Banc d'Arguin National Park in Mauritania.
1.2 million hectares of shallow, grassy water.
Plankton thrive here. Low-tide reveals
the abundance of food for birds.
Over the winter, curlew sandpipers shared this
spot with over 40 other water bird species more than 1.5 million birds
spending their days feeding and resting until most of them depart in the spring for their breeding grounds.
The National Park and UNESCO World Heritage Site is a
haven for people and wildlife, but like so many of the world's wetland
ecosystems (even though is protected by treaty) the park faces numerous threats
including unregulated human activity and rising sea levels from climate change.
Managing these threats requires collaboration between local and
international partners to monitor and protect these unique places.
Migratory waterbirds have more than one home. Species like the Curlew sandpiper rely
on a network of critical sites that spans political borders. Each year they
travel from where they nest and raise their young, to their wintering grounds
on journeys that can last weeks and spanned thousands of kilometres.
Between these sites most of them depend on staging sites: places where birds find
predictable, abundant food and the opportunity to rest to maintain the
energy that powers their flights over land and sea.
These staging sites are similar to service stations for people when driving on long trips.
They are the specific locations water birds have evolved to rely on to
complete their yearly life cycle. Birds cannot survive without their intact
network of critical breeding staging and wintering sites.
Because of threats to their sites,
Curlew sandpipers– some of which travel 15,000 kilometers twice a year,
have lost 50% of their population in the last 40 years.
The migratory routes birds use to move between critical sites, form the flyways of the world.
One of these is the African Eurasian Flyway; a massive collection of
networks stretching from the Scandinavian, European, and Russian Arctic
to temperate and tropical regions of southern Africa.
Within this Flyway over
250 bird species dependent on wetlands for at least part of their annual cycle,
like the Curlew Sandpiper, the Ruff, the Damara Tern and Black-tailed Godwit
passed through 119 countries in Africa, the Middle East, Europe, Central Asia,
Greenland and the Canadian Arctic Archipelago.
In 1995 the agreement on the
Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds, or "AEWA",
was created to protect these species and the habitats that are
crucial for their survival. Sites that ensure healthy environments for birds and people.
When these sites are in danger, species begin to decline.
Like the Curley Sandpiper, many water birds are showing population decreases in parts of
Africa, Central Asia, and Europe.
One such species in decline, the Lesser white-fronted goose departs in late August
from its Tundra breeding grounds
in the Russian Arctic or northern Scandinavia, traveling up to 7,000
kilometers along multiple routes crossing 20 countries.
Russia, Kazakhstan, and Azerbaijan post significant staging sites.
The geese use a range of habitats
including steppe grasslands and natural floodplains. Their wintering grounds are
located in Greece and spread throughout the Middle East along the Black Sea,
Caspian Sea, and Persian Gulf.
Although the species is legally
protected, between 1998 and 2008 the population of this rarest goose within
the Flyway decreased by over 30% due to the loss of natural floodplain habitats
and illegal killing across their migratory routes. Climate change is also
altering their Arctic breeding grounds.
Another species, the Sociable lapwing has a population of less than 16,000 today.
These birds, named for their large congregations formed during migration
breed in loose colonies. They nest in steppe habitat, where the grass is kept
short by grazing animals.
Prior to 1960, the lapwings range included parts of
southwestern Russia and much of Sudan. Today this critically endangered species
faces threats across its life cycle and has disappeared from many places because
of illegal hunting at many sites and habitat loss from changed agricultural
practices. The flocks that once formed during migration are now greatly reduced
and the Lesser flamingos can be found in almost every sub-saharan African country
and along the Arabian Peninsula during the non-breeding season. But 75% of the
global population and nearly the entire African population breeds in Lake Natron
in Tanzania.
Disturbances to their specialized habitats such as changes in water
quality or water levels could have potentially devastating consequences for
the entire species
Information from across the Flyway for birds like the Curlew sandpiper
the Lesser white-fronted goose, the Sociable Lapwing, and the Lesser
flamingos exists because of international cooperation.
This information is translated into action at the local level where community members
work together with people from conservation and science to protect and
sustainably manage individual sites. In the African-Eurasian Flyway, AEWA joins
these local and regional partnerships with national governments and other
stakeholders under an international legal binding framework.
The critical sites in the Flyway have been identified. Information collected and made widely
available, like the data for these places means that countries can detect and
manage issues at specific sites in a species lifecycle.
With this coordination, birds and their environments
have the best chance of being protected across the flyway.
Southeast England, October. More than 60,000 Red-knot spend the winter at a
site known as "The Wash" after finishing their breeding seasons in Canada and Greenland.
The juveniles and adults feed alongside Eurasian oyster catchers in
the shallow waters.
Prior to their arrival in England a number of these
birds stopped in the Warden Sea World Heritage Site, off the coast of the
Netherlands, Germany, and Denmark.
There they joined other Red-knots, some of
which had arrived from the Russian Arctic.
The sea the largest system of
tidal flats in the world is a critical site for at least 40 different species of water birds.
Red-knots chased the tide; the mud here is filled with small
shellfish that the birds consume. Many Red-knots will winter here.
Those from the Russian Arctic will fatten up to prepare for the journey to the Banc d'Arguin
in Mauritania and the Bijagós Archipelago off the coast of Guinea Bissau.
The roughly 88 islands and islets of this UNESCO biosphere reserve are
home to a mix of habitats, including forests, savannas, mangroves, and
intertidal zones.
Red-knots join 94 other species of water birds at a place that has been protected
by the local community and conservation organizations. Together they are ensuring
the land remains as productive for wildlife and humans as it has for
thousands of years.
Water birds including Red Knots have evolved over millions of
years to navigate the hemispheres and to traverse them in unimaginable feats of endurance.
They are not equipped to cope with rapid change but they will remain
safe in places like the Bijagós Archipelago so long as these sites
remain actively protected by people.
The recent decline of water birds means that our shared ecosystems are
struggling and because our water, our air, and our birds are not bound by borders,
International Cooperation– a Flyway wide approach, is needed to create
conservation actions that will conserve our wetlands and our birds.
Providing healthy sites for birds means preserving and clean food, clean air, and fresh water
for the communities that live nearby. Countries and cultures along the African
Eurasian Flyway share a common responsibility to care for the sites
that we and migrating birds need to thrive.
Please join ongoing efforts to ensure the continued protection of our water
birds and the stepping stones we all call home.