Coastal engineering and european wintering wetland birds

Abstract

A survey of existing studies was conducted of the most important wintering regions for waterfowl in western Europe as part of the preparatory studies for hydraulic engineering projects in the southwestern part of The Netherlands. Fifty-five areas were found in which at least 1% of a fly-way population of a species winters. The study confirms the belief that the area at the southern part of the North Sea plays a major role in the wintering of waterfowl. It also showed that only a very rough indication of the wintering regions could be compiled from data in the literature, because of a lack uniformity in the presentation and evaluation. It is pointed out that the present approach is based too much on separating the establishment of nature reserves from the overall natural potential of a region. The integration of this with the other uses to which people put a particular region provides many more opportunities to protect the waterfowl populations. This method should then be integrated into the decision-making procedures and regional management by policy analysis and control plans. The presentation of bird-count data should be integrated more satisfactorily with preparatory policy work.