECs) in order that
conservation action can be taken to improve their status.

3. The most high-profile European bird extinction is the Great Auk
(Pinguinus impennis), a flightless seabird found breeding on rocky islets
across the North Atlantic. The last known pair were killed on Eldey Island,
Iceland, in 1844, and the last live bird was seen off the Newfoundland Banks
in 1852. Compared to the situation in other continents - especially in the
tropics - Europe holds relatively few species at risk of a similar fate...
However, a number of European species are now declining so fast or have such
small populations that, without immediate action, they may well disappear in
the near future. These include:

Sociable Lapwing (Vanellus gregarius), a wader related to the common (but
also declining) Northern Lapwing, which breeds only in south-west Russia and
Kakakhstan. It has declined so rapidly that there may be as few as 600
individuals left in the wild.

Mediterranean Shearwater (Puffinus mauretanicus), a seabird which breeds
only on the Balearic Islands in the western Mediterranean. It numbers as few
as 1,650 pairs and is declining fast.

Azores Bullfinch (Pyrrhula murina), a relative of the common Eurasian
Bullfinch, which breeds on only one small island in the Atlantic. It numbers
fewer than 240 individuals, has a global range of less than 50 sq km, and
also seems to be declining.

4. In Birds in Europe (2004), each of the 524 species assessed is
assigned to one of five categories:

SPEC 1, birds of global conservation concern (40 species, 7.6 per cent);

SPEC 2, species with an unfavourable European conservation status and with
more than half of the global breeding or wintering population concentrated
in Europe (45 species, 8.6 per cent);

SPEC 3, species with an unfavourable European conservation status but with
less than half of the global breeding or wintering population concentrated
in Europe (141 species, 26.9 per cent);

Non-SPECE, species with a favourable European conservation status but with
more than half of the global breeding or wintering population concentrated
in Europe;

Non-SPEC, species with a favourable European conservation status and with
less than half of the breeding or wintering population concentrated in
Europe.

5.The EU Birds Directive (Directive on the conservation of wild birds,
79/409/EEC) was adopted in 1979 by nine Member States, and was the first EU
Directive on nature conservation. Since its adoption it has been a vital
legal instrument for the conservation of all birds that occur naturally
across the EU, acting in the broadest public interest to conserve Europe's
natural heritage for present and future generations. Together with the
definitions and objectives of the Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC), adopted in
1992, it offers useful legal conceptual models and a set of standards and
norms in common use. The Birds Directive applies to all 25 EU countries
since May 2004. The Birds Directive is a primary tool for delivering against
EU obligations under global Conventions, including the Convention on
Biological Diversity (CBD), the Ramsar and Bonn Conventions and the WWSD
plan of implementation. Apart from its global obligations the EU has further
committed itself to halting biodiversity decline by 2010.
In 2004 the Birds Directive has its 25th anniversary.

6. Birds in the European Union: a status assessment (BirdLife
International 2004). This 50-page report is a policy and advocacy
publication, analysing the situation of wild birds within the enlarged EU
(EU25) with special reference to the impact the Birds Directive has had in
its first 25 years.

7. The following list gives the number (by country or territory) of
regularly nesting species of wild bird species considered to have an
unfavourable conservation status:

Albania - 96 species (43% of the country's 224 breeding wild bird species)
Andorra - 37 species (33% of the country's 111 breeding wild bird species)
Armenia - 95 species (42% of the country's 225 breeding wild bird species)
Austria - 79 species (36% of the country's 217 breeding wild bird species)
Azerbaijan - 107 species (42% of the country's 253 breeding wild bird
species)
Belarus - 87 species (40% of the country's 220 breeding wild bird species)
Belgium - 63 species (34% of the country's 183 breeding wild bird species)
Bosnia
Herzegovina - 62 species (39% of the country's 158 breeding wild
bird species)
Bulgaria - 110 species (42% of the country's 260 breeding wild bird species)
Croatia - 100 species (41% of the country's 246 breeding wild bird species)
Cyprus - 41 species (44% of the country's 94 breeding wild bird species)
Czech Republic - 77 species (37% of the country's 209 breeding wild bird
species)
Denmark - 70 species (35% of the country's 201 breeding wild bird species)
Faroe Islands - 19 species (27% of the territory's 70 breeding wild bird
species)
Greenland - 15 species (24% of the territory's 63 breeding wild bird species)
Estonia - 79 species (36% of the country's 222 breeding wild bird species)
Finland - 76 species (31% of the country's 247 breeding wild bird species)
France - 116 species (41% of the country's 281 breeding wild bird species)
Georgia - 106 species (43% of the country's 246 breeding wild bird species)
Germany - 92 species (36% of the country's 253 breeding wild bird species)
Greece - 108 species (43% of the country's 252 breeding wild bird species)
Hungary - 92 species (43% of the country's 214 breeding wild bird species)
Iceland - 30 species (36% of the country's 84 breeding wild bird species)
Ireland - 47 species (31% of the country's 151 breeding wild bird species)
Italy - 104 species (42% of the country's 250 breeding wild bird species)
Latvia - 80 species (37% of the country's 218 breeding wild bird species)
Liechtenstein - 34 species (27% of the country's 128 breeding wild bird
species)
Lithuania - 79 species (39% of the country's 205 breeding wild bird species)
Luxembourg - 47 species (34% of the country's 137 breeding wild bird
species)
Macedonia - 96 species (42% of the country's 230 breeding wild bird species)
Malta - 16 species (46% of the country's 35 breeding wild bird species)
Moldova - 76 species (45% of the country's 170 breeding wild bird species)
Netherlands - 70 species (35% of the country's 198 breeding wild bird
species)
Norway - 72 species (31% of the country's 234 breeding wild bird species)
Svalbard - 11 species (24% of the territory's 45 breeding wild bird species)
Poland - 89 species (38% of the country's 234 breeding wild bird species)
Portugal - 95 species (47% of the country's 201 breeding wild bird species)
Azores - 14 species (45% of the territory's 31 breeding wild bird species)
Madeira - 20 species (49% of the territory's 41 breeding wild bird species)
Romania - 106 species (42% of the country's 252 breeding wild bird species)
Russia - 163 species (40% of the country's 403 breeding wild bird species)
Serbia
Montenegro - 103 species (42% of the country's 247 breeding wild
bird species)
Slovakia - 86 species (40% of the country's 216 breeding wild bird species)
Slovenia - 71 species (36% of the country's 199 breeding wild bird species)
Spain - 119 species (46% of the country's 261 breeding wild bird species)
Canary Islands - 39 species (51% of the territory's 77 breeding wild bird
species)
Sweden - 85 species (34% of the country's 252 breeding wild bird species)
Switzerland - 62 species (33% of the country's 189 breeding wild bird
species)
Turkey - 148 species (46% of the country's 319 breeding wild bird species)
Ukraine - 118 species (43% of the country's 272 breeding wild bird species)
United Kingdom - 70 species (33% of the country's 210 breeding wild bird
species)
Gibraltar - 10 species (32% of the territory's 31 breeding wild bird species)

Posted by Surfbirds at November 8, 2004 07:07 PM

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