You start off plump with fat built up quickly before you fly, you burn it off in a massive flight south to escape the arctic winter. You arrive exhausted to feed and rest at a wetland used by countless generations of your species. And it’s been drained/polluted/developed/over over exploited (delete as appropriate). Your chances of finding an alternative are slim – your energy levels are perilously low and even if you do find somewhere else, the chances are it will already be occupied by others of your kin. Your options for survival are running out.
That’s a rather stark description of a migrating waterbird’s fate – but the truth is the pressure on coasts and wetlands is such that it is increasingly a real risk to the survival of birds that depend on a chain of sites around the world. Effective protection and care for these sites is a responsibility shared across many countries and starts with the best and most accessible information – and here’s a new web site and that will help. Called the Critical Site Network Tool – it’s been developed by a number of organisations including BirdLife International, Wetlands International and UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre (you can read the story here). It covers 294 species and the sites they depend on throughout Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia and Africa. I’ve just spent half an hour playing with the maps – so be careful it’s a bit addictive!
Its launch coincides with celebrations to mark the 15th anniversary of the African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbird Agreement (AEWA) which is the international treaty dedicated to the conservation of migratory birds which depend on the flyways between Europe and Africa.
And if you don’t love me now
The stakes are high, 294 species are covered including the slender-billed curlew (pictured), yet we don’t know if this enigmatic bird still shares the planet with us. Much effort is being put in to find out if any individuals still survive; there is still hope that the door of extinct has not closed. For the rest, ensuring that their fragile chain of sites is protected is essential.
You’ll never love me again
And once they’re gone it’s too late to say that you’ll never break the chain.
(With due acknowledgement to Fleetwood Mac)