State of the World’s Birds Report

In News

• The State of the World’s Birds, which is an annual review of environmental resources, has been released recently.

About

• State of the World’s Birds is BirdLife International’s flagship science publication, using birds to assess the condition of our ecosystems as a whole.
• The study draws from BirdLife International’s latest assessment of all birds for the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s data.
• The report was conducted by Manchester Metropolitan University which gives an overview of the changes in the knowledge of avian biodiversity and associated threats.

Important Findings

• Declining trend: 
  • The population of 48% of the approximately 11000 surviving species of birds across the world is declining.
    • Currently, 13.5% of species are threatened with global extinction.
    • 798 species out of which are classified as vulnerable
    • 460 species are classified as endangered
    • 223 species are classified as critically endangered
    • Around 73% of species were estimated to have fewer than 10,000 mature individuals.
• Latitudinal variations:
  • The proportion of highly threatened species was found more in tropical latitudes comprising 86.4 percent. While the number was 31.7 percent in case of temperate latitudes.
  • Reason behind it is that most of the biodiversity hotspots are concentrated in the tropical region.
  • Examples: Andes, southeast Brazil, eastern Himalayas, eastern Madagascar, and Southeast Asian islands.
• India:
  • The trend toward declining bird diversity is just as alarming in India, where recent annual trends have been calculated for 146 species.
    • Of these, nearly 80% are declining in numbers, and almost 50% plummeting strongly.
    • Just over 6% of the species studied show stable populations and 14% show increasing population trends.

Importance of Avian species in the ecosystem

• Avian species have significant contributions towards ecosystem services both directly and indirectly benefiting human beings.
• Multiple functional roles: The services include provisioning, regulating, cultural, and supporting services towards the ecosystem. Various functional roles:
  • Pollinators
  • Seed-dispersers
  • Ecosystem engineers
  • Scavengers 
  • Predators
• Sustainable agriculture: They not only contribute to biodiversity but also support anthropogenic activities like sustainable agriculture through polinations, preying on rodents and pests.
• Pest management: They help in pest control which helps humans in agriculture and keeps the biodiversity balanced.
• Source of food: They are an important source of food as well (meat, eggs).
• Aesthetic value: They have cultural and aesthetic value which contributes to the beauty of nature. Birdwatching is a global pastime practiced by millions of people. They are taken as pets too.
• Bird-feeding industry is valued at $5-6 billion per year and growing by four per cent annually which provides a significant level of employment.

Threats to the avian species

• Growing human footprint: Increasing human population has led to degradation of the natural habitats of the birds for want of more urban living spaces thus leading to loss of biodiversity.
• Plantation disguised as afforestation: Though there has been an increase in the tree covers in many regions but the nature of the newly planted trees has been non-native therefore being detrimental to many bird habitats.
• Hunting and trapping: Many birds are hunted for their ornamental motifs like feathers, nails etc in addition to being hunted for food globally.
• Impact of invasive alien species and disease: It has been estimated that approximately 1000 alien bird species introduced accidentally or deliberately across the world over the centuries have affected the native species significantly.
• Infrastructure development in pursuit of human growth has led to fragmentation and destruction of birds’ habitats across the globe.
• Agrochemical and pharmaceutical usage: millions of birds die every year because of pesticide ingestion. Example: Diclofenac has caused deaths of vultures in India.
• Global teleconnections: the rays from cell phone towers are damaging to the biological system of the birds, they also lead to thinning of the egg’s shell.
• Climate change: The last century has seen many species getting extinct and many more getting into the list of ‘critically endangered’, this has been due to pronounced change in the climatic conditions because of anthropogenic activities.

Measures to control the avian biodiversity loss

• Restoring natural habitats: Sustainable expansion of human footprint along with inputs from conservation social sciences (which streamlines various disciplines to achieve sustainable conservation outcomes) can help arrest the dwindling number of birds specie
• Accelerated afforestation and arresting deforestation: Worldwide Fund for Nature and the Wildlife Conservation Society, BirdLife is working on a scheme that will see one trillion trees re-grown, saved or be better protected by 2050.
• Tackling illegal hunting and poaching: Provisions of CITES and CMS should be adopted under domestic laws to stop illicit trade and poaching of the species.
• Captive breeding and reintroducing the species which are near extinction and critically endangered.
• Sustainable development: Human needs should be reconciled with nature. The anthropogenic development should be made sustainable with other creatures of nature.