Savings Albatrosses + Asia's threatened birds

Good news from Birdlife International...

South Africa has become the fifth country to ratify the global Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels (ACAP), guaranteeing its entry into force. ACAP is an essential step in halting continuing declines in the world’s 21 albatross species, all of which now face varying risks of extinction according to the recent BirdLife upgrading of the World Conservation Union (IUCN) Red List of globally threatened species. You can find out more about the Save the Albatross campaign here.

A ground-breaking guide has also been launched for governments + civil society in order to help prevent the extinction of Asia’s birds, 1 in 8 of which is under threat. HIH Princess Takamado of Japan unveiled the blueprint, Saving Asia’s Threatened Birds, at a ceremony in Tokyo.

BirdLife International produced the guide with financial support from the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF) to help avoid the extinction of 324 threatened bird species, 12% of Asia’s total. Already 41 Asian bird species teeter on the brink of extinction, classified as Critically Endangered under World Conservation Union criteria. Of these, 11 may already be extinct, including the Javanese Lapwing of Indonesia and the Pink-headed Duck of India and Myanmar. Six of the species, such as the Bali Starling, number fewer than 50 mature individuals in the wild.

See here for some case studies of bird species under threat in Asia.