The latest IUCN red list, 2008 represents a grim image of the avian fauna around the world-
BONN, Germany, May 20, 2008 (ENS) - One in eight of the world's bird species are at risk of extinction, and climate change is accelerating many of the factors that puts these birds at risk, according to the newly published 2008 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species of birds.
The list was presented Monday as a United Nations conference on biological diversity opened in Bonn.
Long-term drought and sudden extreme weather events are putting additional stress on the pockets of habitat that are important to many threatened bird species, the report shows. This, coupled with extensive and expanding habitat destruction, has led to an increase in the rate of extinction on continents and away from islands, where most historical extinction has occurred, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, or IUCN.
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The listing of the Spoon-billed sandpiper, Eurynorhynchus pygmeus, has been changed from Endangered to Critically Endangered. Fewer than 100 breeding pairs remain. (Photo by Chris Kelly courtesy BirdLife International) |
"This latest update of the IUCN Red List shows that birds are under enormous pressure from climate change," says Jane Smart, head of IUCN's Species Programme.
"The IUCN Red List is the global standard when it comes to measuring species loss so we urge governments to take the information contained in it seriously and do their level best to protect the world's birds," she said.
"Species are being hit by the double whammy of habitat loss and climate change," said Dr. Stuart Butchart of BirdLife International. "As populations become fragmented the effect of climate change can have an even greater impact, leading to an increased risk of local extinctions."
Of the 26 species that changed category owing to changes in population size, rate of decline or range size, 24 were listed to a higher level of threat.
Yet there is some good news in the report. Two species whose situations have improved are the Marquesan Imperial pigeon, Ducula galeata, and the little spotted kiwi, Apteryx owenii, both the beneficiaries of conservation.
Actions plans have resulted in the downlisting of both species to lower threat categories.
"This goes to show not only that conservation action works but that it is vital if we are to prevent the extinction of these and other species," says Dr. Butchart, BirdLife's global research and indicators coordinator.
Climate change is likely to figure more prominently in future Red List updates, says the IUCN.
For instance, the listing of the spoon-billed sandpiper, Eurynorhynchus pygmeus, has been changed from Endangered to Critically Endangered, owing to degradation of the tidal flats the species depends on in its migratory and wintering ranges.
The spoon-billed sandpiper has a naturally limited breeding range on the Chukotsk peninsula and southwards along the Kamchatka peninsula, in northeastern Russia. It migrates down the western Pacific coast to its main wintering grounds in India and southeast Asia.
Climate change and associated habitat shifts are expected to harm this species and others dependent on tundra habitat for breeding. Only an estimated 50 to 249 birds remain, and modeling indicates that 57 percent of the spoon-billed sandpiper's breeding habitat could be lost to climate change by 2070.
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Mallee emuwren, Stipiturus mallee (Photo by Tony Crittenden) |
In Australia, the Mallee emuwren, Stipiturus mallee, is undergoing a very rapid population decline, and its habitat is now so fragmented that a single bushfire could be catastrophic.
Years of drought, particularly in the southern and western parts of the species' range, have affected the health of the vegetation on which it relies and has almost led to the emuwren's extinction in South Australia, where the last significant population includes just 100 birds confined to 100 square kilometers.
In Papua New Guinea, deforestation caused by a rising demand for land for the cultivation of palm oil has led to species such as New Britain goshawk, Accipiter princeps, being uplisted to a higher threat category.
To combat the ever increasing threat of extinction to so many species, BirdLife has launched the Preventing Extinctions Programme, which targets all 190 Critically Endangered birds on the 2008 IUCN Red List. BirdLife finds "Species Champions" who will fund the work of nominated "Species Guardians" for each bird - organizations and people best placed to carry out the conservation work necessary to prevent the loss of these species.
The Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity that opened Monday in Bonn is the last formal international gathering where meaningful progress toward the achievement of the 2010 biodiversity target can be made, says the IUCN.
"We need to act now to stop the destruction of life on this planet," says Sebastian Winkler, head of IUCN's Countdown 2010. "Although governments have promised to save biodiversity by 2010, they will not achieve this target on their own."
The 2010 biodiversity target was first adopted by European heads of state at the EU Summit in Gothenburg in June 2001. They decided that "biodiversity decline should be halted with the aim of reaching this objective by 2010."
The 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg confirmed the 2010 biodiversity target and called for "the achievement by 2010 of a significant reduction in the current rate of loss of biological diversity."
"The problem of climate change and biodiversity loss requires precise and decisive action from delegates in Bonn," says IUCN Director General Julia Marton-Lefèvre. "We need sophisticated and uncompromised strategies to address these issues - the world expects nothing less."
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Science and nature reporter, BBC News
 Marquesan imperial-pigeon is a success story |
Climate change is "significantly amplifying" the threats facing the world's bird populations, a global assessment has concluded.
The 2008 IUCN Bird Red List warns that long-term droughts and extreme weather puts additional stress on key habitats.
The assessment lists 1,226 species as threatened with extinction - one-in-eight of all bird species.
The list, reviewed every four years, is compiled by conservation charity BirdLife International.
"It is very hard to precisely attribute particular changes in specific species to climate change," said Stuart Butchart, BirdLife's global research and indicators co-ordinator.
"But there is now a whole suite of species that are clearly becoming threatened by extreme weather events and droughts."
In the revised Red List, eight species have been added to the "critically endangered" category.
 | CRITICALLY ENDANGERED - NEW ADDITIONS Tristan albatross Spoon-billed sandpiper Tachira antpitta Reunion cuckooshrike Mariana crow Floreana mockingbird Akekee Gough bunting (Source: Bird Red List 2008 update) |
From an estimated maximum of 150 in the mid-1960s, the population has fallen to fewer than 60.
Conservationists listed the mockingbird as Critically Endangered because it experienced a high rate of adult mortality during dry years that have been linked to La Nina events.
Dry years have become more frequent in recent years, and have been blamed as the main driver of the current decline.
"Another threat for small island species, such as the Floreana mockingbird, is the threat from invasive species, in particular mammals and plants," Dr Butchart told BBC News.
"They are having a devastating effect on habitats. For example, goats and donkeys on Floreana are changing the ecological structure.
"Eliminating or controlling invasive species is a very tractable conservation action that can help these birds hang on in the face of these additional pressures from climate change.
 Floreana mockingbird now numbers fewer than 100 birds |
"The key actions that are needed to prevent a species like this from going extinct are the very broad-scale climate-change mitigation measures - such as reducing our carbon emissions, limiting the global average temperature rise to no more than 2C (3.6F), and changing society's values and lifestyles."
Dr Butchart said another example of a species being affected by shifts in the climate was the akekee (Loxops caeruleirostris), a Hawaiian honey-creeper.
"Not only is it being negatively impacted by prolonged heavy rain causing nesting failures, but they are extremely threatened by introduced diseases, which are carried by invasive mosquitoes.
"The mosquitoes have been restricted to lower altitudes, so the birds do best at heights above which the mosquitoes can go and pass on avian malaria.
"But because of climate change, the temperature zones are shifting. It is getting warmer at higher altitudes, so the mosquitoes can now move higher.
"This is eliminating the mosquito-free zone that the birds used to occupy."
 More continental species, such as the Eurasian curlew, are struggling |
As a result, Dr Butchart explained, this bird was also being uplisted to the status of Critically Endangered.
Despite the latest assessment showing a continuing downward trend in the world's bird populations, he said that conservationists were still optimistic that many species could be saved.
"It is undoubtedly true that we are facing an unprecedented conservation crisis but we do have conservation success stories that give us hope that not all threatened species are doomed.
"We have the solutions but what we need are the resources and political will."
BirdLife International has recently launched its Preventing Extinctions Programme, which targets the 190 species listed as Critically Endangered.
Its goal is to find a "species champion" for each bird, who will fund the on-the-ground conservation work of "species guardians".
"Success stories provide us with the great hope that this can be achieved, provided that we act soon enough."
 Hawaii's Maui parrotbill is another clinging on to existence |
One bird that has been downlisted from Critically Endangered to Endangered in the latest assessment is the Marquesan imperial-pigeon (Ducula galeata).
The main threat facing the bird came from rats, an invasive species.
In order to protect the population of the slow-breeding birds, conservationists moved 10 adults to a neighbouring rat-free island between 2000 and 2003.
The new community of pigeons is now established on the island, and conservationists are hopeful that the population will reach 50 by 2010.
"This has greatly reduced the extinction risk because the bird is now spread over a couple of islands," observed Dr Butchart.
"This goes to show not only that conservation works but that it is vital if we are to prevent the extinction of these and other species."
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Ominous news for India as well, as 88 species are under threat in India-
In danger: A Spoon-billed Sandpiper chick.
HYDERABAD: Presenting a depressing scenario of avian wealth, the much-awaited IUCN Red List 2008 released on Monday night features India prominently among the ten countries in the world having the largest number of threatened species of birds.
Brazil tops the list with 141 while India is ranked seventh with 88, reports the BirdLife International, the Cambridge based global alliance of conservation organisations and an authority for the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
Of the 88 threatened species in India that includes migratory, 13 are categorised as Critically Endangered (facing an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild), 10 as Endangered (facing a very high risk of extinction in the wild) and the remaining as Vulnerable (facing high risk of extinction in the wild). Two of the species, Baer’s Pochard (Aythya baeri) and Spoon-billed Sandpiper (Eurynorhynchus pygmeus), have been uplisted, from Vulnerable to Endangered and from Endangered to Critically Endangered respectively.
The decline of the Pochard’s population was traced to wetland destruction while that of charismatic Sandpiper’s to habitat loss in its breeding, passage and wintering grounds and effects of climate change. The other Critically Endangered species include Himalayan Quail (Ophrysia superciliosa), Pink-headed duck (Rhodonessa caryophyllacea), White- bellied heron (Ardea insignis), Jerdon’s Courser (Rhinoptilus bitorquatus), Siberian Crane (Grus leucogeranus) and four species of vultures.
Elsewhere, the 2008 Red List makes grim reading with 1,226 species of bird in the world now threatened and eight species newly uplisted to Critically Endangered, the highest threat category. Of the 26 species that changed category owing to changes in their population size, rate of decline or range size, 24 were uplisted to a higher level of threat. These include continental species like Eurasian Curlew (Numenius arquata) and Dartford Warbler (Sylvia undata), both previously of Least Concern, and now regarded as Near Threatened in a global context.
BirdLife International says climate change has become firmly established as an accelerant to many of the factors which have put one in eight of the world’s birds at risk of extinction. Long- term drought and sudden extreme weather are putting additional stress on the pockets of habitat that many threatened species depend on.
In Australia, Malleee Emuwren (Stipiturus mallee) is undergoing a very rapid population decline (100 birds confined to 100 km stretch) and its habitat is now so fragmented that a single bushfire could be catastrophic.
In Galapagos Islands, Floreana Mockingbird (Nesomimus trifasciatus) is confined to two islets off Floreana. Its population has declined from an estimated maximum of 150 individuals in 1966 to fewer than 60.
Yet there is some good news. Two species whose situation has improved are Marquesan Imperial- pigeon (Ducula galeata) and Little Spotted Kiwi (Apteryx owenii), both beneficiaries of conservation. Action plans put in place have resulted in the downlisting to lower threat categories. “This goes to show not only that conservation action works but that it is vital if we are to prevent the extinction of these and other species,” said Dr. Stuart Butchart, BirdLife’s Global Research and Indicators Coordinator. “Species are being hit by the double whammy of habitat loss and climate change. As populations become fragmented the effect of climate change can have even greater impact, leading to an increased risk of local extinctions,” he added.
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Climate change is becoming a serious threat now. No matter how much we usually want to play down this phenomenon, the fact is that it is actually happening. We can't bury our heads in the ground like an Ostrich. Its all happening right infront of us.
Today only, my father told me "you know what? I have not seen so much rain in the month of May in Delhi in my entire lifetime!", needless to say, my concerns about this untimely rainy weather were not unfounded.
My father is above 50 y/o. Isn't that alarming enough? This piece of personal information is proof enough for the fact that climate is going berserk. Temperatures in Delhi dropped to 20 deg C! I suffered a headache as my body could not understand the sudden fall in temperatures. The rain still hasn't stopped, and with the consistency it has rained, it hardly looks like a result of squally weather. Its way past the squall now, it IS looking like monsoon rainfall, that slow and steady drizzle, increasing in volume sometimes, with blanket like nimbus clouds covering the sky. Monsoon-like weather in the month of May?!!
This is disturbing me now. I usually love rainy weather, i enjoy the sound of thunder and rain. But right now my is reacting to it. I cant take this change in the weather system, my body was ready for the heat, but suddenly it went cold! This not good at all. So many questions are cropping up in my mind now- has the monsoon changed it's timing? then what about winter? will it come sooner too? what about the crops which were due to harvest at this time round? how will the growing food demand be met if the crop gets destroyed by these freak rains?
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