Wetlands International

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Wetlands International
Recent developments within Wetlands International
databases.
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Wetlands International
Recent developments within Wetlands International
databases.
Lieuwe Haanstra Alterra - Wageningen University
and Research Center seconded to Wetlands
International Wageningen The Netherlands
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Wetlands International
Wetlands International - new structure

• Global organisation
• 1 global governing structure (was 4)
• Board of Members (countries, SGs and
  Partners) is deciding body
• Board of Directors (25 people from around the
  world) as daily governance

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Wetlands International
Wetlands International - new structure

• All offices directly under International
  director
• All offices follow same strategy document (will
  be published in June 2002
• Program Action Plans (2003-2005)
• Species Conservation
• Wetland Inventory
• Wise Use
• Capacity Building
• Non Waterbirds (in preparation)

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Wetlands International
Scientific support by Specialist Groups.

• Specialist Groups covering waterbird taxa ( 15
  such as Wader Study Group, Goose SG, Duck SG,
  Heron SG, Diver/Loon SG, Seaduck SG, etc.)
• Thematic groups on wetlands and wetland and
  waterbird issues ( 6 such as Wetland
  Inventory Monitoring, Education Public
  Awareness, Wetland Restoration, etc.)

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Wetlands International
Global Waterbird Strategy 1. Develop and
maintain knowledge of the status of all global
waterbird populations 2. Develop and maintain
global waterbird population benchmarks 3.
Disseminate effectively data on waterbird
populations, status, threats and trends 4.
Enhance the conservation and management of
waterbirds through the development and
implementation of action plans 5. Promote
further development and implementation of flyway
agreements, strategies and site networks 6.
Undertake preparatory actions to assess and
publish the status of knowledge about freshwater
fish 7. Develop wise use tools for waterbirds and
other taxa
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Wetlands species conservation and monitoring
Objective 1 Develop and maintain knowledge of
the status of all global waterbird
populations

• 2002
• Finalise Global Waterbird Monitoring
  institutions (Advisory Committee etc.)
• Finalise and implement new data-base system
• Input from SGs on improving the coverage
  (sea-ducks etc.)
• 2003
• Develop Internet applications for waterbird
  related activities
• Add single waterbird counts to database (grey
  literature)
• Gap-filling census to be further developed

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Wetlands species conservation and monitoring
Objective 2 Develop and maintain global
waterbird population benchmarks

• 2002
• Publish Waterbird Population Estimates 3
• Prepare for Waterbird Population Estimates 4 in
  electronic format via internet
• 2003
• Develop stronger links between International
  Waterbird Census and Waterbird Population
  Estimates

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Wetlands species conservation and monitoring
Objective 3 Disseminate effectively data on
waterbird populations, status, threats
and trends

• 2002
• Conservation status report for AEWA/MOP2
• Publish IWC Europe/SW Asia 1997-1999 report
• 2003
• Presentation of summarized IWC data on the web
• AEWA/GEF establish links with other data-sets
• Publish report with trend analyses with IWC data
• Focussed species group publications (trends,
  status) in journals with SG members
• 2004/2005
• Report climate change and wintering waterbird
  distribution
• 2005 publish global atlas waterbird ringing
  recoveries

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Wetlands species conservation and monitoring
Objective 4 Enhance the conservation and
management of waterbirds through the
development and implementation of
action plans

• 2002
• Update of AEWA Action and Implementation Plan
• Number of regional waterbird species plans
  (Ruddy Duck White Headed Duck)
• 2003 Start preparations for a conference to
  update on damage issues (agriculture, fisheries
  etc.)
• 2004 Prepare an overview of status and
  conservation needs of nomadic waterbird species

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Wetlands species conservation and monitoring
Objective 5Promote further development and
implementation of flyway agreements,
strategies and site networks.

• 2002
• CAIF meeting at CMS/COP7 Action Plan
  development
• Final draft for American Pacific Flyway Program
• Implementation of the Asia Pacific Strategy
• Submission full AEWA/GEF project
• 2003
• Global Flyway Conference preparations (
  involvement SGs)
• 2004
• Global Flyway Conference and proceedings
  published

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Wetlands species conservation and monitoring
Objective 6 Undertake preparatory actions to
assess and publish the status of
knowledge about freshwater fish.

• 2002
• Establish network of experts and institutes
  involved
• 2003
• Develop draft work program organize workshop

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Wetlands species conservation and monitoring
Objective 7 Develop wise use tools for
waterbirds and other taxa.

• 2002
• Development of waterbird indicators for EU
• Development joint workplan WI and CMS Convention
  (including AEWA)
• 2003
• Publish draft of Global Overview Waterbird
  Harvest
• Develop discussion document on WI involvement in
  other taxa
• 2004
• Prepare for update lead shot report

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Wetlands International
International Waterbird Census
Finalise and implement new data-base system
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Wetlands International - IWC
International Waterbird Census
Annual site based counting of waterbirds around
January 15th and around July 15th (sub-Saharan
Africa only)

• Holding (mainly) data from mid-winter
  waterbird census
• Organized since 1967 by Wetlands International
• Longest running continental scale waterbird
  monitoring programme in the world
• Western Palearctic and Middle East - 11,000
  volunteers in 47 countries

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Wetlands International - IWC
Waterbird censuses co-ordinated by Wetlands
International offices

• Western Palearctic and Middle East (Wageningen)
• Remaining part of Asia (Kuala Lumpur)
• Australia and Pacific (Canberra)
• Sub-Saharan Africa (Dakar)
• Neotropics (Buenos Aires)

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Wetlands International - IWC
Coverage IWC censuses
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Wetlands International - IWC

• New database system
• Change to widely available system (eg.
  MS-Access)
• Fully pre-programmed for uniform data handling
  (in Visual Basic)
• Fitting to the needs of all censuses
• Amalgamated data forms global database

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Wetlands International - IWC
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Wetlands International - IWC
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Wetlands International - IWC
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Wetlands International - IWC
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Wetlands International - IWC
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Wetlands International - IWC
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Wetlands International - IWC
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Wetlands International - IWC
Common Coot (Fulica atra) 1997-1999
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Wetlands International - IWC
Global International Waterbird Database

• Primary aims
• Estimate population sizes of waterbird species
• Describe changes in numbers and distributions

• Secondary aims
• Access the importance of waterbirds in global
  perspective
• Contribute to the conservation of waterbirds and
  wetlands

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Wetlands International - IWC
Towards more integration / exchangeability

• Integration Wetlands International databases
• Other databases
• North America (USGS - Patuxent)
• Caribbean (with USGS - Patuxent)
• BirdLife - Europe
• ???