A new co-operative project has just been launched to assist with the monitoring of water birds and to support the conservation of wetlands in the Mediterranean, with the involvement of the French Ministry for Ecology, Sustainable Development, Transport and Housing (MEDDTL), the MAVA Foundation for Nature, the French National Office of Hunting and Wildlife (ONCFS), the Tour du Valat, and Wetlands International (WI).
This programme lends support to the current programme of international waterbird counts (DIOE), coordinated by Wetlands International, both by establishing links with already-existing waterbird and wetlands programmes in the Mediterranean region, and by making use of the results from a range of initiatives (for example, the “Wings over Wetlands” project). It also aims to produce technical abstracts and educational and awareness-raising materials in various languages to encourage the development of networks of observers, and to improve coverage. It is also intended to complete the inventories of internationally important sites and to decide on priorities for intervention.
In order to do this, a project leader has been recruited to assist the programme coordinator of international waterbird counts, who is based at WI headquarters (Netherlands). The work will concentrate on three main themes: first, to develop this programme in the Mediterranean region; second, to improve the representation of the Mediterranean region in the world-wide database of waterbird counts and third, to establish synergies and partnerships with the ongoing projects in the region (projects by the Tour du Valat, UNEP-MAP RAC/SPA, ONCFS, Wetlands International, etc). The person recruited is based at the Tour du Valat and is part of the team of researchers working on species dynamics.
This project is planned to run for three years, depending on funding possibilities, the project could possibly be extended.