In early 1996, the CMS Secretariat produced and distributed a status report on this endangered species. The CMS Secretariat and BirdLife International have created a Slender-billed Curlew Working Group jointly, with the participation of many shorebird experts and representatives of all Range States. Birdlife International coordinates the working group and CMS has provided funds to support it.
The CMS Secretariat has also undertaken efforts to encourage support-projects for this species in several of the Range States, and maintains close contact with various organisations, scientific institutions and national authorities already involved in such action, including BirdLife International, the Royal Belgian Institute for Natural Science, the International Council for Game and Wildlife Conservation (C.I.C.) and the foundation Euronatur.
Surveys to locate breeding grounds, as well as migration stopover and wintering sites of the Slender-billed curlew are carried out with CMS financial support, the African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbird Agreement (AEWA), the European Union´s “LIFE Programme” and other sources. Several expeditions were made to West Siberia, Iran and Morocco, however neither nesting sites nor wintering places were discovered.
Conservation activities have already been undertaken or are under way in Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Morocco, Russian Federation, Ukraine and Iran.
According to the data available at present the population status of the Slender-billed curlew may have stabilized at a low level. Monitoring and conservation measures still remain essential however.