Pihl, S., Clausen, P., Laursen, K., Madsen, J. & Bregnballe, T. 2006. 128 pp. Summary | Full report in pdf-format (759 kB). Technical Report No. 570 from NERI, 128 pp.
Summary
Background and objective
As part of the implementation of the EU Birds Directive of 1979, Denmark, in 1983, designated 111 Special Protection Areas (SPAs) to protect wild birds and their habitats. Together with Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) designated under the EU Habitats Directive, and protected areas designated under the Ramsar Convention, the SPAs contribute to the NATURA 2000 network of protected areas in Denmark.
The EU member states are obliged to report their national conservation status of species and habitats within the NATURA 2000 network to the Commission. To comply with these requirements, the National Forest and Nature Agency, the Danish county authorities, and the National Environmental Research Institute have initiated a cooperative programme to gather and compile the necessary data to assess the national conservation status of the species and habitats concerned. The assessment of the conservation status for species and habitats under the EU Habitats Directive is presented in Pihl et al. (2000).
The purpose of this report is to present a preliminary assessment of the conservation status within Denmark of each of the species listed on Annex 1 of the Birds Directive that breed in Denmark, and each of the species that, as regularly occurring migratory birds, are mentioned in site descriptions that are the basis for the designation of the 111 Danish SPAs. Assessments are based on the currently available information about each bird species’ abundance and distribution.
This report covers 42 species of birds that are on the Annex I of the Birds Directive, and regularly or almost regularly breed in Denmark. “Regularly breeding” is defined as breeding every year for at least ten years. Among these 42 species are some of the species proposed for Annex I by the new member states of the EU. The report also covers 37 regularly occurring migratory bird species or populations, which are regularly recorded in internationally important numbers in Denmark on migration or wintering. “Internationally important numbers” are defined as concentrations of birds meeting the criteria for internationally important sites as given by the Ramsar Convention.
Conservation status for birds
The conservation status of a species is defined in the Habitats Directive as the result of all the conditions that influence the species, and which in the long term are significant to the abundance and distribution of the species. The conservation status of a species is considered favourable if data relating to the population show that it is likely to survive in the long term, its abundance and distribution are stable or increasing, and the habitats used by the species are considered to be sufficient to ensure the long term survival of the species.
However, there are various circumstances that can lead to a favourable assessment of conservation status in a regularly occurring migrating species even though the abundance in Denmark is declining, or the distribution in Denmark is contracting. Natural changes take place and some species (e.g. Scaup and Goosander) with currently stable or increasing international populations, now occur in Denmark with lower abundances than during 1979-1983, when the Birds Directive was implemented in Denmark. In such cases, it is most likely that decreases in abundances in Denmark are the result of increased feeding opportunities elsewhere, and not to deteriorating feeding conditions within Denmark. Hence, such species are considered to be of favourable conservation status.
There is a long tradition of monitoring birds in Denmark. Waterbirds have been surveyed regularly since the mid-1960s by governmental agencies, and the Danish Ornithological Society (DOF) has monitored the distributions of the Danish breeding birds by Atlas projects twice in the recent past. For the last five years, DOF has also monitored the abundance and distribution of each of the Danish rare breeding bird species. On this basis, the monitoring data for assessment of the national conservation status of the bird species covered by the Birds Directive are considered sufficient.
The conservation status of each population has been assessed in terms of the following categories: favourable, unfavourable, uncertain and disappeared. The category unfavourable is further divided in unfavourable-increasing, unfavourable-stable and unfavourabledecreasing.
Conservation status of breeding birds
The results of the preliminary assessment of the national conservation status of breeding birds are:
Favourable conservation status: 17 species.
Unfavourable conservation status: 14 species. The species of unfavourable conservation status are, in general, species of open habitats such as heathland, moor, meadows and salt-marshes:
Uncertain conservation status: 9 species. This group included species that are either colonising or re-colonising Denmark as a breeding area: Black Stork, Spoonbill, Hen Harrier, Golden Eagle, Osprey, Peregrine Falcon, Kentish Plover, Mediterranean Gull, Tengmalm’s Owl.
Disappeared: 2 species seem to have disappeared from Denmark
since 1983: Black Grouse, Barred Warbler.
Conservation status for regularly occurring
migratory birds
The results of the preliminary assessment of the national conservation status of regularly occurring migratory birds are:
Favourable conservation status: 32 species/subspecies and 1 population2 . The Bean Goose population wintering in southeast Denmark is considered of favourable conservation status and is probably discrete from the birds wintering in north-west Denmark.
Unfavourable conservation status: 1 species and 1 subspecies:
Uncertain conservation status: 1 species and 1 population. Velvet Scoter is considered of uncertain status. The Bean Goose population wintering in north-west Denmark, which is probably discrete from other Bean Goose populations, is currently of unknown status.
Full report in pdf-format (759 kB).
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2 This population together with the population mentioned in the Uncertain category constitute one species.
