Nearly half of all migratory birds are struggling. This is according to the latest edition of the report “State of the World’s Birds,” presented on September 11 in Nairobi by BirdLife International, the network that brings together 125 organizations in 120 countries, of which Lipu is a member. The report, published every four years, focuses for the first time on migratory birds and the flyways that make their journeys possible. The picture is grim: 45% of migratory species are in decline, and one in nine is threatened with extinction. The situation is even worse for species that depend on the sea and coastlines, with one in three migratory seabirds at risk and more than half of shorebirds in decline.
The Shadow of the Little Ringed Plover
The symbol of this crisis has a name: the little crake. Its extinction, officially declared in 2025, comes thirty years after the last confirmed sighting, in a lagoon in Morocco in February 1995. It is the first such extinction in continental Eurasia and Africa in recent centuries.
Behind these numbers lies a complex web of pressures: the spread of invasive species, increasingly intensive agriculture, the climate crisis, and hunting carried out without sustainable regulations. The most fragile habitats—such as forests, coastal wetlands, and marine environments—are also the hardest hit. Yet the report does not merely document these losses.
The Turning Point in Nairobi
The good news is that when action is taken along the entire migration route—and not just at individual sites—the birds respond. This is demonstrated by the Egyptian vulture, whose decline in the Balkans has been halted thanks to the coordinated efforts of several countries. This is the spirit of the Nairobi Declaration, signed by governments, scientists, organizations, and financial institutions: recognizing that the survival of migratory species depends on a collective effort, which is then translated into national plans. “We are losing migratory birds at an alarming rate, but this declaration marks a turning point. We need governments, businesses, and citizens, and now it’s up to others to step up,” commented Claudio Celada, director of the Nature Conservation Division at LIPU, who attended the summit.
Billions for flight routes
Resources are what give substance to these commitments. Since 2021, development banks have mobilized more than $6 billion for conservation. The Asian Development Bank will allocate $3 billion over the next ten years to protect at least 50 wetlands along the East Asia–Australasia corridor. In the Americas, the Inter-American Development Bank aims to mobilize between 3 and 5 billion by 2050 for more than 30 terrestrial and marine landscapes. The World Bank, together with BirdLife, is working on migration routes used by more than two billion birds.
A single chain
The underlying concept is that of the Global Migration Routes Program launched by BirdLife: no longer individual sites, species, or borders considered in isolation, but entire flight paths viewed as interconnected networks of habitats. When one link breaks, the entire chain is weakened. In short, protecting the wonder of migration means thinking big, beyond borders.
