Common Birds in Decline, Signal Biodiversity Crisis
US: September 23, 2008
WASHINGTON - Many of the world's most common birds suffered steep population
drops over recent decades, a sign of a deteriorating global environment and
a biodiversity crisis, BirdLife International said on Monday.
"Birds provide an accurate and easy-to-read environmental barometer,
allowing us to see clearly the pressures our current way of life are putting
on the world's biodiversity," said Mike Rands, chief executive of the
alliance of conservation groups.
Threats to bird populations include intensified industrial-scale agriculture
and fishing, the spread of invasive species, logging and the replacement of
natural forest with monoculture plantations, the group said in a report
released in Buenos Aires.
However, Rands said that over the long term, climate change may pose the
most serious stress on birds.
Regarding specific regions of the world, BirdLife said:
-- in Europe, 45 percent of common birds are declining;
-- in Australia, resident wading birds have seen population losses of 81
percent in the last quarter century;
-- in North America, 20 common birds' populations have been halved over the
last 40 years;
-- in Latin America, the once-common yellow cardinal is now classified as
globally endangered;
-- in Asia, populations of white-rumped vultures that numbered in the
millions 16 years ago have crashed by 99.9 percent;
-- in the Middle East, birds like the Eurasian eagle owl are believed to be
vanishing from forests.
The world's governments have committed to slowing the loss of biodiversity
by 2010, but "reluctance to commit what are often trivial sums in terms of
national budgets means that this target is almost certain to be missed," the
report said.
More information is available online at birdlife.org/sowb. (Editing by
Patricia Zengerle)
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
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