Newsletter / Blog
2012-07-15 Bad News – European breeding birds in trouble.
Bad news about European breeding
birds according to the 2012 IUCN Red List for birds.
The Saker Falcon - Falco
cherrug - was uplisted to Endangered because a revised population
trend analysis indicates that it may be undergoing a very rapid decline. This
negative trend is a result of unsustainable capture for the falconry trade, as
well as habitat degradation and the impacts of agrochemicals, and the rate of
decline appears to be particularly severe in Central Asian breeding grounds.
The status revision is based on careful review of the latest available evidence
from across the range but the situation is dynamic with still large gaps in the
information to be filled. Surveys are urgently needed to produce more robust
and less uncertain population estimates, in particular for China, Russia
and Mongolia.
Yelkouan
Shearwater - Puffinus yelkouan - which
breeds only in the central and western Mediterranean,
was uplisted to Vulnerable as it is estimated to be undergoing a rapid
population decline, caused by extremely low breeding success and adult survival
owing to fisheries bycatch and predation by introduced mammals.
Another European endemic, Rock Partridge - Alectoris graeca - was uplisted
to Near Threatened since the species is likely to be undergoing a moderately
rapid population reduction owing to habitat degradation and hybridization in
some areas of its range, which is limited to Sicily,
Italy, the Alps
and Balkans.
The involvement of BirdLife
Europe doesn’t stop at collecting the scientific data for the Red List. We are
now promoting the further development and implementation of the species action
plans and a better protection for the biodiversity of the Baltic
Sea. |