BIRDLIFE EUROPE REPORT FOR 2011

Annual report about activities of BirdLife Europe in 2011 was published. It provides us with the European and Central Asian Partnership main achievements and successes in Conservation, Science, Policy and visibility in 2011.

In her letter to Uzbekistan Society for the Protection of Birds Elodie Cantaloube - Media and Communication Assistant of BirdLife Europe shortly described main highlights of BirdLife Europe work in 2011. For example, in the report you will see that thanks to the intensive work of the BirdLife European and Central Asian Partners and their volunteers, and thanks to the support of committed donors, bird species such as the Aquatic Warbler and the Zino's Petrel are facing a brighter future. Also, in 2011, new protected areas were designated. In Spain 41 sites were recognized as Marine IBAs, constituting the first national network of IBAs in Europe.

This year as well, BirdLife Partners organized international high-level expert Conferences to discuss conservation issues such as Conference on illegal killing of Birds in Larnaca (Cyprus), where the results were officially endorsed by the Bern Convention and the Convention of Migratory Species. Also a Conference on Bird Safety and Power lines in Budapest (Hungary), where expert scientists and conservationists made the Budapest Declaration and lists of priority actions to be implemented by all European countries, energy industry and bird conservation organizations.

You will read how BirdLife influenced the main European Policies (Biodiversity, Agriculture, Fisheries, Climate, EU Budget) to ensure a better protection of the environment and the biodiversity in Europe and more sustainable EU action.

Finally, you will know about BirdLife European and Central Asian Partners' on-going campaigns such as Spring Alive or EuroBirdwatch, becoming more and more successful. In 2011, both campaigns recorded their highest level of participation: Spring Alive saw 127.250 online registrations from citizens from over 30 countries in Europe, Asia and Africa while EuroBirdwatch events welcomed over 80.000 birdwatchers in 37 European and Central Asian countries. By the way, in the article about results of EuroBirdwatch - the Europe's biggest bird watching festival you can see photo of participants from Uzbekistan. You can also download copy of this article in English.

In the end of the letter which we got together with copy of report was noticed that all these achievements would not have been possible without the dedication and commitment of all the 45 BirdLife European and Central Asian Partners, their volunteers and their members. The BirdLife Europe staff would like to thank you for your crucial support and invite you to keep working together in the future to face the incoming challenges and opportunities, and together win new victories for nature and people.

If you are interested in any article from this report, please let us know, we scan it and send copy to you by e-mail.