AEWA Eurasian Curlew Meeting

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The AEWA International Single Species Action Plan for the Conservation of the Eurasian Curlew was adopted by the 6th Meeting of the Parties in 2015. One of the provisions of the Action Plan is that a complete moratorium of hunting should have reinstated in France until an adaptive harvest management process has established its recommendations and these are implemented when hunting is reopened.

A meeting of the AEWA Eurasian Curlew International Working Group for the establishment of an adaptive harvest management process for the nominal subspecies took place on 18 September in Paris. Wetlands International has emphasised at the meeting that any future adaptive harvest management should assess the impact of hunting on the segment of the population that winters or migrates through France. Comparing the harvested numbers to the entire population would underestimate the impact on the segment that winters or migrate through France.

According to the data collected by the International Waterbird Census, more than half of the breeding population winters north of France and only 10% of the population can be accounted for in France and further south. The hunting pressure on this segment of the population is therefore much higher in comparison to the entire population. It has also been emphasised that better estimation of the number of Curlews wintering south from France in Spain, Portugal and Northwest Africa to Senegal is crucial.