The owl from Harry Potter and a giant otter from Brazil: 40 migratory species now benefit from international protection from more than 130 signatory countries of a UN convention on the conservation of these increasingly threatened animals.
The inclusion of these new species was adopted on Sunday at the end of the 15th meeting (COP15) of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species (CMS), which took place in the Brazilian city of Campo Grande (central-west).
Among them, the snow owl (Bubo scandiacus), known by Harry Potter fans as the owl Hedwig.
This species has lost a third of its global population in the past three decades, according to the CMS.
‘Climate change and overexploitation are among the main causes of the population decline and clearly highlight the vulnerability of the species despite its iconic status,’ explains the UN convention in a statement.
According to a report published just before this COP15, nearly half (49%) of all species listed by the CMS show population decline trends, and nearly one in four are threatened with extinction on a global scale.
Legal obligation
Another particularly threatened species included in the new list: the hudsonian godwit (Limosa haemastica), a long-beaked bird threatened with extinction that travels 30,000 km per year along the Americas, from the Arctic Ocean to Patagonia.
The great hammerhead shark (Sphyrna mokarran) is also included, as well as terrestrial mammals, such as the striped hyena (Hyaena hyaena), or aquatic ones, such as the giant otter from Brazil (Pteronura brasiliensis).
This otter lives mainly in the Brazilian Pantanal, one of the richest biodiversity areas on the planet, located south of the Amazon, where the COP15 on migratory species took place.
The Convention is legally binding, which means that these countries have a legal obligation to protect species classified as threatened with extinction, to conserve and restore their habitats, to minimize obstacles to their migration, and to cooperate with each other to successfully carry out this preservation.
Climate change
‘We have made very significant progress, not only in terms of the approval of protected species, but also in concerted actions (concrete measures jointly implemented) and the analysis of various issues affecting migrations,’ said Joao Paulo Capobianco to AFP, president of this COP15.
According to him, these species suffer specifically from the degradation of their natural habitats, pollution, but also climate change.
‘Some species change their migration period based on seasonal changes, and they may not find certain food resources that should be available at this time of year,’ explains Mr. Capobianco.
A UN report published on Tuesday warned of the ‘collapse’ of essential migrations for the survival of freshwater fish species like eels, caused by habitat degradation, overfishing, or dams.
‘By crossing continents and connecting distant ecosystems, these species reveal that nature knows no boundaries between states,’ declared Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva during his opening speech at COP15 a week ago.
‘Protecting these animals is protecting the life of the planet,’ he summarized.
The next edition will take place in 2029 in Germany, to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the convention, founded by an international treaty adopted in 1979 in Bonn.
Brazil hosted the UN climate conference (COP30) in the Amazonian city of Belem last November.
