Alert for Asia's threatened birds

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3271733.stm

 

Saturday, 15 November, 2003, 13:17 GMT

 

Alert for Asia's threatened birds

 

By Alex Kirby

BBC News Online environment correspondent

 

In a clarion call to save hundreds of Asian bird

species from extinction, ornithologists have launched

a crisis guide to the threats the animals face.

It reveals logging and plantations as the greatest

dangers to bird survival.

 

The number of species at risk is 324 - this is about

12% of all Asian birds. Scientists say there may be no

hope even now for 11 of the species.

 

The guide is published by BirdLife International, a

global network of conservation groups in 100

countries.

 

Avian treasures

 

Financial support for the guide came from the Critical

Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF), which combines

Conservation International, the Global Environment

Facility, the Japanese government, the World Bank and

a private US charitable foundation.

 

CEPF has provided more than $29m to 180 conservation

projects in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

 

Launching the guide, Saving Asia's Threatened Birds,

Princess Takamado of Japan said: " Asia is blessed with

a uniquely varied and abundant number of bird species:

treasures we are in danger of losing.

 

" Now, as environmental issues grow into global

concerns, it is imperative that we act with

intelligent integrity. "

 

The guide says the 41 Asian birds classified as

critically endangered by IUCN-The World Conservation

Union " already teeter on the brink of extinction " .

 

Those thought possibly extinct include the Javanese

lapwing of Indonesia and the pink-headed duck, a

native of India and Burma.

 

The Bali starling is one of six species now reduced to

fewer than 50 mature individuals in the wild, a level

which reinforces concern for their chances of

survival.

 

Forest importance

 

BirdLife says a major priority should be more than 100

sites which are critically important for globally

threatened birds and yet remain unprotected.

 

Two of the most important are the small Indonesian

island of Sangihe, and the Siburan forest on the

Philippine island of Mindoro.

 

Sangihe has three critically endangered species,

including the caerulean paradise flycatcher, found

only in one very small unprotected forest.

 

Siburan is the main home of the critically endangered

Mindoro bleeding-heart, a type of pigeon.

 

Asia's most important bird habitat, the guide says, is

tropical lowland moist forest, which holds more than

half the continent's threatened birds.

 

It says: " Commercial logging, clear-felling for paper

production and plantation establishment are the

biggest threats to Asia's birds. "

 

Concentrated effort

 

Indonesia, with 117 globally threatened species, has

more than any other Asian country, with China next at

78. India has 73 species and the Philippines 70.

 

The second largest threat, BirdLife says, is the

disturbance or destruction of wetlands, home to

species like the Siberian crane and black-faced

spoonbill.

 

Migratory species like the spoon-billed sandpiper and

the spotted greenshank also depend on wetlands, and

are threatened as well by large land reclamation

projects, especially along the coast of the Yellow Sea

of Korea and China.

 

Other significant threats include hunting for food and

for the pet trade. The guide lists what ornithologists

believe is needed to ensure the survival of each

species in 33 priority habitat regions.

 

BirdLife says it is best to concentrate efforts on

these threatened habitats because often saving one of

them will benefit several distinct species.

 

Recommendations in the guide include protecting

wetlands on migratory flyways, including the

demilitarized zone between North and South Korea,

which it says should become a transboundary peace

park.

 

It also urges conserving the remaining lowland

tropical forests of Malaysia and western Indonesia,

protecting key sites in the Philippines and eastern

Indonesia, and better implementation of the UN's

Convention on International Trade in Endangered

Species (Cites).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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