Observed in over 50
countries on 14-15 May, World Migratory
Bird Day 2011 looks at "Land use changes
from a bird's-eye view"
Bonn/Nairobi 12 May 2011 - On their epic
journeys, often spanning thousands of kilometres,
migratory birds cross many borders, linking
different countries as well as ecosystems.
The annual migration of an estimated 50
billion birds representing around 19 per
cent of the world's 10,000 bird species
is one of nature's great natural wonders.
Yet each year, more and more of the natural
habitats migratory birds need to complete
their journeys either diminish or disappear
completely.
The theme for World
Migratory Bird Day 2011, celebrated around
the world on 14-15 May, is ' Land use changes
from a bird's-eye view ' and it highlights
the negative effects human activities are
having on migratory birds, their habitats
and the planet's natural environment.
The loss, fragmentation
and degradation of natural bird habitats
is occurring globally and is mainly caused
by the pressures resulting from a growing
human population, rapid urbanization and
unsustainable human use of natural areas.
"Although migratory
birds face many serious threats, the way
humans use the land around them has by far
the greatest negative effect. Unsustainable
human land use, whether through deforestation,
intensive agriculture, biofuel production,
land reclamation, urbanization and mining
directly removes or damages the habitats
of migratory birds, affecting their populations
on a global scale", said Bert Lenten,
Deputy Executive Secretary of the Convention
on Migratory Species (CMS) and initiator
of the World Migratory Bird Day campaign.
World Migratory Bird
Day is being organized by the Convention
on Migratory Species (CMS) and the African-Eurasian
Migratory Waterbird Agreement (AEWA) - two
intergovernmental wildlife treaties administered
by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).
BirdLife International, Wetlands International
and the Secretariat of the Partnership for
the East Asian - Australasian Flyway (EAAFP)
are also main partners of the global campaign.
"As the two intergovernmental
treaties dedicated to the conservation of
migratory animals, including migratory birds
at global and flyway scale, the Convention
on Migratory Species and the African-Eurasian
Migratory Waterbird Agreement have launched
World Migratory Bird Day to make people
aware of the threats migratory birds face
along their migration routes", added
Mr. Lenten.
CMS and AEWA bring together
governments and other stakeholders to coordinate
and further develop global flyways policy,
to ensure that all flyways in the world
benefit from some kind of coordination mechanism
that promotes cooperation at ground level
among the countries involved. This includes
working towards establishing a viable network
of sites which can be used by migratory
birds to breed, rest and refuel during their
migration.
Dr. Marco Lambertini,
BirdLife International's Chief Executive
said: 'Land-use change poses an immediate
and increasing threat to the world's migratory
birds. Habitats vital to these species on
their incredible journeys are being destroyed
or degraded at an alarming rate and the
bird's-eye view is becoming bleaker. The
BirdLife Partnership, with over 110 conservation
organizations along the world's flyways,
is working across borders to help stem this
tide and achieve the effective joined-up
conservation needed to make a difference
for these inspiring birds.'
Initiated in 2006, World
Migratory Bird Day is an annual campaign
backed by the United Nations and is devoted
to celebrating migratory birds and promoting
their conservation worldwide.
Events for WMBD 2011
in over 50 countries will include bird festivals,
education programmes, presentations, film
screenings and birdwatching trips, run by
hundreds of volunteers, dedicated groups
and organizations around the world.
Notes to Editors
Land Reclamation in
the Yellow Sea
The loss of intertidal
mud flats due to land reclamation in the
Yellow Sea has caused a dramatic decline
in migratory shorebird numbers across the
East Asian-Australasian Flyway. The shores
of the Yellow Sea, bounded by China and
North and South Korea are a key staging
site for many shorebirds using this Flyway
on their annual migration from Australasia
to their Arctic breeding grounds.
"As the number
of humans in the East Asian - Australasian
Flyway approaches half of the global total,
migratory waterbirds that use the same landscapes
face escalating, overwhelming threats. Routine
destruction of inter-tidal habitats at massive
scale and disturbance at key sites are lowering
populations of coastal waterbirds, pushing
some to threatened status and others to
near extinction", said Roger Jaensch,
Chief Executive of the Partnership for the
East Asian - Australasian Flyway (EAAFP)
Secretariat in his statement to mark World
Migratory Bird Day 2011.
Land reclamation in
the Yellow Sea has destroyed nearly 50 per
cent of the region's intertidal mud flats
in the last 25 years. "Less well known
but equally concerning are the changes to
freshwater habitats from intensification
of agriculture and diversion of water from
wetlands to expanding irrigation and urban
areas", added Mr. Jaensch. Link: http://www.eaaflyway.net/
Protecting the Critical
Sites for Migratory Birds
Knowing where the critical
sites for migratory birds are is key to
their conservation. Increasingly sophisticated
tools such as the Wings Over Wetlands (WOW)
Critical Site Network (CSN) Tool can tell
us where the critical sites for migratory
birds are. This information can significantly
help conservation efforts, but also facilitate
national implementation of international
environment agreements, such as AEWA and
the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands.
"Our knowledge
of the sites critical to the migration of
many bird populations has increased steadily
over the last decades. For migratory waterbirds
in Africa and Eurasia for instance, a lot
of information is readily available through
the Critical Site Network (CSN) Tool developed
within the Wings Over Wetlands (WOW) project.
The future challenge is to have this information
integrated and taken into account into national
multi-sectoral development and land use
planning", said Marco Barbieri, Acting
Executive Secretary of the African-Eurasian
Migratory Waterbird Agreement (AEWA). "The
new impetus to the development of National
Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans
provided by the recent CBD COP in Nagoya
could offer a great opportunity in this
regard" said Barbieri.
Although currently limited
to the African-Eurasian region and those
migratory waterbirds covered by AEWA, the
CSN Tool brings together some of the most
current and comprehensive information available
internationally on these species and the
sites they use in this area.
The CSN Tool was jointly
developed by Wetlands International, BirdLife
International and the UNEP World Conservation
Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) in the framework
of the UNEP-GEF Wings Over Wetlands (WOW)
Project, funded by the Global Environment
Facility (GEF), the German Government and
several other partners and donors. The WOW
Project was the largest international, flyway-scale
waterbird and wetland conservation initiative
ever undertaken in the African-Eurasian
region. Link: www.wingsoverwetlands.org/csntool
Migratory birds as indicators
for a changing environment
Because of their dependence
on many habitats along their migration routes,
migratory birds often feel the effects of
these changing environments first before
many other animal species, making them key
indicators for the health of our environment.
In a statement to mark
World Migratory Bird Day 2011, Professor
Nick Davidson, Deputy Secretary General
of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands said:
"Migratory birds have been called "global
sentinels of environmental change"
because in the course of a year they move
between and sample the health of many different
places and habitats throughout the world.
Their state of health provides us with a
clear signal about the overall changing
state of our environment. And the signal
is not good."
"For migratory
birds the world certainly failed to reach
the 2010 target of reducing the rate of
loss of biological diversity. To address
the follow-up "Aichi Targets"
adopted at the Convention on Biological
Diversity's COP10 in Nagoya last year and
to which all environmental conventions including
Ramsar, CMS and AEWA are committed to collaborating
on delivery, needs a redoubling of efforts
by all of us, whether governments, business
or civil society, to stem and reverse the
underlying cause of migratory bird declines",
said Professor Davidson. Link: http://www.ramsar.org/
Statements to mark World
Migratory Bird Day:
All statements received
to mark World Migratory Bird Day 2011 can
be found here: Link: www.worldmigratorybirdday.org/statements
World Migratory Bird
Day (WMBD)
World Migratory Bird
Day (WMBD) is a global initiative devoted
to celebrating migratory birds and for promoting
their conservation worldwide. It is being
organized by the Secretariats of the Convention
on Migratory Species (CMS) and the African-Eurasian
Migratory Waterbird Agreement (AEWA) - two
international wildlife treaties administered
by the United Nations Environment Programme
(UNEP). The WMBD 2011 campaign has also
received support from the following partners:
UNEP, BirdLife International, Wetlands International,
the Partnership for the East Asian - Australasian
Flyway (EAAFP).
The World Migratory
Bird Day 2011 campaign is made possible
through part of the voluntary contribution
given to the CMS and AEWA Secretariats by
the German Federal Ministry for the Environment,
Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU).
Events in over 50 countries
As of 12 May 2011, over
140 separate events in more than 50 countries
have been registered on the campaign website.
WMBD events will be celebrated in: Argentina,
Australia, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Botswana,
Burundi, Cameroon, Canada, Colombia, Croatia,
Egypt, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Germany,
Ghana, Greece, Iceland, India, Indonesia,
Iran (Islamic Republic of), Iraq, Israel,
Italy, Jordan, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar,
Malaysia, Mexico, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan,
Palau, Peru, Portugal, Republic of Korea,
Romania, Russian Federation, Rwanda, Serbia,
Singapore, Somalia, South Africa, Spain,
Syrian Arab Republic, The Former Yugoslav
Republic of Macedonia, Tunisia, Turkey,
Uganda, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom,
United Republic of Tanzania and the United
States of America.
Global Event Map
For more information
and an overview of all registered World
Migratory Bird Day events please see the
Global Event Map: Link: www.worldmigratorybirdday.org/events
Highlighted Events
Vancouver, Canada -
Mayor Robinson of the city of Vancouver
Proclaims World Migratory Bird Day
For the first time,
World Migratory Bird Day Events in Vancouver
Canada will celebrate the wonder and importance
of bird migration. After reading the City
of Vancouver Mayor Robinson's World Migratory
Bird Day proclamation, bird watching and
educational walks in Stanley Park will be
conducted by the Stanley Park Ecology Society
to learn about local species that migrate
through Vancouver each year.
Erbil, Bagdad and Chibaish,
Iraq - Nature Iraq to celebrate the Importance
of Iraqi Wetlands on World Migratory Bird
Day
To celebrate World Migratory
Bird Day, Nature Iraq is participating with
the French Cultural Centre in Erbil in an
exhibition highlighting the migration routes
through Iraq and its marshlands, stressing
the importance of sites such as the Iraq
marshlands for migratory birds.
Additional activities
are planned in Baghdad and Chibaish where
Iraq's southern marshes are arguably some
of the most important sites in the Middle
East as a stop-over site for migratory birds.
Nature Iraq has been working with the Iraqi
Ministry of Environment to develop protected
areas throughout the country including a
National Park in the Central Marshes near
Chibaish, Southern Iraq.
Wadden Sea, Germany
- Events in Northern Germany to Celebrate
Unique Wadden Sea Habitats
A large part of the
Wadden Sea was recently listed as a UNESCO
World Heritage Site in recognition of its
international importance as one of the main
breeding, staging, moulting and wintering
areas for millions of migratory waterbirds
using the East Atlantic Flyway. Birdwatching
and educational walks will celebrate these
mudflats as critical habitat for up to 10
to 12 million migratory birds which use
the site each year.
Main Organizations behind
World Migratory Bird Day
Convention on Migratory
Species
The Convention on the
Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild
Animals (UNEP/CMS) works for the conservation
of a wide array of endangered migratory
animals worldwide through the negotiation
and implementation of agreements and action
plans. CMS is a fast-growing convention
with special importance due to its expertise
in the field of migratory species. At present,
115 countries are parties to the Convention.
Link: www.cms.int
African-Eurasian Migratory
Waterbird Agreement (AEWA)
The Agreement on the
Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory
Waterbirds (AEWA) is an intergovernmental
treaty developed under the auspices of CMS
dedicated to the conservation of migratory
waterbirds using the African-Eurasian Flyways.
The Agreement covers 255 species of birds
ecologically dependent on wetlands for at
least part of their annual cycle. The treaty
covers a large geographic area, including
Europe, parts of Asia, Canada, the Middle
East and Africa. So far 63 out of the 118
countries in this area have become Contracting
Parties to the International Agreement.
Link: http://www.unep-aewa.org