|
||||||
|
||||||
|
 |
|
||||||
|
|||||||
English summary
Background and objective
As part of the implementation of the EEC Birds Directive of 1979, Denmark designated 111 Special Protection Areas (SPA) in 1983 to protect wild birds and their habitats. Together with Special Areas of Conservation (designated in accordance with the EEC Habitats Directive) and areas designated under the terms of the Ramsar Convention, the SPAs form the mainstay of the NATURA 2000 network in Denmark.
The EU member states are obliged to report the conservation status of species and habitats in the NATURA 2000 network to the Community. To comply with these requirements, the National Forest and Nature Agency, the Danish county authorities and the National Environmental Research Institute have initiated a co-operative programme to gather and compile the necessary data to assess the conservation status of species and habitats concerned. The evaluation of conservation status for species and habitats under the EEC Habitats Directive is presented in Pihl et al. (2000). The objective of this report is to present the conservation status of bird species on Annex 1 of the Birds Directive that breed in Denmark and/or regularly occur as migrants based on the current level of information about their numbers and distribution. This report deals with 42 species of birds on the Annex I of the Birds Directive which more or less regularly breed in Denmark. These species include those proposed for Annex I by the new member states of the EU. The report also deals with 37 regularly occurring migrating bird species or populations, which are regularly recorded, in internationally important numbers on migration or wintering in Denmark. Internationally important numbers are defined as concentrations of birds meeting the criteria for internationally important sites as given by the Ramsar Convention.Conservation status for birds
The conservation status is defined in the Habitats Directive as the result of all conditions that influence a given species and which in the long term are of significance to numbers and distribution of the species. The conservation status of a species is considered favourable if data relating to the population show that it is likely to survive in the long term, the distribution is stable or increasing and the habitats of the species are considered to be sufficient to enable the species to survive in the long term.
However, there are various circumstances that might lead to a favourable assessment of conservation status in a regularly recurring migrating species even though the numbers or the distribution are 10 declining. Natural changes happen over time and some species (e.g. Scaup and Goosander) currently stable or increasing at the population level, occur in smaller numbers than in the period 1979-1983 when the Birds Directive was implemented in Denmark. If it is most likely that the decreases in Danish waters are the result of increased feeding opportunities elsewhere (rather than decreased feeding opportunities in Danish waters) the assessment would be that the species might still be classified as being of favourable conservation status. There is a long tradition of monitoring birds in Denmark. Waterbirds have been surveyed regularly since the middle of the 1960s by governmental institutions and the Danish Ornithological Society has monitored the distribution of the breeding birds in Denmark twice through Atlas programmes and for the last five years also of the numbers and locations of rare breeding birds. On this basis the data for assessment of the conservation status of the bird species covered by the Birds Directive are considered sufficient. The conservation status of individual populations has been designated according to the following categories: Favourable, unfavourable, uncertain and disappeared. The category unfavourable is further divided in unfavourable-increasing, unfavourable-stable and unfavourable-decreasing.Conservation status of breeding birds
The results of the evaluation of the conservation status of breeding birds are: Favourable conservation status: 17 species. Unfavourable conservation status: 14 species,
- - unfavourable-increasing 1 species: Corncrake,
-
- unfavourable-stable 2 species: Montagu's Harrier and Wood
Sandpiper,
- - unfavourable-decreasing 11 species: White Stork, Spotted Rail,
Golden Plover, Dunlin, Ruff, Gull-billed Tern, Sandwich Tern,
Little Tern, Black Tern, Short-eared Owl and Tawny Pipit.
Conservation status for regularly recurring migrating birds
Favourable conservation status: 32 species and subspecies and 1 population*. The Bean Goose population wintering in south-eastern Denmark and considered in favourable conservation status is probably discrete from the birds wintering in north-western Denmark.
Unfavourable conservation status: 2 species and subspecies including Light-bellied Brent Goose are considered as unfavourable-increasing and the Eider as unfavourable-decreasing. Uncertain conservation status: 1 species and 1 population. Velvet Scoter is considered of uncertain status, as is the Bean Goose population wintering in north-west Denmark, which is probably discrete from other Bean Goose populations.* This population together with the population mentioned in the Uncertain category constitute one species
|
Full report in pdf. format (832 KB) |
