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In the margins of the recent IUCN World Conservation
Congress in Amman, Jordan (4-11 October), representatives
of three countries and three participating organisations
signed the Memorandum of Understanding on the Conservation
and Management of middle-European Populations of the Great
Bustard (Otis tarda).
CMS has developed the text of the Memorandum
in conjunction with the IUCN (the World Conservation Union),
BirdLife International and the International Council for
Game and Wildlife Conservation together with national experts
from 16 Range States in Central and Eastern Europe. The
three countries which signed the Memorandum are Hungary,
the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Romania. It
is hoped that further signatures will be added in the course
of the next few months. The Memorandum will enter into force
one month after it has been signed by the fifth Range State.
The Great Bustard is one of the largest
birds capable of flight, with males weighing up to 17 kg
and females up to 8 kg. Although still quite numerous in
the Iberian peninsula and in Russia, the species has become
extinct or been reduced to vagrant status in parts of its
former range and even where it has managed to survive, its
numbers are counted in dozens rather than hundreds. It is
therefore one of Europe’s most endangered bird species.
Despite their size, the birds have been known to travel
quite large distances; for example, in the severe winter
of 1978, the population in Brandenburg, Germany migrated
to the Champagne region of France and back. The MoU calls
for cooperation among national authorities to promote the
conservation of the species and includes an Action Plan
with both general provisions and specific activities appropriate
for each participating country.
The countries which have participated in
the negotiation of the MOU are: Albania, Austria, Bosnia
and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic,
Germany, Greece, Hungary, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Slovakia,
Slovenia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and
Ukraine.
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