Warmer Climate Hurting Birds New IUCN Red List Shows

The list was presented Monday as a United Nations conference on biological diversity opened in Bonn.

Long-term drought and sudden extreme weather events are putting additional stress on the pockets of habitat that are important to many threatened bird species, the report shows. This, coupled with extensive and expanding habitat destruction, has led to an increase in the rate of extinction on continents and away from islands, where most historical extinction has occurred, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, or IUCN.

The listing of the Spoon-billed sandpiper, Eurynorhynchus pygmeus, has been changed from Endangered to Critically Endangered. Fewer than 100 breeding pairs remain. (Photo by Chris Kelly courtesy BirdLife International)

"This latest update of the IUCN Red List shows that birds are under enormous pressure from climate change," says Jane Smart, head of IUCN's Species Programme.

"The IUCN Red List is the global standard when it comes to measuring species loss so we urge governments to take the information contained in it seriously and do their level best to protect the world's birds," she said.

"Species are being hit by the double whammy of habitat loss and climate change," said Dr. Stuart Butchart of BirdLife International. "As populations become fragmented the effect of climate change can have an even greater impact, leading to an increased risk of local extinctions."

Of the 26 species that changed category owing to changes in population size, rate of decline or range size, 24 were listed to a higher level of threat.

Yet there is some good news in the report. Two species whose situations have improved are the Marquesan Imperial pigeon, Ducula galeata, and the little spotted kiwi, Apteryx owenii, both the beneficiaries of conservation.

Actions plans have resulted in the downlisting of both species to lower threat categories.

"This goes to show not only that conservation action works but that it is vital if we are to prevent the extinction of these and other species," says Dr. Butchart, BirdLife's global research and indicators coordinator.

Climate change is likely to figure more prominently in future Red List updates, says the IUCN.

For instance, the listing of the spoon-billed sandpiper, Eurynorhynchus pygmeus, has been changed from Endangered to Critically Endangered, owing to degradation of the tidal flats the species depends on in its migratory and wintering ranges.

The spoon-billed sandpiper has a naturally limited breeding range on the Chukotsk peninsula and southwards along the Kamchatka peninsula, in northeastern Russia. It migrates down the western Pacific coast to its main wintering grounds in India and southeast Asia.

Climate change and associated habitat shifts are expected to harm this species and others dependent on tundra habitat for breeding. Only an estimated 50 to 249 birds remain, and modeling indicates that 57 percent of the spoon-billed sandpiper's breeding habitat could be lost to climate change by 2070.

Mallee emuwren, Stipiturus mallee (Photo by Tony Crittenden)

In Australia, the Mallee emuwren, Stipiturus mallee, is undergoing a very rapid population decline, and its habitat is now so fragmented that a single bushfire could be catastrophic.

Years of drought, particularly in the southern and western parts of the species' range, have affected the health of the vegetation on which it relies and has almost led to the emuwren's extinction in South Australia, where the last significant population includes just 100 birds confined to 100 square kilometers.

In Papua New Guinea, deforestation caused by a rising demand for land for the cultivation of palm oil has led to species such as New Britain goshawk, Accipiter princeps, being uplisted to a higher threat category.

To combat the ever increasing threat of extinction to so many species, BirdLife has launched the Preventing Extinctions Programme, which targets all 190 Critically Endangered birds on the 2008 IUCN Red List. BirdLife finds "Species Champions" who will fund the work of nominated "Species Guardians" for each bird - organizations and people best placed to carry out the conservation work necessary to prevent the loss of these species.

The Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity that opened Monday in Bonn is the last formal international gathering where meaningful progress toward the achievement of the 2010 biodiversity target can be made, says the IUCN.

"We need to act now to stop the destruction of life on this planet," says Sebastian Winkler, head of IUCN's Countdown 2010. "Although governments have promised to save biodiversity by 2010, they will not achieve this target on their own."

The 2010 biodiversity target was first adopted by European heads of state at the EU Summit in Gothenburg in June 2001. They decided that "biodiversity decline should be halted with the aim of reaching this objective by 2010."

The 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg confirmed the 2010 biodiversity target and called for "the achievement by 2010 of a significant reduction in the current rate of loss of biological diversity."

"The problem of climate change and biodiversity loss requires precise and decisive action from delegates in Bonn," says IUCN Director General Julia Marton-Lefèvre. "We need sophisticated and uncompromised strategies to address these issues - the world expects nothing less."

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