Conservation project reduces threat to Northern Bald Ibis
BirdLife International is the official institution responsible for classifying birds on the global Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). BirdLife International has presented the updated Red List. Prominently featured are interim successes in the protection of the Pink Pigeon on Mauritius, the primeval-looking Northern Bald Ibis in Morocco, and several other species. However, many other species have had to be moved into a higher threat category
BirdLife International has presented the updated Red List. Prominently featured are interim successes in the protection of the Pink Pigeon on Mauritius, the primeval-looking Northern Bald Ibis in Morocco, and several other species. However, many other species have had to be moved into a higher threat category.
«Targeted conservation measures can help species recover, but the overall trend is negative and shows that more effort is still needed,» says Dr Stuart Butchart of BirdLife International.
Interim success in the Moroccan Northern Bald Ibis project
The ancient-looking Northern Bald Ibis has been on the brink of extinction for decades. The Northern Bald Ibis was once common in Switzerland too, but it became a popular target for recreational hunters. After the species disappeared from Syria, the only remaining wild population in the world is a small one in Morocco.
In 1994, BirdLife partners and Morocco’s «High Commission for Water, Forests and Combating Desertification» launched a project in support of the species. Since 2013, BirdLife Switzerland has provided financial support to the project. In recent years, the population has counted more than 120 pairs each year, even reaching a peak of 147 pairs.
Still threatened worldwide
«The Northern Bald Ibis remains threatened worldwide and conservation efforts in Morocco must not let up in the slightest. But the steady increase over 20 years shows that the Moroccan authorities are taking the protection of the species seriously,» says Dr Raffael Ayé of BirdLife Switzerland. More on Biodiversity and on Wildlife.
More on the subject of recreational hunting: In our dossiers on recreational hunting gather fact-checks, analyses and background reports. What the research says about this is shown by Hunting fact-checked: the state of research.
The position of IG Wild beim Wild: IG Wild beim Wild rejects recreational hunting. Our model is the canton of Geneva, which has managed without recreational hunting since 1974: without hunting seasons, without hunting dogs, without driven hunts, without high seats, without the animal cruelty and crime that go hand in hand with hunting season elsewhere. What has worked there for over fifty years disproves every position paper by JagdSchweiz. An association that bases its policy on claims it refutes in its own documents is not a professional organisation, but a factory for misinformation.
