An international campaign aimed at protecting migratory birds on the African-Eurasian flyway has been launched by BirdLife and its partners in more than 70 European, Middle Eastern and African countries.
“Every year, migratory birds brave mountains, oceans, deserts and storms on their journeys to survive” Marco Lambertini, CEO of BirdLife International said.
“However, we are destroying the habitat they need to rest and re-fuel, building hazardous structures such as power lines and badly placed wind farms which cross their path, and illegally shooting and trapping them."
More than 40 percent of migrant bird species passing between Africa, the Middle East and Europe have declined in the last three decades. Of these, 10 percent are classified by BirdLife as globally threatened or near threatened on the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) Red List (2).
The causes of declines depend on the species and type of migrant. Water birds are threatened by habitat conversion for agriculture and development, drought, over fishing and pollution.
Soaring birds – which glide on thermals - are threatened by collisions with man-made structures such as power-lines and badly placed wind-farms, contamination of water supplies and illegal hunting.
Songbirds are highly vulnerable to changes in the wider landscape such as agricultural intensification, desertification, deforestation, climate change and illegal trapping.
“As one of the islands on the central Mediterranean, migratory flyway Malta receives large numbers of migrating birds every spring and autumn.
"The most serious threats they face as they pass over Malta are illegal hunting, trapping and over-development,” Tolga Temuge, BirdLife Malta’s executive director said.
He added that it was useless for other countries in Europe and Africa to increase their conservation efforts only to have the birds threatened upon leaving their borders. For this reason conservation in Malta was important on both a national and international level.
The launching of the international campaign coincides with the first day of the northern spring to celebrate the return to Europe of migratory birds from Africa. The campaign will run linked projects and organise activities from Europe to Africa to improve the conservation of these amazing trans-continental travelers.
The campaign will run for four years. The campaign video can be viewed on www.birdlifemalta.org