Help us save endangered species
The IUCN Red List is the most comprehensive, objective global record of the conservation status of plant and animal species. This year’s update includes several positive stories for birds, such as the Montserrat Oriole and St Helena Plover – both formerly listed as Critically Endangered, but now “downlisted” to Vulnerable as their populations recover thanks to the work of the BirdLife Partnership. What’s more, BirdLife’s new taxonomy has added 742 newly recognised species to the list of the world’s birds, which brings the total number of recognised species to over 11,000 for the first time!
Sadly it’s not all good news.
We can also see that the illegal wildlife trade continues to have a detrimental effect on birds, with Asian species like the Rufous-fronted Laughingthrush and Scarlet-breasted Lorikeet now facing extinction due to unsustainable trapping and habitat loss. This trade has also been devastating for the African Grey Parrot, which is now “uplisted” from Vulnerable to Endangered after a rapid decline.
But BirdLife won’t stop working to try to turn these statistics around.
We know it won’t be easy and will take time, but it can be done. The Azores Bullfinch is a perfect example. The species, which occurs only on the island of São Miguel, has slowly recovered thanks to successful conservation work by BirdLife and our Portuguese Partner, SPEA. Efforts to restore the bullfinch’s native habitat, by removing invasive non-native vegetation and replanting more than 150,000 native tree saplings, have provided sustainable ecotourism and employment, benefiting the native islanders’ livelihoods. And the result? Having already been downlisted from Critically Endangered to Endangered in 2010, the bullfinch has now been downlisted to Vulnerable, with a slowly growing population of over 1,300 birds – a substantial increase from the 200 estimated in 2002.
Help BirdLife by supporting our Red List Appeal so we can help save more threatened birds around the globe.
Your contribution will allow us to scale up our work to protect threatened species around the globe, and provide a brighter future for birds, nature and local people. In 2017, we will step up our efforts to combat the unsustainable trade in wild-caught birds, especially in South East Asia; continue our efforts to turn around the disastrous decline in vultures, and hope for rapid results in our work to improve the fortunes of endemic island birds of French Polynesia, the Chinese Crested Tern of East Asia, the Giant and White-shouldered ibises of Cambodia and the Hooded Grebe of Argentina.