Conservationists have today called for states to redouble their efforts to save threatened migratory birds of prey from continuing habitat destruction and grisly fates such as poisoning and electrocution.
The call came from BirdLife International and the RSPB (BirdLife in the UK) at the close of a meeting in Scotland, which focused on developing an international agreement under the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS). The delegates called upon the state representatives attending to “get to work immediately” upon returning home.
“This meeting has made a lot of progress to save some of the world’s most charismatic eagles, hawks, falcons and owls.  But states have not yet finalised a formal agreement.” said John O’Sullivan of the RSPB.
Representatives from 43 countries of Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Africa, stretching from China to South Africa, attended the meeting this week beside Loch Lomond, Scotland.
“We were not expecting them to finalise the do*****ent at this meeting,” said O’Sullivan, “but before they get together again in Abu Dhabi next year, they must keep up the momentum.”
“Birds of prey and the places where they live are taking a continuous pounding.”
The agreement will eventually be signed formally by the represented states, defining the actions and cooperation needed to combat the many threats impacting migratory birds of prey.  This will involve working together on, for example, research and monitoring projects, information exchange, and the training of staff in states throughout this huge geographic range. 
Signatories will also focus conservation efforts on critical ‘bottleneck’ sites –including those identified as Important Bird Areas by BirdLife- where large numbers of raptors concentrate while on migration from breeding grounds in the north to wintering ones in the south.
A key tool will be species action plans to which the states will sign up; the major elements to be built into these plans were hammered out this week.
Alison Statterfield, BirdLife’s Head of Science said, “BirdLife is encouraged by what we heard here, and we will continue to work with the countries to get this agreement into action.  But far too many birds of prey are being illegally killed, particularly on their breeding grounds and at the hotspots through which they pass on migration.  And the well-known problem of pesticide pollution, which poses an insidious threat to all life, including our own, has by no means gone away.”
The meeting coincides with a major new initiative by BirdLife International and its Partners to tackle the major threats to migratory soaring birds of prey along their flyway through the Middle East and North-East Africa. Over the next ten years this GEF-funded project will work with the sectors which pose the greatest threat to migrating birds of prey (agriculture, energy, hunting, urban waste management, and tourism development) in 11 countries, with the aim of making them ‘migratory bird-friendly’.
“Coordinated flyway-scale actions such as this project are essential to conserve migratory birds of prey, and this week’s meeting must serve as a catalyst to develop similar work in other countries of the new agreement,” said Jonathan Barnard, who is leading on development of the BirdLife initiative, to be launched officially in coming months.