The world’s avifauna is going through a moment of unprecedented crisis, certified by the new State of the World’s Birds presented by BirdLife International (the global partnership made up of 125 groups in 120 countries) during the Global Flyways Summit in Nairobi. The dossier officially confirms the extinction of the curlew (Numenius tenuirostris), the first global disappearance of a bird in Eurasia and Africa in recent centuries.
The last sighting dates back to February 1995 in a lagoon in Morocco, while the definitive certification arrived in 2025. This species with a long and thin beak paves the way for an alarming trend, which in the last 150 years has already canceled or suspected the disappearance of six other migratory species.
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Merciless numbers and causes of global decline
The study paints a merciless picture: 45% of migratory bird species are in decline and one in nine is threatened with extinction. Specimens linked to marine habitats, forests and coastal wetlands are particularly vulnerable. According to analyzes by BirdLife International, the drastic reduction in biodiversity is driven by precise factors: the spread of invasive species, the intensification of modern agriculture with the massive use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, climate change and unsustainable hunting practiced in many nations.
The turning point of international cooperation and the Nairobi Declaration
Despite the gloomy overtones, the summit in Kenya marked a concrete turning point thanks to the signing of the Nairobi Declaration on migratory routes by governments, scientists, NGOs and financial institutions. The agreement states that the survival of wildlife depends on coordinated action along the entire migration route and not on isolated local efforts. To support this vision, development banks have mobilized over $6 billion since 2021. Targeted interventions have already proven their effectiveness, such as the joint action that halted the decline of the breeding Egyptian vulture population in the Balkans.
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Financial strategies and the Global Flyways Programme
The economic action plan for environmental protection features various international institutes. The Asian Development Bank will invest $3 billion over the decade to protect at least 50 priority wetlands along the East Asia-Australasia route, safeguarding around 200 million people. The Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean will allocate up to $5 billion by 2050 to more than 30 land and seascapes, while the World Bank will finance projects in Africa, Europe and Asia. To optimize these resources, BirdLife International has structured the Global Flyways Programme, a holistic approach that aims to defend entire interconnected networks of critical sites, because when one link in migration is broken, the entire biological chain collapses.
