Since 1970 almost three billion birds have gone from North America alone. More and more species of birds are at risk of extinction. The number of bird species listed as Critically Endangered has reached an all-time high with 1 in 8 species threatened with extinction.
With a focus on birds, Vancouver Avian Research Centre aims to nurture nature’s recovery through scientific data, action-driven education and conservation tools to encourage change in individuals, educational institutions and policymakers. Founder of the Centre Carol Matthews looks forward to an enduring and thriving future for birds through action taken by individuals to protect the natural world in the places where they live, work and study.
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According to the Vancouver Avian Research Centre, "If we connect individuals and policymakers to birds and nature through action-driven education and conservation they will become more aware of their impact on birds and nature and create change in their households and broader communities in order to protect them."
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An assessment by Birdlife International on the conditions and trends of the world’s birds provides an insight in to the wider state of biodiversity. Biodiversity is the world’s natural wealth and our social and economic well being depends on it. It provides us with vital goods and services and maintains the life sustaining systems of the biosphere. Our futures depend on it.
And yet biodiversity is being lost faster than ever.
Human actions are putting pressure on bird species, sites and habitats and a range of threats are driving these declines such as unsustainable agricultural practices, replacement of traditional farmed land with monocultures, infrastructure development, pollution and overexploitation, contamination of food sources with veterinary drugs, unregulated hunting and human induced climate change, among various causes.
Some things we can do to halt the decline of our bird population.
- Invest in conservation
- Integrate biodiversity in to decision making
- Understand how people depend on biodiversity
- Empower people for positive change
- Conserve Important Bird Areas (IBAs) and the wider landscape
- Save species from extinction
- Careful research and monitoring are essential to guide successful conservation and management actions
- The strongest finding in The State of the Birds report is simple: conservation works!
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Peter Edwards and Penny Offer thank Carol Matthews with a donation in Carol's name to Rotary's global campaign to rid the world of polio | |