The state of bird and nature protection in Croatia

Abstract

Croatia, as a Mediterranean country in the south-eastern part of Europe, is an area with a characteristic flora and fauna. The omithofauna of Croatia reflects that it is a breeding area for some of the globally endangered bird species, as we//as a site for the spring/autumn passage and the wintering of European migratory birds. Many ornithologically significant localities are designated and there are 20 ornithological reserves and four wetland sites that are on the list of the Ramsar Convention.In Croatia, there are four governmental organizations dealing with scientific research on birds of which the Institute for Ornithology of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts is that with the longest tradition. There are also many non-governmental organizations dedicated to the protection of environment, but only the Croatian Society for Bird and Nature Protection is dedicated mostly to bird protection. There are not many sources of funding for research and the protection of birds; the chief source being the Ministry of Sciences and Technology of the Republic of Croatia. Croatia has to establish new legislation according to European criteria and The Hunting Law, The Nature Protection Law and The Environment Protection Law have been recently accepted in Parliament. International Conventions, such as Bern, Bonn and Washington, have yet to be adopted. Foreign, hunting tourism, especially organized by fishpond authorities, is believed to be kilting large numbers of protected water birds. A red data book exists only for plants and mammals and this makes biological assessments difficult.With the end of military operations and the reintegration of the occupied areas of Croatia, an assessment of the damage to the national parks and nature reserves, and to nature in genera/, will be necessary. Bird and nature conservation in Croatia remains promising, provided the legal control of the Croatian government over the occupied parts of the country is restored soon and international organizations give assistance.

Rock partridge (Alectoris graeca graeca) population density and trends in central Greece

“…The rock partridge is a Palearctic species with a limited geographical distribution in central and south Europe (Cattadori et al, 1999;Randi, 2006). Within this distribution range, the rock partridge occurs with four different subspecies: Alectoris graeca saxatilis can be found in discrete and often isolated populations in mountainous regions of various countries which share the Alps, such as the Italian Dolomitic Alps (Cattadori et al, 1999(Cattadori et al, , 2003, the French Alps (Bernard-Laurent, 1991, 2000, the Austrian Alps (Bednar-Field et al, 2011), and the Dinaric Alps of the southwestern Balkans (Vogrin, 2001); Alectoris graeca whitakeri is strictly endemic and present only in the island of Sicily in Italy (Corso, 2010); Alectoris graeca orlandei has a distribution in the central and southern Appenines in Italy (Amici et al, 2009;Rippa et al, 2011); and finally, Alectoris graeca graeca which is distributed in the Balkan peninsula and mainly in southern Bulgaria (Dragoev, 1974;Nikolov & Spasov, 2005;Boev et al, 2007), Albania (Lucchini & Randi, 1998;Randi, 2006), some states of the Former Republic of Yugoslavia (Muzinic, 1995;Stevanovic et al, 2005), and large part of Greece.…”