International Single Species Action Plan for the ... - AEWA

AEWA Technical Series No. 36
3. Threats
3.1 Background
The format for AEWA International Single Species Action Plans requires
an assessment of the threats facing the Lesser White-fronted Goose global population as well
as the three wild subpopulations (see Table 2), according to the following criteria:
Critical a factor causing or likely to cause very rapid declines (>30% over 10 years);
High a factor causing or likely to cause rapid declines (20-30% over 10 years);
Medium a factor causing or likely to cause relatively slow, but significant, declines (10-
20% over 10 years);
Low a factor causing or likely to cause fluctuations;
Local a factor causing or likely to cause negligible declines;
Unknown a factor that is likely to affect the species but is not known to what extent.
A graphical representation – or ‘problem tree’ – of the threats affecting the species and how
these threats are related to one another is also required.
The international expert ‘Workshop on the Protection of the Lesser White-fronted Goose’
held in Lammi, Finland, in 2005 reviewed the threats facing the species and provided the
basis for these elements of the Action Plan.
3.2 Overview of species threat status (see also Table 3, page 43)
The global population is currently estimated at 28,000 to 33,000 individuals (Delany & Scott,
2006). The following are the current internationally recognized threat status for the species at
global and European levels:
2006/7 IUCN Global Red List category as evaluated by BirdLife International – the official
Red List Authority for birds for IUCN: Vulnerable (IUCN 2006/7).
2006 IUCN Global Red List justification: “This species is listed as Vulnerable because it has
suffered a rapid population reduction in its key breeding population in Russia, and equivalent
declines are predicted to continue over the next 10 years. The small Fennoscandian
population has undergone a severe historical decline.”
At European level, the species fulfils criterion C1 (population size estimated to number fewer
than 2,500 mature individuals and an estimated continuing decline of at least 20% within five
years or two generations, whichever is longer) for categorisation as ‘Endangered’.
BirdLife International species status: SPEC 1 – European species of global conservation
concern (BirdLife International 2004).
Tolvanen et al. 1999 argued that the conservation status of the Lesser White-fronted Goose in
Europe had been underestimated as a consequence of over-optimistic population assessments
and due to a failure to calculate count thresholds that differentiate between the different
Lesser White-front subpopulations.
International Single Species Action Plan for the Conservation of the Lesser White-fronted Goose 27