Ten years ago, a Hungarian birdwatcher and conservationist named Gyorgy Szimuly had a deep conviction that shorebirds deserved a day of celebration. This was the birth of World Shorebirds Day, which quickly spread around the world.
In its first decade, World Shorebirds Day has helped to raise awareness about the need for protection of shorebirds and their habitats throughout their entire life cycles, promoting research, monitoring and conservation. It also connects people through shorebirds around the world. One of the most important activities on this day is the “Global Shorebird Counts”, an effort that engages thousands of volunteers and professionals through citizen science. All the data collected are helping to strengthen information about population trends which is essential for conservation.
Some species of shorebirds complete the largest migrations in the animal world. For example, the Red Knot (Calidris canutus) flies every year from its breeding grounds in the Canadian Arctic to Bahía Lomas, in Chile, on round trips of at least 30,000 km.
Shorebirds are declining and if we are not able to provide urgent responses to threats impacting their populations, we could witness the extinction of several species in the short term. Recovering shorebirds and their habitats requires collaborative action between communities, governments, scientists and the private sector, but above all, it requires strengthened hope that we can maintain vital natural processes for current and future generations.
If we can't recover and conserve shorebirds and their habitats in the medium term, it will mean that we will have crossed a complex threshold in the health of our ecosystems, putting at risk our own survival as human beings.
Diego Luna Quevedo Senior Specialist, Policy and Governance
Flyways Program, Manomet Conservation Sciences
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