European conservation works: Research reveals successes of EU Birds Directive
News from BirdLife International
10-08-2007
European conservation works: Research reveals successes of EU Birds Directive
The renowned journal Science has published a BirdLife International [1] analysis showing that the European Union’s Birds Directive [2] has made a significant difference in protecting many of the continent’s most threatened birds from further decline. [3]
The groundbreaking paper shows that the Birds Directive has clearly helped those species considered to be most at risk, partly through the designation of Special Protection Areas (SPAs). The Birds Directive was adopted in 1979 and now binding law for all EU countries, it requires special conservation measures for a number of listed species.
Importantly, today’s research, taking into account the fifteen Member States for which sufficient data were available, showed that the populations of threatened birds not only fared better, on average, than other bird species in the European Union, but also that the same species perform better within the EU than in European countries outside. [4].
http://www.birdlife.org/news/pr/2007/08/science_paper.html
