More than half
the populations of waders in Europe, West Asia and Africa are
declining at an accelerating rate. There is a need for better
protection of the key wetlands along their flyways, especially in
Africa and the Middle East. This is the conclusion of the Wetlands
International’s
Wader Atlas, the first comprehensive overview of key site
networks for waders in Europe, West-Asia and Africa, launched in
London today.
The book is launched today (20 May 2009), at a conference in
London called “Global Biodiversity Mechanisms”, hosted by the Joint
Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC). This is a determined effort
to share information between the UK-based practitioners and
contributors to the various conservation Conventions. In late
2008, several Conventions met and reflected on the current global
conservation crisis. The UK contributed actively to all these
meetings. The conference will seek a way for the UK to
implement decisions nationally, and provide international
leadership. The Wader Atlas is one practical way to
influence decision-makers for the benefit of wildlife.
Waders are relatively small waterbirds including species like
lapwings, plovers, godwits, curlews and sandpipers. Many of them
undertake long distance migrations from their Arctic breeding
grounds to wintering areas as far away as Southern Africa. Some
concentrate in huge numbers at just a few sites, making these
critical wetlands for their survival.
Incomplete network of protected areas
The European Union has established a comprehensive network of
protected areas for waders in Europe under the Birds
Directive. Outside the EU however, the protection and
management of key sites is still far from adequate. A string
of wetlands concentrated on the western coast of Africa, (Sahel
zone along the Senegal and Niger rivers, around Lake Chad), and in
East Africa in the Sudd, along the Rift Valley and eastern coast of
Africa, is crucial for the survival of many migratory waders.
Therefore, if EU investment in protecting waders is to be
effective, these crucial sites must also be included in its
conservation strategy. Wader Atlas author Simon Delany said:
“Waders such as the Ruff are heavily protected in the EU; farmers
receive thousands of Euros for nest protection. These same
birds are for sale in the markets of Mopti, Mali for just 25 cents
each! If just a part of the finance available in the EU for
waterbird protection were to go to the areas where these same birds
winter, a huge difference could be made”.
Pressure on wetlands
The wetlands of the African west coast are under enormous
pressures. The sparse water resources in the Sahelian zone
are tapped by dams on the Niger or Senegal rivers, which have
turned formerly shallow wetlands into permanently dry lands.
Irrigation schemes for growing human population disrupt the water
flow in wetlands such as the shrinking Lake Chad. Often
wetlands themselves are converted to agricultural use, such as in
the Tana River Delta in Kenya, which is threatened by conversion to
sugar cane plantations.
A similar story can be told for the Middle East. Many
waders migrate from the Arctic and Scandinavia to the coastal zones
along the Persian Gulf. These coastal areas are now suffering from
rapid development which threatens the habitat of the scarce and
declining Broad billed Sandpiper, for example.
Highlighting important wetlands
The Wader Atlas highlights the most important wetlands to be
protected for each wader population. It will thus provide decision
makers across the Africa-Eurasian region with crucial information
so that they can increase and better focus their efforts for
wetland conservation. Better water management preserving the
Sahelian wetlands benefits not only waders, but also local people.
Indeed, involving local people in protection strategies for waders
has been successful in many regions.
Notes to editors:
1. The Wader Atlas will be launched at the “Global
Biodiversity Mechanisms” JNCC conference on 20 May 2009 at the
Strand Palace Hotel, London at 5:00 pm (MEA-Event). Contact JNCC if you wish
to attend (
or phone
01733 866886).
2. Wetlands International is a global
organisation that works to sustain and restore wetlands and their
resources for people and biodiversity. Wetlands International and
the
International Wader Study Group (WSG) have drawn on their
wide-ranging network of wader experts to help prepare this Atlas,
being the final product of ten years of labour.
3. The
Wader Atlas (An Atlas of Wader Populations in Africa and
Western Eurasia) identifies 876 key sites – such as lakes,
coastal areas, floodplains - for 59 of the 90 wader species in
those countries covered by the UN African-Eurasian Migratory
Waterbird Agreement (AEWA). Amongst these, the book
identifies 68 sites at which more than five wader species occur in
internationally important numbers (more than 1% of global
population). There are 112 sites where more than 40,000
waders have been counted.
4. This book is a result of a huge international effort
involving literally thousands of coordinated expert observers in
nearly 100 countries. It was funded by the governments of Belgium,
the UK and The Netherlands, and a United Nations treaty, the
African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbird Agreement (AEWA). Most
of the work was undertaken by Wetlands International staff and
members of the International Wader Study Group, a Specialist Group
of Wetlands International, and these two organizations also
contributed to the funding.
5. Examples of the conservation value of the
book:
There is a well-recognised criterion by which the international
importance of sites for waterbirds is judged, namely the 1%
criterion under which any site which regularly holds 1% or more of
a population of a waterbird species qualifies as a wetland of
international importance under the Ramsar Convention on wetlands.
The Wader Atlas reveals that the most important site for waders in
Africa and western Eurasia on this basis is a site which has
hitherto been poorly known and which remains unprotected. This site
is Barr al Hikman on the coast in Oman, a vast and remote coastal
bay where British and Dutch expeditions since the 1990s have
recorded no fewer than 18 species in these internationally
important numbers.
One site under threat from drainage and agricultural
intensification is the Tana River Delta on the coast of
Kenya, where five species have been recorded in internationally
important numbers. One of these, the White-fronted Plover is
widespread in Africa and does not migrate much. Of the
remaining four internationally important species at this site, all
are long-distance migrants breeding far to the north and east in
Central Asia (Lesser Sandplover) and in northern Russia (Marsh
Sandpiper, Curlew Sandpiper and Little Stint).
These migrants occur at the delta in large numbers during the
northern winter, and also use it as a feeding site to refuel on
flyways which extend further to the south after the breeding
season, and as far north as arctic Russia during the breeding
season. Damage to this one site, as well as affecting the
resident birds, is thus likely to affect the survival of these
species over a huge area stretching from Southern Africa, through
the Middle East and Central Asia to Siberia.
Species’ chapters and high resolution photos of the book can be
downloaded from: www.wetlands.org/waderatlas.
6. For further information about The Wader Atlas, please
contact the Wetlands International press office: Alex
Kaat, Communication Manager. Tel: +31 (0)6 5060 1917.
Email
or
- Senior
Technical officer - Waterbird Conservation, Wetlands International:
Tel: +31 (0)6 55 68 45 50.