Declaration from the workshop to develop a flyway action plan for the Egyptian vulture populations in the Balkans, Turkey, Central Asia & the Caucasus published

The declaration from the recently held workshop to develop an international species action plan for the Egyptian vulture eastern flyway – covering the breeding populations in Balkans, Turkey, Caucasus, Central Asia and the Middle East, and their respective flyway to winter in Africa and the Arabian Peninsula- has now been published (see below).

The 70+ representatives of Governments, local authorities, nature conservation organizations and universities from 33 countries have identified that this endangered vulture is mostly at risk due to the following priority threats:

• poisoning, due to persecution of predators or inappropriate use of agricultural chemicals and veterinary drugs (such as Diclofenac) and the use of lead shot;

• insufficient amounts of accessible food caused by habitat degradation and undesired side effects of sanitation practices necessary for maintaining human health;

• electrocution on power line poles and collision with wind turbines and power lines;

• disturbance at breeding sites;

• illegal harvesting (for example for use in traditional medicine and to meet demand from collectors).

The meeting was organized by the LIFE+ project “The Return of the Neophron” (http://www.lifeneophron.eu/) and the Coordinating Unit (CU) of the Raptors MoU under the Convention of Migratory Species (CMS), and produced a flyway action plan that will hopefully contribute to more effective, coordinated, and widespread conservation efforts focused on this species, which is declining almost everywhere in the range.