World's birds under threat
2004-03-08 13:35
Johannesburg - One in eight of the world's birds face extinction, fuelled by unchecked agricultural expansion and unsustainable forestry, especially in the tropics, according to a new report by Birdlife International.
The State of the World's Birds 2004 said the alarming statistics showed that "our global environment is under serious strain with a massive and still increasing haemorrhage of biodiversity".
It said one in eight of the world's birds - or 1 211 species - face extinction. Of these, 179 species are critically endangered, 344 face very high risk of extinction and 688 are listed as vulnerable.
The report said threatened species were not evenly distributed among bird families with particularly high proportions among species of albatrosses (95%), cranes (60%), parrots (29%), pheasants (26%) and pigeons (23%).
It said 966 species of globally threatened birds had populations of less than 10 000, while 502 species had populations less than 2 500. About 77 species had populations lower than 50.
The study said nearly all the world's countries and territories hosted one or more globally threatened bird species.
But it said some regions held particularly high densities of threatened species such as the tropical Andes, Atlantic forests of Brazil, the eastern Himalayas, eastern Madagascar and the archipelagos of south-eastern Asia.
BirdLife International, a worldwide alliance of conservation groups, released the report to coincide with the start of an international conference, which began on Sunday in Durban.
The report said uncontrolled farming had played havoc with biodiversity and could ring the death knell for many bird species.
"Brazil alone has over 20 000 square kilometres of coffee plantation, most of it having replaced primary rainforest. In Indonesia, coffee planting is responsible for massive forest loss, even in protected areas."
Of the 7 500 sites in nearly 170 countries identified as important bird areas - Africa fared badly.
Birdlife said habitat clearance for agriculture threatened more than 50% of the important bird areas in the world, with shifting agriculture adding pressure.
Europe also fared badly on this count with the report blaming agricultural expansion for threatening 32% of the estimated 4 000-odd important bird areas there.
Other factors exacerbating the problem were pollution, forest fires, climate change and trading in birds, Birdlife said.
The study called for co-ordinating environmental actions across nations, and setting up local groups to protect bird species from dying out.