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  Yahoo News 13 Mar 07
Groups: Development threatens waterbirds
By Mike Corder, Associated Press Writer

PlanetArk 13 Mar 07
Waterbirds Threatened, Need Better "Flyways" - Study
Story by Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent

NORWAY: March 13, 2007 OSLO - Many species of waterbird are in decline because of a loss of wetland habitats and governments need to do more to protect "flyway" migration routes, an international study said on Monday.

"Global actions for the protection of migratory waterbirds are losing the race with economic development," according to the report about birds such as ducks, geese, plovers or sandpipers and based on the work of about 450 experts in 59 nations. "As a result, many species are rapidly declining," it said.

The report was presented by the Dutch and British governments and Wetlands International and was backed by UN agencies and more than a dozen governments including the United States.

"In areas where governments are working to protect sites along important migratory routes, the results are promising," it said. The study said 170 of 614 waterbird species reviewed were now endangered.

It blamed falling bird numbers mainly "on loss and degradation of wetland (and other) habitats". Wetlands are being drained for uses such as farming, roads or towns.

The report, entitled "Waterbirds around the world", urged governments to preserve wetlands, work out recovery plans for threatened species and sign international accords to protect "flyways," or migration routes.

Many species of waterbirds migrate thousands of kilometres, often from breeding sites in the Arctic where they can nest on the ground with little fear of predators. They stop off at wetlands along the flyways to eat and rest.

"Little conservation action is being taken for many globally threatened species," it said. It listed species such as the red crested goose, the milky stork, the sooty albatross and the Baikal teal as endangered.

It said nations in Europe and North America were among those acting to protect wetlands and also praised Argentina and Chile, for instance, for preserving habitats of the ruddy headed goose.

But it criticised South Korea for draining coastal mudflats at Saemangeum that were an important habitat for the spoonbilled sandpiper and Nordmanns greenshank.

The report also said many species were under threat from global warming, blamed by almost all scientists on human burning of fossil fuels. It said there was a need for greater surveillance of diseases, amid worries about bird flu.

Yahoo News 13 Mar 07
Groups: Development threatens waterbirds
By Mike Corder, Associated Press Writer

Worldwide efforts to protect endangered waterbirds are falling short as industrial and urban development eat away at their habitats, and hunting and pollution take their toll, according to a book released Monday.

"Despite global conservation efforts, waterbirds are being sidelined by economic development," according to three groups that edited "Waterbirds Around the World," which includes data covering 162 countries and 614 species.

In January, a global survey called the Waterbird Population Estimate found that 44 percent of the world's 900 waterbird species numbers have fallen in the past five years, while 34 percent were stable, and 17 percent were rising. In the last such survey in 2002, 41 percent of waterbird populations worldwide were found to be decreasing.

"Waterbirds Around the World" is based on papers presented at a 2004 conference in Edinburgh, Scotland, and updated since then.

It paints a picture of largely positive progress in Europe and North America, but ongoing problems in other parts of the world. In east and southeast Asia, rapid economic development "has led to land-claim, increased hunting and pollution," the book's editors said in a statement.

"Too few species and their habitats are protected. Enforcement of protection is noticeably missing." They cited a "shocking example" in South Korea where a land claim project on the shores of the Yellow Sea completed in April 2006 destroyed 155 square miles of intertidal mudflats that were a key wetland habitat for migratory waterbirds in Asia, including the endangered spoonbilled sandpiper and Nordmanns greenshank.

Britain's Minister for Biodiversity Barry Gardiner welcomed the book and said it underscored the need for countries to work together to protect waterbirds and their habitats. "What we have to do is work with other countries to make sure that development in those countries is sustainable for them and for us," Gardiner said.

In Africa, pollution and urban development also are destroying wetlands and governments lack the knowledge to effectively protect them. However, U.N.-funded projects are under way in the continent to protect crucial sites along migration routes, according to the book, which was edited by the British government advisory panel, the Joint Nature Conservation Committee, Scottish National Heritage and Dutch-based Wetlands International.

In Europe and North America, where governments have been active for years in protecting wetlands on birds' migration routes, "good conservation progress has been made," the groups said.

In Central Asia, some governments are cooperating to protect wetlands along key migration routes, but in many other developing nations, the groups said, "conservation measures are still ... a low priority."

Taej Mundkur, of Wetlands International in South Asia, said the 940-page book, 12-pound book was essential reading for conservationists. "If I could lift it and carry it around, I'd read it every day," he said.
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