Abstract
Libya is a Contracting Party to most of the international biodiversity-related conventions, including Ramsar, CITES, Biological Diversity and the Barcelona Convention. Libya has recently become a party to the Bonn Convention on Migratory Species (CMS), and has acceded to AEWA (the Afro-Eurasian Waterbird Agreement of the Convention on Migratory Species) with effect from 1 June 2005. The present survey was organized under a Memorandum of Understanding between AEWA, RAC/SPA (the Regional Activities Centre on Specially Protected Areas of the UNEP Mediterranean Action Programme, based in Tunis), and the EGA (Environment General Authority of Libya). The Action Plan for the conservation of bird species listed in Annex II of the Protocol concerning specially protected areas and biological diversity in the Mediterranean The UNEP Mediterranean Action Plan (MAP) brings together 21 countries round the Mediterranean, operating within the framework of the Barcelona Convention for the Protection of the marine environment and the coastal region of the Mediterranean. They adopted in 1995 a “Protocol concerning Specially Protected Areas and Biological Diversity in the Mediterranean” which includes in its Annex II a “List of Endangered or Threatened Species”. This List includes fifteen species of bird, and at the latest Conference of the Parties in Catania, Sicily in November 2003, an Action Plan for the conservation of these species was adopted, following similar plans on monk seal, marine turtles, cetaceans and marine vegetation. The Action Plan for Birds notes initiatives taken by bodies such as BirdLife International partners in Mediterranean countries, WWF, IUCN, Medmaravis and Tour du Valat, which contributed to the development of the text. The fifteen birds include a variety of species of differing status, some globally endangered, some whose breeding area is concentrated on rocky Mediterranean islands, some found mostly in beaches and coastal lagoons, as follows: Cory’s Shearwater Calonectris diomedea, Mediterranean Shearwater Puffinus yelkouan, Storm Petrel Hydrobates pelagicus, European Shag Phalacrocorax aristotelis, Pygmy Cormorant Phalacrocorax pygmeus, White Pelican Pelecanus onocrotalus, Dalmatian Pelican Pelecanus crispus, Greater Flamingo Phoenicopterus ruber, Osprey Pandion haliaetus, Eleonora’s Falcon Falco eleonorae, Slender-billed Curlew Numenius tenuirostris, Audouin’s Gull Larus audouinii, Lesser Crested Tern Sterna bengalensis, Sandwich Tern Sterna sandvicensis and Little Tern Sterna albifrons.