World Migratory Bird Day 2024: Protect Insects to Protect Birds
12 October 2024 - For the first time this year, the theme of the World Migratory Bird Day highlights the importance of insects for migratory birds, and calls more action to protect decreasing populations of insects.
Insects are vital energy sources for many bird species during the breeding season and their migration. They significantly affect the timing, duration, and overall success of bird migrations. Insect populations have declined dramatically in recent decades as a result of the use of insecticides and the destruction of their habitats linked to agricultural intensification, urbanization and road development. Climate change and biological invasions also cause the death of insects by starvation, disease or predation.
World Migratory Bird Day campaign in 2024, draws attention to need for proactive measures to reverse this decline such as reducing use of pesticides and fertilisers as well as encouraging organic farming.
Bird populations in World Heritage sites are also increasingly affected by avian flu. UNESCO World Heritage Centre together with its partner organizations have conducted earlier this year a webinar series entitled How to protect wildlife from avian flu in UNESCO World Heritage sites, Biosphere Reserves and Ramsar sites in April and May 2024.
These webinars were organized with the financial support of the Swiss Federal Office for Environment (FOEN) in collaboration with UNESCO World Heritage Centre, UNESCO Man and the Biosphere Programme, the Secretariat of the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) and its CMS FAO Co-convened Scientific Task Force on Avian Influenza and Wild Birds, the Secretariat of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance, the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Highly pathogenic avian influenza not only causes to death of many wild bird species worldwide, but also causing significant mortality of mammals. Held in different time zones to reach out all regions, three webinars aimed to raise awareness of the site management authorities in UNESCO World Heritage sites, Biosphere Reserves and Ramsar sites on the avian influenza outbreak and its irreversible cause of biodiversity loss globally in designated sites recognized internationally for their importance to nature conservation and which are critically important for migratory species.
During the webinars, scientists and representatives of internationally designated sites provided information on the current situation of the sites, which are affecting by the outbreak of the avian flu and how site management authorities together with the scientists combat the spread of the virus. Recordings and presentations of keynote speakers of the webinars on avian flu as well as the guidelines, other related documents and examples of different countries available on website to draw attention to the subject.
World Migratory Bird Day is a global awareness raising campaign that aims to highlights the need for international cooperation to conserve migratory birds. In 2024, World Migratory Bird Day is celebrating on 11 May and 12 October, reflecting the cyclical nature of seasonal bird migrations in different hemispheres.
