email a friend
printable version
OVERVIEW State of the World’s Birds

In 2002, the world’s governments took an unprecedented step, committing themselves to achieve a significant reduction in the rate of biodiversity loss by 2010. What can birds tell us about our current chances of achieving this ambitious but vital goal? The messages are mixed. We know much more about the state of biodiversity. And the world has become more aware of the environmental challenges that we face, particularly in the light of climate change. Despite this, our data show that the state of the world’s biodiversity, as reflected by its 9,856 living bird species, continues to get worse. Moreover, while governments have made verbal commitments to conserving biodiversity, the resources available for this fall far short of what is needed. It’s time to listen properly to what the birds are telling us, and start making changes that are positive and significant.

About this website
This website outlines why birds and biodiversity are important, and examines what we know about the changing state of the world’s birds (STATE), why birds are declining (PRESSURE) and what can be done to improve their status (RESPONSE). It is a synthesis of our knowledge to date and provides a benchmark against which we can assess our efforts to conserve birds and biodiversity into the future. The website is divided into four main sections:
 
INTRODUCTION The importance of birds and biodiversity
STATE What we know about the changing state of birds
PRESSURE Why birds are declining
RESPONSE What can be done to improve the status of birds

Each section contains a number of overarching themes with supporting text and case studies, the latter presenting the evidence for key messages and examples of BirdLife’s work.

The information and analyses presented here builds on and updates that published in:
 
BirdLife International (2004) State of the world’s birds 2004: indicators for our changing world. Cambridge, UK: BirdLife International. (English (PDF 14mb), (PPT 4mb)), (French 22mb))
BirdLife International (2008) State of the world’s birds: indicators for our changing world. Cambridge, UK: BirdLife International. (English (PDF 14mb), (PPT 2.5mb)), (Spanish (PDF 16mb), (French (PDF 14mb))
BirdLife International (2008) Critically Endangered birds: a global audit. Cambridge, UK: BirdLife International. (English (PDF 4mb), (PPT 0.5mb))

For further details on how to make the best use of this site, and its searchable database of over 200 case studies, click on ‘How to use this site’ on the left-hand side of this page.

Acknowledgements
The compilation and publication of the State of the world's birds report and website were generously supported by the Aage V. Jensen Charity Foundation and the Darwin Initiative.

BirdLife wishes to acknowledge and thank its Founder Patrons for their support of the Science Programme that generated the report. Many of the data underlying the analyses of threatened birds and Important Bird Areas were provided by the BirdLife Partnership and a wider expert network who contribute to BirdLife’s Globally Threatened Bird Forums.