Conservation and sustainable management of migratory waterbirds have been a key focus of Wetlands International and its predecessors since the 1960s. Our activities range from monitoring and assessment of their conservation status to sharing this knowledge with a wide range of stakeholders in the context of international treaties. We also coordinate practical conservation measures at flyway-scale.  

Migratory waterbirds are true “citizens of the World”. They breed in one country, stop to rest in others and finally reach their wintering areas in another region. Many species wintering in Europe arrive from Siberia, Canada or Greenland, while many European breeding birds migrate to Sub-Saharan Africa. Therefore, Wetlands International Europe’s flyway conservation work focuses on the African-Eurasian Flyways. In this flyways, 41% of the waterbird populations are declining while 30% are increasing.    

The African-Eurasian Flyway includes 119 countries.

We focus on monitoring the status of waterbirds through the African-Eurasian Waterbird Census and the African-Eurasian Waterbird Monitoring Partnership, maintain knowledge-bases on waterbird populations and their key sites. We assist the adaptive management of waterbird populations by producing EU and flyway-level trend analyses.

We produce the AEWA Conservation Status Reports for each Meeting of the Parties to AEWA, which serves as the basis of adapting Table 1 of the Agreement to the changing status of waterbird populations. We influence decisions concerning the management of waterbird populations through our participation in AEWA’s Technical Committee, its International Species and Expert Working Groups, participation in the EU Task Force on the Recovery of Birds and the EU Working Group on Reporting under the Nature Directives. We also lead and collaborate with research projects like the SPEAR and practical species conservation projects like the LIFE AWOM. 

Our Flyway Initiatives

Our Goals

• Maintain a flyway-level monitoring network to monitor and assess the status of migratory waterbirds and wetland dependent birds, and their key sites to support their adaptive management. 
• Ensure that migratory waterbirds are protected and sustainably used.  
• Ensure the protection of internationally important sites for migratory waterbirds across the African-Eurasian Flyways.