Harry Potter’s owl and a giant otter from Brazil: 40 migratory species now benefit from international protection from more than 130 countries that are signatories to a UN convention on the conservation of these increasingly threatened animals.
The inclusion of these new species was adopted on Sunday at the end of the 15th meeting (COP15) of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species (CMS), held in the Brazilian city of Campo Grande (central-west).
Among them is the snowy owl (Bubo scandiacus), known to Harry Potter fans as Hedwig the owl.
This species has lost a third of its global population over the past three decades, according to CMS.
‘Climate change and overexploitation are among the main causes of its population decline and clearly highlight the vulnerability of the species despite its iconic status,’ the UN convention explained in a statement.
According to a report published just before this COP15, nearly half (49%) of all species listed by CMS show population decline trends, and nearly one in four are threatened with extinction on a global scale.
Legal obligation
Another particularly threatened species included in the new list is the hudsonian godwit (Limosa haemastica), a bird with a long beak threatened with extinction that travels 30,000 km per year along the Americas, from the Arctic Ocean to Patagonia.
The great hammerhead shark (Sphyrna mokarran) is also on the list, as well as terrestrial mammals like the striped hyena (Hyaena hyaena), or aquatic mammals like the giant otter from Brazil (Pteronura brasiliensis).
This otter lives in the Brazilian Pantanal, one of the most biodiverse areas on the planet, located south of the Amazon, where the COP15 on migratory species took place.
The Convention is legally binding, meaning that these countries have a legal obligation to protect species classified as threatened with extinction, conserve and restore their habitats, minimize obstacles to their migration, and cooperate to ensure their preservation.
Climate change
‘We have made very significant progress, not only in terms of the approval of protected species, but also in concerted actions and the analysis of various issues affecting migrations,’ said Joao Paulo Capobianco, president of this COP15, to AFP.
According to him, these species suffer from the degradation of their natural habitats, pollution, but also climate change.
‘Some species alter their migration period according to seasonal changes and they may not find certain food resources that should be available at this time of year,’ Mr. Capobianco explained.
A UN report released on Tuesday warned of the ‘collapse’ of essential freshwater fish migrations caused by habitat degradation, overfishing, or dams.
‘By crossing continents and connecting distant ecosystems, these species reveal that nature knows no borders between states,’ said Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva during his opening speech at COP15 a week ago.
‘Protecting these animals means protecting the life of the planet,’ he summarized.
The next edition will take place in 2029 in Germany, to mark the convention’s fiftieth anniversary, established by an international treaty adopted in 1979 in Bonn.
Brazil had already hosted the UN climate conference (COP30) last November in the Amazonian city of Belem.
