The Bern Convention is focusing its attention on the conservation of the Osprey. In a meeting in Paris on 28th June experts finalised a European Action Plan for the species that, it is hoped, will make governments more pro-active in the protection and re-introduction of this formidable bird. The Osprey is a fishing raptor that went extinct in 15 European states due to killing by people. Natural recovery of breeding populations is difficult because young ospreys, after migrating to Africa, come back only to the place where they started flying, so they do not spontaneously colonise regions with favourable habitat from which they disappeared. The species can be helped by the building of artificial nests and also by the translocation of young ospreys from Northern Europe, where they are abundant, to Southern Europe a technique that has been tried successfully in Portugal and Spain. The young will go back to the new territory where they were raised, thus creating new breeding populations. The Action Plan will hopefully be adopted in November 2016 by the Standing Committee to the Convention and its implementation will help and guide the recolonisation of Southern Europe by this iconic bird.
More information on the webpage of the meeting.
