Abstract
The main objectives of the Nepal National Bird Red Data Book were to provide comprehensive and up-to-date accounts of all the bird species found in Nepal, assess their status applying the IUCN Guidelines at Regional Levels, identify threats to all bird species and recommend the most practical measures for their conservation. It is hoped that the Bird RDB will help Nepal achieve the Convention on Biological Diversity target of preventing the extinction of known threatened species and improving their conservation status. As population changes of Nepal’s birds have been studied for only a few species, assessments of species’ national status were mainly made by assessing changes in distribution. Species distribution maps were produced for all of Nepal’s bird species except vagrants and compared to maps that were produced in 1991 using the same mapping system. Of the 878 bird species recorded, 168 species (19%) were assessed as nationally threatened. These comprise 68 (40%) Critically Endangered species, 38 (23%) Endangered species and 62 (37%) Vulnerable species. A total of 62 species was considered Near Threatened and 22 species Data Deficient. Over 55% of the threatened birds are lowland grassland specialists, 25% are wetland birds and 24% tropical and sub-tropical broadleaved forest birds. Larger birds appear to be more threatened than smaller birds with 98 (25%) non-passerine species threatened and 67 (14%) passerine species. Habitat loss, degradation and fragmentation are the most important threats. Other threats include chemical poisoning, over-exploitation, climate change, hydropower, invasive species, intensification of agriculture, disturbance, and limited conservation measures and research. Measures to address these threats are described. It was also concluded that re-assessments of the status of certain bird groups carried out every five years and the setting up of a national online system for storing and reporting bird sightings would be useful.
Highlights
The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species is internationally recognised as the world’s most authoritative and objective inventory for classifying species’ extinction risk at the global scale
Nepal harbours an extraordinary variety of landscapes, habitats, wildlife and cultures. It occupies only 0.1% of the world’s total land mass, its diverse physiographic features range from the Arctic high Himalayan peaks to the tropical lowlands of the Terai
The species nomenclature used in the Nepal Bird Red Data Book follows names adopted by IUCN and BirdLife International in 2011, the year in which this project was initiated
Summary
The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species is internationally recognised as the world’s most authoritative and objective inventory for classifying species’ extinction risk at the global scale. Based on the same robust and objective process, National Red Lists can provide information about the rate of change of a nation’s biodiversity over time, assess the extinction risk of native species and help in the development of effective conservation policies and action plans. Nepal harbours an extraordinary variety of landscapes, habitats, wildlife and cultures. It occupies only 0.1% of the world’s total land mass, its diverse physiographic features range from the Arctic high Himalayan peaks (the highest terrestrial ecosystem in the world) to the tropical lowlands of the Terai. In a relatively small area of 147,181km Nepal is home to 3.2% and 1.1% of the world’s known flora and fauna, respectively (MoFSc 2014), including around 8% of the world’s known bird species (Inskipp et al 2016)
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