Connectivity between countries established by landbirds and raptors migrating along the African–Eurasian flyway

Abstract

Article impact statement: Understanding how migratory birds link countries is key for flyway conservation. Tracking data can unveil these dynamics but gaps remain.

A roadmap integrating research, policy, and actions to conserve Afro‐Palearctic migratory landbirds at a flyway scale

“…Thus, we urge researchers to conduct more tracking and genetic studies across multiple sites to cover the whole breeding and nonbreeding ranges of Afro-Palearctic migratory landbirds. While the collection of these data is currently mostly used in the framework of hypothesis testing and fundamental research, we strongly advocate for more applied contributions (e.g., identifying single-and multispecies conservation hotspots; see Guilherme et al, 2022).…”

“…Combining genomic techniques with network modeling is a promising avenue to understand the cause of populations declines beyond the species level (Ruegg et al., 2020). High‐resolution tracking data, alongside new genomic techniques and network modeling may herewith set the basis for flyway‐scale conservation planning and have a great potential to help inform conservation policy and management (Guilherme et al., 2022). Ideally, published tracking data should be made available in online databases (e.g., Movebank, http://www.movebank.org) allowing stakeholders from private and governmental sectors free access.…”

“…Moreover, these new technologies remain largely inaccessible in nonbreeding grounds, especially in Africa, and more awareness and training programs are urgently needed in these areas. Another limiting factor is that most of the tracking data come from bird populations in Western and Central Europe with a marked underrepresentation of populations and species breeding in the eastern range of the Afro‐Palearctic migration system (Guilherme et al., 2022), while data on Intra‐African migrants is largely unavailable. Thus, we urge researchers to conduct more tracking and genetic studies across multiple sites to cover the whole breeding and nonbreeding ranges of Afro‐Palearctic migratory landbirds.…”

“…In this context, using novel socioecological approaches to maximize ecosystem multifunctionality (i.e., the provision of multiple ecosystem services; see Linders et al., 2021) among different stakeholders could be key to devising the optimal conservation strategy that benefits both people and biodiversity. However, due to the broad front migration and the low migratory connectivity of some species of Afro‐Palearctic migratory landbirds (Briedis et al., 2020; Guilherme et al., 2022), local conservation actions alone are insufficient and large‐scale policy amendments involving multiple countries and stakeholders such as the MoU signed between the Pan African Great Green Wall Agency and BirdLife International are needed.…”

“…Moreover, some species of Afro‐Palearctic migrants travel with a broad front (i.e., over large spatial scales; Briedis et al., 2020) and have low migratory connectivity (i.e., individuals from the same breeding population spread over different wintering sites), making it difficult to protect a bird population via conservation actions at specific sites. Thus, successful conservation often needs large‐scale policy amendments (Guilherme et al., 2022). Therefore, to conserve Afro‐Palearctic migratory landbirds at a flyway scale, we need to establish strong international collaborations and agreements between actors from the governmental and private sector based in Eurasia and Africa.…”