Report on the Evaluation of the Implementation of the Velvet Scoter Management Plan

Transcription

1 LIFE project Coordinated Efforts for International Species Recovery EuroSAP (LIFE14 PRE UK 002) Report on the Evaluation of the Implementation of the Velvet Scoter Management Plan Photo: Gediminas Gražulevičius

2 Report commissioned by: The European Commission Directorate General for the Environment Report compiled by Mindaugas Dagys, Lithuanian Ornithological Society (Lithuania) Lithuanian Ornithological Society Naugarduko 47-3 Vilnius LT Lithuania List of contributors: Antra Stīpniece Latvian Ornithological Society (Latvia) Antti Below Metsähallitus (Finland) Bernard Deceuninck Ligue pour la Protection des Oiseaux LPO (France) David A. Stroud UK Joint Nature Conservation Committee (United Kingdom) David Schönberg Alm Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (Sweden) Eric Stienen Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO) (Belgium) Fredrik Haas Biological Institute, Biodiversity, University of Lund (Sweden) Ib Krag Petersen Aarhus University, Department of Bioscience (Denmark) Jochen Bellebaum IWWR (Germany) Leho Luigujõe University of Life Sciences, Institute of Agricultural and Environmental Studies (Estonia) Leif Nilsson Biological Institute, Biodiversity, University of Lund (Sweden) Liutauras Raudonikis Lithuanian Ornithological Society (Lithuania) Nele Markones FTZ West, Kiel University (Germany) Richard Hearn Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (United Kingdom) Włodzimierz Meissner University of Gdańsk, Department of Vertebrate Ecology & Zoology (Poland) Date of adoption: This is a draft version of the "Report on the Evaluation of the Implementation of the Velvet Scoter Management Plan" all comments, corrections, missing/new information and contributions are welcome. Please send them to Mindaugas Dagys at dagys@ekoi.lt. 2

3 Contents GEOGRAPHIC SCOPE OF THE REPORT INTRODUCTION GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ACHIEVEMENT OF SHIRT-TERM OBJECTIVES... 8 SHORT-TERM OBJECTIVE 1 - HALTING THE DEGRADATION OF BREEDING AND WINTERING HABITATS... 8 SHORT-TERM OBJECTIVE 2 - REDUCING DROWNING OF BIRDS IN FISHING NETS... 9 SHORT-TERM OBJECTIVE 3 - TAKING ACTION TO AVOID OIL SPILLS... 9 SHORT-TERM OBJECTIVE 4 - REDUCING DISTURBANCE IN BREEDING AND WINTERING AREAS... 9 SHORT-TERM OBJECTIVE 5 - COLLECTING BETTER DATA ON SIZE OF WINTER POPULATION AND BREEDING SUCCESS. 10 HUNTING-RELATED MEASURES IMPLEMENTATION OF THE PLAN SCORING METHODOLOGY SCORING RESULTS REFERENCES ANNEXES

4 Geographic scope of the report There are two recognised distinct biogeographic populations of the Velvet Scoter: 1) Western Siberia & Northern Europe/NW Europe and 2) Black Sea & Caspian (Wetlands International 2016). The Velvet Scoter Management Plan (Jensen & Lutz 2006) was applicable only to Member States of the European Union, thus covered only the Western Siberia & Northern Europe/NW Europe biogeographic population. Figure 1. Map of breeding and wintering distribution of the Velvet Scoter (BirdLife International & NatureServe 2014). 4

5 Table 1. Range states for the Velvet Scoter (Western Siberia & Northern Europe/NW Europe population only). Principal range states in bold; occasional records in italics. Breeding Migration Wintering Russia Finland* Finland* Norway Sweden * Sweden* Finland* Estonia* Estonia* Sweden* Latvia* Latvia* Estonia* Lithuania* Lithuania* Russia Poland* Germany* Denmark* Norway Russia Poland* Germany* Denmark* Norway UK* Netherlands Belgium* France Ireland Slovenia Switzerland Albania Bulgaria Croatia Czech Republic Greece Hungary Italy Macedonia Montenegro Serbia * Velvet Scoter Management Plan implementation in these countries is evaluated in this report 5

6 1 - INTRODUCTION Management Plan for Velvet Scoter (Melanitta fusca) was prepared in 2006 and adopted for the period (Jensen & Lutz 2006). Since it was an EU Management Plan, it was applicable only in EU member states. The plan included 10 objectives in total. Four objectives were aimed at the breeding population of the Velvet Scoter and, therefore, were applicable only in three EU countries with breeding Velvet Scoters (Finland, Sweden, Estonia). Furthermore, one of these objectives was further restricted to Sweden and Finland only, as it applied to inland breeding population only. The remaining six objectives were aimed at moulting, staging and/or wintering population of the Velvet Scoter and were applicable to all countries, although one of these objectives (by-catch related) could also be applicable to breeding areas. Furthermore, many of these objectives were relevant only for countries holding moulting, staging or wintering areas of international importance for the Velvet Scoter, which limited their applicability to Principal Range states only (Table 1). An "Implementation review of 13 Management Plans for Birds" was commissioned by the European Commission, Directorate General Environment, and was carried out by the European Economic Interest Group The N2K Group (The N2K Group 2014). Velvet Scoter was one of the 13 species evaluated in this report. Thus the current "Report on the Evaluation of the Implementation of the Velvet Scoter Management Plan" is an update of the Velvet Scoter section (pages 62 67) of the abovementioned 2014 review. The 2014 review summarised information from 11 countries, for which the Velvet Scoter Management Plan was at least partly relevant. However, only five of these countries (Denmark, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Sweden) were Principal Range States, i.e. regularly holding internationally important numbers of the Velvet Scoter. The current review focuses primarily on the Principal Range States of the Velvet Scoter (Table 1), but also includes information from several other range countries. 6

7 2 - GENERAL OBSERVATIONS All or at least some of the relevant Management Plan measures have been applied in all the Principal Range States covered by the Management Plan. Only Finland reported no significant progress on any of the measures. However, in many cases implementation of appropriate measures has been triggered not by the Velvet Scoter Management Plan, but by other national or international projects or policies. It must be noted that no Principal Range State has a national Action Plan for Velvet Scoter. France is the only country in the specie s range that has developed and adopted a national Action Plan for Velvet Scoter, despite fairly low numbers of this species wintering in France. Significant progress has been made in most Principal Range States in identification, delineation and designation of marine SPAs, thus ensuring appropriate protection of internationally important aggregations of staging and wintering Velvet Scoters. In countries where designation of marine SPAs has not been completed, active work is being carried out in this respect. Strong international collaboration has developed in recent years aimed at implementation of coordinated surveys of waterbirds wintering at sea, particularly in the Baltic Sea. The first coordinated Baltic Sea wide survey was carried out in January-March At present this cooperation has no formal status and is primarily driven by informal cooperation of national NGOs, authorities and scientific institutions, but there are plans to formalise and further develop this initiative. As of September 2016, Denmark remains the only Principal Range State with an open hunting season for the Velvet Scoter, thus hunting-related measures of the Management Plan are no longer relevant in most of the Principal Range States. Management Plan measures related to breeding Velvet Scoters, and thus only relevant to three Principal Range States, have been poorly implemented or not implemented at all. Thus it is obvious, that breeding Velvet Scoters should receive more attention in the future. Considering the population response to the implementation of Velvet Scoter Management Plan measures, all national experts reported either no positive population response or unknown population response. This is not surprising, considering that implementation of measures aimed specifically at the Velvet Scoter has been slow overall, and that the numbers of Velvet Scoters have declined steeply in recent decades and no reverse of this trend has been recorded so far. 7

8 3 - ACHIEVEMENT OF SHIRT-TERM OBJECTIVES The Velvet Scoter Management Plan included five short-term objectives: Halting the degradation of breeding and wintering habitats Reducing drowning of birds in fishing nets Taking action to avoid oil spills Reducing disturbance in breeding and wintering areas Collecting better data on size of winter population and breeding success Out of 10 measures/actions, foreseen in the plan, two measures related to hunting (measures 1 and 2) do not directly relate to any of the five short-term objectives, therefore are grouped and evaluated together (Table 2). Evaluation of the achievement of short-term objectives is presented in Table 2. Evaluation of achievement of short-term objectives was carried out by assessing the progress of implementation of measures contributing to these objectives. Short-term objective was considered implemented if all relevant for the Member State measures under the objective showed at least some progress (IS > 1; see Annex 1). Short-term objective was considered partially implemented if some of the relevant measures showed at least some progress (IS > 1), while others none (IS = 1). Finally, short-term objective was considered not implemented if all the relevant measures under the objective showed no progress (IS = 1). Table 2. Implementation of short-term objectives. Member State Short-term objectives and measures Halting the degradation of breeding and wintering habitats Reducing drowning of birds in fishing nets Taking action to avoid oil spills Reducing disturbance in breeding and wintering areas Collecting better data on size of winter population and breeding success Reducing impact of hunting Measures 3, 5 Measure 8 Measure 7 Measures 4, 6 Measures 9, 10 Measures 1, 2 BE Not relevant Not relevant Not relevant Not relevant Yes Not relevant DE Yes Yes Yes No Yes Not relevant DK Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes EE Partially No Yes No Partially Not relevant FI No Not relevant No No No Not relevant LT Yes Yes Yes No Yes Not relevant LV Yes No Yes Partially Yes Not relevant PL Yes No Yes Not relevant Yes Not relevant SE Yes Yes Yes No Partially Not relevant UK Yes Not relevant Yes Not relevant Not relevant Not relevant Short-term Objective 1 - Halting the degradation of breeding and wintering habitats This objective encompasses two measures - identification and protection of important breeding sites of the Velvet Scoter in Finland, Estonia and Sweden (Measure 3), and identification and designation as SPAs of all offshore staging and wintering areas of international importance in Finland, Sweden, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands (Measure 5). 8

9 Estonia and Sweden have achieved significant progress in identification and protection of breeding Velvet Scoters, with % and 50-90% of breeding birds affected in these countries, respectively. Finland, on the other hand, has done little in this respect, with less than 10% of breeding birds being protected. Identification and designation as SPAs of internationally important staging and wintering areas of Velvet Scoters ranks among the better implemented measures of the Velvet Scoter Management Plan, even though in some countries (e.g. Latvia, Poland, Denmark) implementation scores have even been reduced (from 4 to 3), compared to the 2014 assessment. Sweden has indicated that at present there are no areas of international importance for Velvet Scoter in Swedish waters (even though increasing numbers have been observed in some sites); therefore this measure has been ranked as not relevant for Sweden. Short-term Objective 2 - Reducing drowning of birds in fishing nets This objective encompasses a single measure (Measure 8), related to the assessment of the need for restrictions of fishing activities in order to reduce Velvet Scoter by-catch in areas of their aggregation. While waterbird by-catch in general has recently become a widely recognised problem in areas of intensive gillnet fisheries, the progress in achieving this objective has been slow in most countries. Lithuania has previously reported complete implementation of this measure, since bycatch impact has not only been assessed in the early 2000s, but by-catch related restrictions on fisheries had been introduced in some marine SPAs. However, recent studies have shown, that despite these restrictions, by-catch continues to be an important issue and further assessments and, possibly, further fisheries regulation are needed. Germany, Sweden and Denmark have also reported considerable progress on this issue with targeted projects or assessments of waterbird by-catch on the way. No progress has been made in other countries under evaluation. Short-term Objective 3 - Taking action to avoid oil spills This objective was evaluated as having been achieved in the evaluated countries already in In countries additionally evaluated during the current evaluation, only Finland indicated no progress on this objective. However, it must be noted, that in most other countries oil pollution contingency plans either existed even before the adoption of the Velvet Scoter Management Plan, or were developed/upgraded not specifically in relation to the Velvet Scoter MP. Short-term Objective 4 - Reducing disturbance in breeding and wintering areas This objective includes two measures assessment of inland breeding populations in Sweden and Finland (Measure 4) and establishment of hunting and disturbance-free areas in SPAs of international importance (Measure 6). Arguably, Measure 4 is as much related to the Objective 4 as to Objective 1 or even Objective 5. It must be noted, however, that no progress has been achieved on this measure in both countries with inland breeding populations of the Velvet Scoter Finland and Sweden. There was little or no progress in the implementation of Measure 6 in all countries with important aggregations of staging or wintering Velvet Scoters. While the development of SPA network for staging and wintering seabirds, including Velvet Scoter, has progressed rather well in most countries (see Measure 5), the SPA status alone does not automatically protect these sites from disturbance. Denmark is currently the only country under assessment that holds important areas for Velvet 9

10 Scoters and has an open hunting season for this species, but no official disturbance free areas in SPAs. Short-term Objective 5 - Collecting better data on size of winter population and breeding success Two measures falling under this objective development of a complete census of wintering and moulting areas for Velvet Scoter (Measure 9) and supporting research on survival rates and fecundity of breeding Velvet Scoters (Measure 10), have been implemented to a very different degree. Development of a complete census of wintering and moulting areas for Velvet Scoter on a regional scale has progressed particularly actively in recent years (admittedly, almost a decade later than foreseen in the Management Plan). A Baltic Sea wide survey of wintering marine waterbirds was informally arranged and carried out by NGOs, authorities and scientific institutions of Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, Sweden and Denmark in January March This initiative is being developed further into a coordinated survey, with coordinated methodology, timing and data analysis. On the other hand, situation on a national level differs widely in different countries. For example, in Lithuania only monitoring programme has been prepared so far, but neither funding, nor timing has been approved, whereas in Latvia the state-funded monitoring programme has been approved and is already being implemented. In contrast with Measure 9, very little or no progress has been made in the implementation of Measure 10 in the three countries for which this measure is relevant Sweden, Finland and Estonia. Only some small-scale ringing studies and a new study on the impact of Thiamine are carried out in Sweden. Hunting-related measures As of September 2016, when Velvet Scoter was removed from the list of huntable species in Latvia, Denmark is the only principal range state of the Velvet Scoter, where hunting of this species is allowed, with an annual hunting bag of ca birds. Therefore the two hunting-related measures Measure 1 (timing of open season) and Measure 2 (hunting bag statistics) are currently applicable in Denmark only and both have been fully implemented there. 10

11 4 - IMPLEMENTATION OF THE PLAN Scoring methodology Implementation of Velvet Scoter Management Plan was evaluated following the methodology developed by Gallo-Orsi (2001), which was also used during the 2014 review (The N2K Group, 2014). Several Management Plan implementation metrics were calculated from the Priority Score (PS) of Management Plan measures (1 Low, 2 Medium, 3 High, 4 Critical) and Implementation Scores (IS) assigned to each measure in a questionnaire by national experts (0 Not needed/not relevant; 1 Little or no work (0 10%) carried out; 2 Some work started (11 50%), but no significant progress yet; 3 Significant progress (51 75%), but target still not reached; 4 Action fully implemented, no further work required except continuation of on-going work): National Implementation Score (NIS) was calculated for each Member State, taking into account only those measures that were considered relevant for that country (i.e. measures with IS = 0 were not included in the calculation). IS of each relevant measure was multiplied by the measure's PS, and the sum of these factors was divided by the sum of PS of the relevant measures for that country: NIS = Σ (PS IS)/ Σ PS Values of NIS range from 1 (poor implementation) to 4 (complete implementation), indicating the degree to which the Velvet Scoter Management Plan (its relevant measures) was implemented in a given country. Average Implementation Score (AIS) was calculated for each Management Plan measure as an average of national IS for that measure, but only for Member States where the measure was relevant (i.e. countries with IS = 0 for a given measure were not included in the calculation). Action Priority Index (API) was calculated for each Management Plan measure, using the following equation: API = PS (4-AIS)/3 This index prioritizes the future implementation of Management Plan measures by taking into account the urgency (priority) of the measure and its current implementation level, thus, e.g., ranking poorly implemented high priority measures with highest API scores (API ~ 4). Completely implemented measures with no further actions needed receive API score of 0. Scoring results Overall, Velvet Scoter Management Plan has an average NIS of 2.59 across all the assessed Member States. When considering only the Principal Range States, the average NIS is 2.30 (Fig. 2). This indicates that while some progress in Management Plan implementation has been made since its adoption, the progress has been slow and no Principal Range States have reported a complete implementation of the Management Plan. On the other hand, only Finland reported pretty much complete lack of progress in implementation of the Management Plan (NIS = 1), followed by Estonia with NIS = 1.7. All other Principal Range States reported rather similar progress in Management Plan 11

12 implementation (NIS = ), with Denmark and Germany having achieved the most progress (Fig. 2). National Implementation Score (NIS) DE EE DK FI LT LV PL SE Principal Range State Figure 2. National Implementation Scores (NIS) of Velvet Scoter Principal Range States. Average Implementation Scores (AIS) of different measures show that only the two hunting-related Management Plan measures have been fully implemented (Fig. 3). However, it must be noted that these two measures were relevant only for Denmark, as the only Principal Range State currently having an open season for the Velvet Scoter. Among the remaining measures, pollution prevention and oil spill contingency planning measure (Measure 7) was closest to implementation (AIS = 3.0), even though in most countries this was not related to the implementation of the Velvet Scoter Management Plan as such, but, rather, to the already pre-existing oil pollution prevention measures or measures developed under other programmes. Identification and designation of staging and wintering areas of international importance as SPAs (Measure 5) as well as development of a complete census of wintering and moulting areas of international importance for Velvet Scoter (Measure 9) were two measures directly aimed at waterbirds, including the Velvet Scoter, with the most progress in implementation (Fig. 3). It should be noted that progress was rather slow in implementation of measures related to breeding Velvet Scoters (Measures 4 and 10), with the exception of identification and protection of breeding sites (Measure 3). 12

13 Average Implementation Score (AIS) Management Plan Measure Figure 3. Average Implementation Scores (AIS) of different measures of the Velvet Scoter Management Plan. See Annex 1 for the description of Management Plan measures. The calculated Action Priority Index (API), which integrates progress of measure implementation with their urgency, shows that research into survival rates and fecundity of breeding Velvet Scoters in Sweden, Finland and Estonia (Measure 10) is the measure of highest priority at present (Fig. 4). Another measure of high priority is also related to breeding Velvet Scoters, but concerns only inland breeding birds in Finland and Sweden these breeding populations need to be assessed and their needs for conservation efforts need to be identified (Measure 4). Assessment of fishery by-catch impact on moulting and wintering (as well as breeding) Velvet Scoters and determination of the need for fishery restrictions (Measure 8) ranks second among the most urgent measures. Even though hunting of Velvet Scoters currently is allowed only in one Principal Range State Denmark, establishment of hunting and disturbance-free areas in SPAs of international importance (Measure 6) remains of high priority, because SPA status alone does not usually prevent other kinds of disturbance (e.g. recreational boating, fishing, etc.) of birds in these areas. 13

14 Action Priority Index (API) Management Plan Measure Figure 4. Action Priority Index (API) of different measures of the Velvet Scoter Management Plan. See Annex 1 for the description of Management Plan measures. 14

15 5 - REFERENCES BirdLife International & NatureServe Bird Species Distribution Maps of the World Melanitta fusca. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version Gallo-Orsi, U. ed Saving Europe s most threatened birds: progress in implementing European Species Action Plans, BirdLife International, Wageningen, The Netherlands. Jensen, F.P. & Lutz, M Management Plan for Velvet Scoter (Melanitta fusca) Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities. The N2K Group Implementation review for 13 Management Plans for birds. Prepared for the European Commission, Directorate General Environment, B3 Unit in the framework of the Service Contract N /2012/635359/SER/B2. Wetlands International "Waterbird Population Estimates". Retrieved from wpe.wetlands.org on Saturday 10 Sep

16 6 - ANNEXES Annex 1. Implementation Scores of Management Plan Measures and other implementation metrics in assessed Member States (Principal Range States are shown in bold). No. Measure PS Member State BE DE DK EE FI LT LV PL SE UK AIS API Velvet Scoter hunting in EU Member States does not affect birds on spring migration 1. or late breeding birds nor hinder the recovery of this depleted species to favourable conservation status 2. Data on annual number of Velvet Scoter shot in Member States (with hunting on this species) is available Important breeding sites of Velvet Scoter along the coast of the northern part of the Baltic Sea are identified and protected to create a network of key areas The inland breeding populations in Sweden and Finland is assessed to determine the need for special conservation efforts All offshore staging and wintering areas of international importance for Velvet Scoter within the EU are identified and designated SPAs Hunting and disturbance-free areas are established in a minimum of two SPAs of international importance for wintering and/or staging Velvet Scoter in all Member States with sites of international importance for this species 7. Improved pollution prevention and improved oil spill contingency planning is in place in the Baltic Sea and other marine areas important to Velvet Scoter The need for restrictions of fishing activities to reduce by-catch is assessed where flocks of moulting and wintering Velvet Scoter regularly occur and in the breeding areas where necessary 9. By end of 2007 a program for a complete census of wintering and moulting areas of international importance within EU is developed. It should as a minimum include mid-winter counts every third year and surveys of mounting areas in August every six years 10. Member States with breeding populations of Velvet Scoter (Sweden, Finland and Estonia) support research that provide improved knowledge about survival rates and fecundity which allow modelling of population development and assessing effects of additional mortalities National Implementation Score (NIS) PS Priority Score; AIS Average Implementation Score; API Action Priority Index; NIS National Implementation Score Member States: BE Belgium; DE Germany; EE Estonia; DK Denmark; FI Finland; LT Lithuania; LV Latvia; PL Poland; SE Sweden; UK United Kingdom 16