Monday 5 December 2016

Birds and Beyond – Special Protection Areas in the EU (Areas also play a significant role in protecting many threatened species of reptiles, amphibians and mammals.) - via Herp Digest


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
The marmosets, also known as thumb monkeys, are in demand on the black market as pets
Two men were charged Monday with stealing rare pygmy marmosets from an Australian wildlife park as a baby was reunited with her mum and the hunt continued to find dad.
Three of the monkeys, the world's smallest, were snatched from their enclosure at the Symbio Wildlife Park south of Sydney on Saturday, with police and zookeepers launching a desperate bid to locate the suckling infant.
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
The marmosets, also known as thumb monkeys, are in demand on the black market as pets
Two men were charged Monday with stealing rare pygmy marmosets from an Australian wildlife park as a baby was reunited with her mum and the hunt continued to find dad.
Three of the monkeys, the world's smallest, were snatched from their enclosure at the Symbio Wildlife Park south of Sydney on Saturday, with police and zookeepers launching a desperate bid to locate the suckling infant.
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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