Protection for Antipodean albatross

FEBRUARY 24, 2020 9:29 AM AEDT

Australia has helped secure international agreement to protect the endangered Antipodean albatross on its 100,000km annual migration between New Zealand, Australia and Chile.

In India overnight, 130 countries agreed to further protections for the Antipodean albatross at the Conference of Parties on the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals.

Each year, these majestic seabirds lay their eggs on breeding islands in the subantarctic waters south of New Zealand before heading off over winter to search for sparse feed supplies of cuttlefish in places like the NSW South Coast.

With as few as 9050 breeding pairs remaining, it was vital that the international community acted to protect the Antipodean albatross.

This is a tremendous outcome that will help reduce instances of the albatross being inadvertently caught by fishing vessels in coastal waters and the high sea, so that these birds can migrate safely.

Australia, New Zealand and Chile proposed the protections to prevent the further decline of the species, which without our help is in danger of being extinct within 20 years.

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Protecting the Canada Warbler at both ends of its epic journey

The Canada Warbler migrates more than 10,000 kilometres a year, from Canada and the United States to the forests of South America. Find out how our Colombian Partner is using a local grassroots approach to support an Americas-wide action plan to protect the species.

Each year, one of the biggest wonders of the natural world occurs: bird migration. You may be surprised to learn that of the 11,000+ species of birds that exist, one in five is considered migratory. Some of these species make really incredible trips. The Canada Warbler Cardellina canadensis flies more than 10,000 kilometres every year from Canada and the United States to the humid cloud forests of South America, coming to rest across Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela and northern Peru.

Eliana Fierro, a biologist at Asociación Calidris (BirdLife in Colombia), explains that the threats facing this tiny voyager are different at each end of its journey: “[At their breeding sites], agrochemicals are harming the insects they feed on. While here in their wintering area, the main problem is deforestation. When these birds arrive in South America, they rely on forests 500 – 2000 meters above sea level. But often they arrive to find that there is no forest anymore.”

Because of its wide distribution, all efforts to protect the Canada Warbler must cross borders. From 2004 – 2017, around 30 organisations from all over the Americas joined forces to develop the Canada Warbler Full Life Cycle Action Plan, bringing together research on threats the species faces in each country. Fierro explains: “The plan first started at the breeding sites, coordinated by Nature Canada and Birdlife. Then we decided to include the wintering grounds, and the construction of the complete cycle action plan for the species began.” As part of this process, Asociación Calidris became the Species Guardian in Colombia.

Their first step focused on raising awareness of the species; not only among birdwatchers, but also among the owners of farms that host the species every year. "We are currently working in the Western Cordillera in two very specific locations: Dapa [in the village of Chicoral] and Villa Carmelo," explains Eliana Fierro. Chicoral village is located at the highest part of the Bitaco district in the municipality of La Cumbre. Whereas Valle del Cauca can be found on the Pacific slope of the Western mountain range.

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Study recommends special protection of emperor penguins

OCTOBER 9, 2019

by British Antarctic Survey

In a new study published this week (Wednesday 9 October) in the journal Biological Conservation, an international team of researchers recommends the need for additional measures to protect and conserve one of the most iconic Antarctic species—the emperor penguin (Aptenodyptes forsteri).

The researchers reviewed over 150 studies on the species and its environment as well as its behaviour and character in relation to its breeding biology. Current climate change projections indicate that rising temperatures and changing wind patterns will impact negatively the sea ice on which emperor penguins breed; and some studies indicate that emperor populations will decrease by more than 50% over the current century. The researchers therefore recommend that the IUCN status for the species be escalated to 'vulnerable'; the species is currently listed as 'near threatened' on the IUCN Red List. They conclude that improvements in climate change forecasting in relation to impacts on Antarctic wildlife would be beneficial, and recommend that the emperor penguin should be listed by the Antarctic Treaty as a Specially Protected Species.

Lead author Dr. Philip Trathan, Head of Conservation Biology at British Antarctic Survey, says:

"The current rate of warming in parts of the Antarctic is greater than anything in the recent glaciological record. Though emperor penguins have experienced periods of warming and cooling over their evolutionary history, the current rates of warming are unprecedented."

"Currently, we have no idea how the emperors will adjust to the loss of their primary breeding habitat—sea ice. They are not agile and climbing ashore across steep coastal land forms will be difficult. For breeding, they depend upon sea ice, and in a warming world there is a high probability that this will decrease. Without it, they will have little or no breeding habitat."

Greater protection measures will enable scientists to coordinate research into the penguins' resilience to a range of different threats and stressors.

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Chile announces vital new regulations to protect seabirds

25 Sep 2019

At the end of last month, the Chilean Government took a vital and welcome step towards saving thousands of seabirds from being needlessly killed in their trawl fisheries by introducing new regulations making the use of mitigation measures mandatory.

New regulations introduced by the Chilean Government at the end of August will require a number of important trawl fleets to implement measures that reduce the bycatch of seabirds. This includes not only the use bird-scaring lines, which keep birds away from the trawl cables that can break their wings and kill them, but also other measures, including ‘snatch blocks’ to reduce the risk of albatrosses colliding with the net monitoring cable, and limits to the discarding of offal, which attracts birds to fishing vessels in the first place.

These regulations are the culmination of over a decade of work from our Albatross Task Force (ATF) team in Chile, who have worked alongside fishers, researchers and the national observer programmes of the Chilean Fisheries Development Institute (IFOP) and the Undersecretariat of Fisheries (SUBPESCA) to draw attention to the issue of seabird bycatch by testing and demonstrating the simple ways that these unnecessary deaths can be avoided.

“The announcement of these new regulations is wonderful news for the many albatrosses and petrels that use the seas around Chile to find food for themselves and their chicks,” Cristián Suazo, leader of ATF-Chile says. “This includes birds that breed both in our remote southern colonies and on the other side of the Pacific in New Zealand.”

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More protection for endangered kakī

Friday, 9 August 2019, 10:39 am Press Release: Department of Conservation

9 August 2019

A significant increase in predator trapping is giving 130 young kakī/black stilt released in the Mackenzie Basin this week their best-ever chance of survival.

Thousands of new predator traps have been recently installed in the Godley Cass and Macaulay river systems as part of conservation project, Te Manahuna Aoraki. There is now renewed hope that kakī, the world’s rarest wading bird, will one day be able to thrive without human intervention.

Yesterday, 45 juvenile kakī were released at Mt Gerald Station, in the Godley and Cass river systems. Another 19 birds will join them this afternoon, while a further 66 were released into the Tasman Valley earlier in the week.

Department of Conservation (DOC) Senior Biodiversity Ranger Dean Nelson says until recently the young waders have been released in the Godley and lower Cass Valleys with only very limited trapping to protect them from predators like stoats, ferrets and feral cats.

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China, Russia, Mongolia jointly protect Siberian crane

Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-17 20:17:08|Editor: ZX

NANCHANG, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- Six organizations from China, Russia and Mongolia signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on the conservation of the Siberian crane Thursday in east China's Jiangxi Province.

Also known as the Siberian white crane, or the snow crane, the species is rated as critically endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List.

The six organizations -- the School of Nature Conservation of Beijing Forestry University, a Siberian cranes protection center in the city of Nanchang, two institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences, a Mongolian bird conservation center and a nature reserve administration in Dornod Province -- signed the MOU of Siberian Crane Research and Conservation in Nanchang, capital of Jiangxi.

Guo Yumin, a professor with the Beijing Forestry University, said that all parties decided to join hands to protect the Siberian crane after multiple discussions. The participants will work together to collect and share scientific data such as breeding areas, population size and different habitats.

According to the MOU, the Russian side will focus on the investigation of the breeding areas of Siberian crane, while the Chinese side is mainly responsible for the investigation of the bird's winter area, and the Mongolian side will carry out research on Siberian cranes in the summer area.

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Trump administration plans to weaken protections for sage grouse

Under the new plan, the sage grouse’s protected area would shrink by about 9m acres to span just 1.8m acres

Oliver Milman

Thu 6 Dec 2018 19.18 GMTLast modified on Thu 6 Dec 2018 19.24 GMT

The Trump administration has unveiled plans to weaken environmental protections for sprawling areas of the western US considered important habitat for the sage grouse, a chicken-like bird known for its flamboyant courtship displays.

The proposals, put forward by the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM), essentially dismantle much of a landmark 2015 compromise struck between states, oil drilling companies and environmentalists to create a network of protected areas for the sage grouse across 11 western states.

Under the new plan, the sage grouse’s protected area would shrink by around 9m acres to span just 1.8m acres. The plan also removes habitat conservation standards for grazing activities and makes it easier for federal officials to waive protective buffers around sage grouse mating areas, called leks.

An estimated 16 million sage grouse once roamed a vast area of sagebrush in the US west but years of development and the spread of agriculture has razed much of its habitat, causing a 90% population drop from historic levels. Sage grouse require large areas of intact sagebrush to feed and mate.

Today, sage grouse are found in 11 states, with the new Trump administration plan unwinding protection plans in seven of them – north-eastern California, Colorado, Nevada, Oregon, Idaho, Utah and Wyoming.

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Vital protection for Scotland’s seabirds delayed by UK Government

Scottish environment groups have expressed concern that an important consultation on the protection of special places for seabirds has been held back by the UK Government. Earlier this year in July the Scottish Government launched a consultation on 10 marine Special Protection Areas, a requirement under EU law to help safeguard areas crucial for internationally important bird populations. 

 

However, a further five proposed marine SPAs were not included in the consultation as the required agreement of the UK Government had not been provided. 

Now Scottish Environment LINK’s Marine Group has written to the UK Environment Minister, Thérèse Coffey MP, urging her to agree to the Scottish Government consulting on the sites without further delay. 

The delayed sites include the seas off St Kilda, the UNESCO World Heritage Site which supports the largest seabird colony in Europe. The wide range of marine birds that would benefit from proposals include puffins, which have seen rapid declines in numbers across Europe and are now classified as Endangered on the IUCN European Red List. 

Richard Luxmoore, Senior Nature Conservation Adviser at the National Trust for Scotland said: “The National Trust for Scotland has been monitoring seabird populations on its properties for over 40 years and has recorded alarming declines – over 90 per cent in the case of kittiwakes on St Kilda. Most of these are attributable to problems with their feeding areas at sea. Without effective protection for these birds, our monitoring amounts to little more than a protracted obituary.” 

Alex Kinninmonth, Head of Marine Policy at RSPB Scotland said: “Seabirds are amongst the world's most threatened group of birds, and with globally significant colonies dependent on the seas around Scotland for survival we have a duty to protect them. Yet right when we should be accelerating seabird conservation efforts, the UK Government appears to have pulled the handbrake. 

“It's now time for action and progressing these scientifically credible protected areas would be a clear demonstration of the government's commitment to improving our marine environment and achieving the UK vision for our seas and oceans.” 

Source 

US Announces Plans to Protect Rare Colorado, Utah Birds

By DAN ELLIOTT, ASSOCIATED PRESS

DENVER — Aug 12, 2016, 4:55 PM ET

Federal land managers announced long-awaited plans to protect the rare Gunnison sage grouse, a bird found only in Colorado and Utah.

The Bureau of Land Management released a nearly 1,000-page document late Thursday proposing restrictions on energy development, roads and grazing.

The proposals include closing or limiting the use of some areas during the birds' mating season, from mid-March to Mid-May, and during harsh winter weather. That could affect exploration for oil and gas, among other activities.

Other proposals include limits on the size of rights of way for utility lines and pipelines. Release of the plans opens a 90-day period for public comment. Final rules are expected next year.

Only about 5,000 Gunnison sage grouse remain in southwestern Colorado and southeastern Utah. The bird was listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act in 2014. About 2,200 square miles in the two states are considered critical habitat.

Threatened status is less serious than endangered, which means a species is on the verge of extinction now and requires tighter restrictions.

The Gunnison grouse is related to the greater sage grouse, which is found across 11 Western states. Federal wildlife managers decided in September not to protect the greater sage grouse under the Endangered Species Act, but conservation restrictions are planned on public lands.

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Rare Puerto Rican Bird Receives Endangered Species Act Protection With 27,125 Acres of Proposed Critical Habitat

For Immediate Release, June 21, 2016

Contact: Jaclyn Lopez, (727) 490-9190, jlopez@biologicaldiversity.org

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.— Thanks to a landmark settlement agreement with the Center for Biological Diversity, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today gave Puerto Rico’s elfin-woods warbler Endangered Species Act protection. Most of the warbler’s habitat has been lost to urban and agricultural development.

“With the help of the Endangered Species Act, the elfin-woods warbler will recover, like other Puerto Rican birds before it,” said Jaclyn Lopez, Florida director at the Center. “The Endangered Species Act has an excellent track record at increasing or stabilizing populations of birds like the Puerto Rican parrot, yellow-shouldered blackbird and Puerto Rican plain pigeon.”

The elfin-woods warbler is a tiny, 5-inch bird that was first discovered in the dwarf forests of El Yunque National Forest in the 1970s. Today’s decision proposes protecting 27,125 acres of the bird’s habitat in the Maricao, San German, Sabana Grande, Yauco, Rio Grande, Canovanas, Las Piedras, Nagaubo, Ceiba, Cayey, San Lorenzo, Guayama and Patillas municipalities in Puerto Rico.

In 2004 the Center petitioned to protect the warbler under the Endangered Species Act. The Service had previously listed the bird as a candidate for listing from 1982-1996, and again in 1999 due to high-magnitude threats.

The decision to protect the warbler as “threatened” is the result of a historic settlement agreement between the Center and the Service that expedites decisions on protections for 757 species around the country. To date the agreement has resulted in endangered species protections for 145 species and proposed protections for another 33.

The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.

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Penguin chicks huddle up for heat, protection

Location, environment influence when gentoo penguin chicks huddle

Date: February 3, 2016

Source: PLOS

Location and environmental conditions may influence when gentoo chicks huddle in cold, wet Antarctic conditions, according to a study published February 3, 2016 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Caitlin Black from the University of Oxford, and colleagues.

Many penguin species form aggregations for conserving heat, providing protection, and other purposes. Scientists have observed gentoo penguins aggregating during the post-guard period, a period when the parents leave the chicks without waterproof feathers daily to go find fish, but these aggregations have never been studied over a large spatial range in the Antarctic. The authors of this study observed the gentoo penguin aggregation behavior across four study sites along a latitudinal gradient. To examine the adaptive benefit of aggregations, they observed each colony during the post-guarding period of the 2012-2013 breeding season using time-lapse cameras.

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EU bird protection laws pegged as effective, better than others

BY RAVI MANDALIA

IN SCIENCE

— 28 JUL, 2015

A new joint research by RSPB, BirdLife International and Durham University has found that the European Union’s Birds Directive is one of world’s most effective at providing protection to threatened and that it is better than similar directives from other nations.

The research, which is being published on Tuesday 28 July 2015 in the journal Conservation Letters, reveals that the most consistent single determinant of a species’ fate is whether it is afforded the highest level of protection under the Birds Directive or not. In the language of The Birds Directive this means whether a species is listed under Annex 1 or not.

Researchers found that species listed in Annex 1 (highest level of protection under the Birds Directive) such as Dalmatian pelican, spoonbill, griffon vulture and greater flamingo fare far better in those countries which have been EU members for longer.

In the UK, a number of Annex 1 species are faring better in comparison to species which don’t enjoy the same level of protection. Researchers found that over a 25-year period, the following UK nesting species, listed under Annex 1, increased by the following percentages:

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Feds May Strip Protection from Rare SoCal Bird

by Chris Clarke

December 30, 2014 2:15 PM

Though the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decided just four years ago that the coastal California gnatcatcher still needs the protection of the U.S. Endangered Species Act, the agency is announcing Wednesday that it will consider removing the bird from the list of Threatened species.

The move comes in response to a petition by pro-development groups asking USFWS to consider delisting the coastal gnatcatcher, Polioptila californica californica, which the petitioners claim is not a valid subspecies of the California gnatcatcher Polioptila californica.

We examined that claim, based on a 2013 paper in the journal The Auk, in July, along withsouthern California ornithologist John McCormack's rather devastating rebuttal of the paper on which the petition to delist the gnatcatcher is based.

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Welsh seabirds get protected sites

Posted on: 12 Oct 2014

RSPB Cymru has thanked the Welsh Government with a special art creation for taking a step towards protecting special sites for seabirds in Wales’s coastal waters.

Today the Minister for Natural Resources Carl Sargeant announced additional protection in the seas around three key sites for seabirds; this follows a public consultation which was held earlier this year by Natural Resources Wales (NRW). The sites are Grassholm RSPB, and The Wildlife Trusts of South and West Wales islands of Skomer, Skokholm and Bardsey Island.

RSPB Cymru commissioned local artist Theo Shields to create a sand art picture at LLanddwyn Beach, Anglesey, North Wales, in the form of a Northern Gannet, Manx Shearwater and Puffin, to express its thanks to Welsh Government.

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Colorado birds receive protection against wind turbines

Wind farms in Colorado must soon adhere to new legislation to protect birds

The US’ first wind energy legislation to protect birds against wind energy and other renewable energy has been passed. The Bird Protection Act will come into force in January 2015, requiring energy producers to ensure that their facilities protect birds and other wildlife.

The bill – drafted by State Senator David Balmer – referenced a recent study, which stated that in 2012, 573,000 birds were killed by the wind industry. Another study also referenced by the bill estimated that around 1.4 million birds will be killed annually by 2030, based on current unregulated wind industry expansion.

As of early next year, wind energy producers will be required to follow ‘Bird Smart wind energy standards’, which will include the following:

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Alderney's puffins 'need better legal protection'

Alderney conservationists say tougher laws are needed to protect the island's 340 puffins.

The colourful seabirds are returning to breed following a winter which killed about 16,500 of the northwest European population.

The Alderney Wildlife Trust said dog walkers who repeatedly allowed dogs to disturb nests should be prosecuted.

Dozens of storms killed an estimated 32,000 seabirds in northwest Europe, about half of them puffins.

Trust manager Roland Gauvain said: "Anywhere breeding birds are trying to establish, especially where you have dog access near to them, disturbance can put them off their nests or destroy the nests, not intentionally, just the activity itself can cause the damage.

"This year, because they've been so stressed during the winter period, the chance of that happening, we would argue, are massively increased."

Mr Gauvain would like to see more beaches closed to dogs during breeding season and a 1954 wildlife law toughened.

"People are not in any way inclined to hurt wildlife," he said, "but it's about not understanding that walking your dog when you're 30 metres away from a nesting site is causing it problems.

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RSPB recruit overnight “Protection Staff” to help guard hen harriers at 3 Northern England regions

Reference number: 7020214

Location: Northern England

RSPB’s Northern England region is recruiting for six seasonal flexible contract staff for overnight nest protection of hen harriers in Northern England. The posts will most likely be based in Northumberland, Cumbria (Geltsdale) or Lancashire’s Forest of Bowland, but with the flexibility to move elsewhere dependent on the location of a nesting attempt.

The main purpose of the job is to prevent disturbance/destruction of nesting hen harriers if a nest is found in Northern England. This involves carrying out overnight nest watches, the time and length of shifts to be coordinated by the Species Protection Coordinator. The nestwatch will commence once the female has constructed the nest and will continue until any young are fully fledged.

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Andean condors protected by land purchase

January 2014: More than 270,000 acres of critical wildlife habitat in Ecuador has been purchased by the Rainforest Trust. The mammoth property acquisition, which includes the 18,714-foot Antisana Volcano, will create a permanent refuge for the largest population of Andean Condor in the Northern Andes.

The final 6,100 acre property, called Hacienda Antisanilla, was acquired today to complete a project by Rainforest Trust with Fundación Jocotoco, the Municipality of Quito, and the Quito Water Authority in a coordinated effort that will both protect endangered species and secure an important source of drinking water for Ecuador’s capital city.

“The purchase of multiple properties around Volcan Antisana represents one of the greatest conservation victories ever in the Andes of South America,” said Dr. Robert Ridgely, President of Rainforest Trust and a driving force behind this conservation success. “The final acquisition of Hacienda Antisanilla caps a decade-long effort by Rainforest Trust and our Ecuadorian partner Fundación Jocotoco to protect this fragile and biodiverse ecosystem. We are grateful to all of the partners, organizations and donors who made this possible, including The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, who provided critical support to acquire the Hacienda Antisanilla property.”

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Nevada Critic: US Plan to Save Bird Strikes 'Death Blow'

A plan by the federal government to protect a wild bird about the size of a chicken in the western United States has brought strong attacks from critics, including ranchers, energy developers, and public officials.

"It's a death blow," Jeff Williams, a commissioner in Elko County, Nev., told The Elko Daily Free Press. “In the rest of the state, it’s a horrible situation ... In Elko County, it’s the whole county. It’s everything we’ve got. It’s recreation, it’s mining, it’s oil, it’s agriculture." 

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Nightingale site gains protection

November 2013: The future of the nightingale, one of Britain’s rarest birds, looks brighter with the good news that Lodge Hill in Medway, north Kent has been declared a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) by Natural England

This site is home to more than one percent of the UK’s total population of nightingales, a bird which has declined in the UK by 46 per cent since 1995. Lodge Hill – part of which is a former military engineering school – has also been protected for its nationally-important grassland and ancient woodland.

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