By Wouter Langhout & Iván Ramirez – BirdLife ECA, Dec 2, 2016
BirdLife’s
Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas (IBAs) have long been recognized
as the scientific baseline for identifying nature hotspots worthy of
Special Protection Area (SPA) status under the EU’s iconic nature laws –
the Birds Directive. New research conducted by a team of international
scientists – led by the University of Helsinki and recently published in
the journal ‘Biological Conservation’ – shows that while these networks
were originally designed to protect birds, they also play a significant
role in protecting many threatened species of reptiles, amphibians and
mammals.
Protected
areas are one of the great pillars of nature conservation. The theory
is simple: by protecting land and waterways from the perils of human
activity (from urban development to over-exploitation), their natural
biodiversity has a chance to thrive. But, in practice, the perennial
whys and wherefores of the official identification and designation
processes inevitably make it a challenging task for the international
governments and institutions involved.
For
over 30 years, BirdLife has been developing and fine-tuning a set of
simple yet robust criteria to scientifically identify Important Bird and
Biodiversity Areas (IBAs). These sites have long received world-wide
recognition as areas of international significance for the conservation
of threatened and endangered bird species. Indeed, right here in Europe,
IBAs are routinely used as the scientific baseline for selecting nature
hotpots that merit Special Protection Area (SPA) status under the EU’s
most iconic nature laws – the Birds Directive.
That
these areas are scientifically worthy of such singular recognition has
once again been confirmed by new research – recently published in the
peer-reviewed journal Biological Conservation – by an international team
of scientists, led by the University of Helsinki. This research,
supported by the science team at BirdLife, investigated the extent to
which the habitats of birds, mammals and reptiles are actually covered
by the Birds Directive. In doing so, the project studied how closely
BirdLife’s IBAs informed the definition of the EU’s SPA network and how
the network’s species coverage could be expanded exponentially. And the
results are quite interesting indeed.
For
one, the researchers found that SPAs cover 66% of the EU’s IBAs, but
the degree of overlap varies considerably between Member States. Those
who have joined the EU more recently have done a particularly good job –
Latvia, for example, has designated almost all of their IBAs as SPAs.
Other Member States such as Malta, Belgium and Spain, however still lag
behind with their networks.
The
study also looked at the coverage of the habitats of mammals, reptiles
and amphibians in the SPA network. On average, it covers around 31% of
the habitat of threatened reptiles, 25% of the amphibians and 20% of the
mammals. This is pretty impressive, especially given that the template
for these networks – based on BirdLife’s IBAs – was mainly designed for
birds. This shows that BirdLife’s IBA classification, and, in turn, the
EU’s Birds Directive does, in fact, do far more than just protect birds –
one small step for birds, is a giant leap for animal-kind more-broadly!
Similarly,
in terms of how best to expand the existing SPA network, the
researchers found that a relatively modest expansion in some key
countries (notably, Finland, Greece, and Spain) would mean a very
significant increase in the network’s ability to protect an even higher
percentage of species across the board.
The full paper can be viewed in full on SciencesDirect.com.
Wouter Langhout is EU Nature Policy Officer at BirdLife ECA
For further details on this paper please contact: Aija Kukkala (lead author) and Iván Ramírez (co-author and Head of Conservation at BirdLife ECA).
Miniature monkeys reunited after Australia zoo theft
November 28, 2016
There were fears it would die if away from its mother for more than 24 hours while keepers also worried its twin would perish because their mother was too stressed to feed.
After a tip-off from the public, two men, aged 23 and 26, were arrested and charged Monday with dealing with the proceeds of crime.
Police found the unnamed four-week-old infant in the men's car and a 10-month-old female, Sophia, at another address. But the father, Gomez, remains missing.
It was not clear why the monkeys, which are native to South America and usually about 20 centimetres (eight inches) tall, were taken, but Symbio park manager Matthew Radnidge said there would have been a financial motivation.
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2016-11-miniature-monkeys-reunited-australia-zoo.html#jCp
Miniature monkeys reunited after Australia zoo theft
November 28, 2016
There were fears it would die if away from its mother for more than 24 hours while keepers also worried its twin would perish because their mother was too stressed to feed.
After a tip-off from the public, two men, aged 23 and 26, were arrested and charged Monday with dealing with the proceeds of crime.
Police found the unnamed four-week-old infant in the men's car and a 10-month-old female, Sophia, at another address. But the father, Gomez, remains missing.
It was not clear why the monkeys, which are native to South America and usually about 20 centimetres (eight inches) tall, were taken, but Symbio park manager Matthew Radnidge said there would have been a financial motivation.
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2016-11-miniature-monkeys-reunited-australia-zoo.html#jCp
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