Climate change and migratory species

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Convention on Migratory Species Secretariat released Migratory Species and Climate Change: Impacts of a Changing Environment on Wild Animals at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Nairobi earlier this month. UNEP and CMS argue that conserving and more sustainably managing biodiversity in a climatically- changed world is of the highest economic importance and important in the fight against poverty. The report says that around a fifth of the bird species listed under the Convention could be affected by rising sea levels, erosion and greater wave action linked with climate change.

Meanwhile, Wetlands International has launched Wings Over Wetlands: The African-Eurasian Flyways Project, to improve the conservation of African-Eurasian migratory waterbirds through implementing measures to conserve the critical network of sites that these birds require to complete their annual cycle. The project area covers entire African-Eurasian area as defined in the African Eurasian Waterbird Agreement (AEWA). This includes all of Africa, all of Europe, south-west Asia (including the Middle East and the Central Asian states), Greenland and the Canadian Archipelago.

The Okavango Delta is the seasonal home of many migratory bird species.