A motion to promote raptor monitoring and conservation

A motion was positively voted and promoted by the last Italian Congress of Ornithology. Medraptors has supported the motion because it is necessary to make one step a head in the monitoring and conservation of migratory raptors as already asked by the international agreements signed by the Italian government. Here following the text of the motion addressed to the Italian Ministry of Environment:

The participants to the XVIII Italian Congress of Ornithology held in Caramanico Terme (PE) between 17th and 20th September 2015,  acknowledgingthat:

1. at the international level Italy is required to take concrete actions for the monitoring and conservation of migratory raptors (see in particular the obligations under Article 12 of the Birds Directive n. 2009/147 / EC and point 4 of the Action Plan of the “Raptors MoU " signed by Italy in 2011); 
2. although different groups of ornithologists are involved in monitoring and research projects on migratory raptors in Italy, a coordination to gather basic data for the implementation of the above mentioned conservation instruments is still lacking;
3. at the European level experiences of long-term monitoring exist since long time, thanks to the synergies of the work of institutions, local authorities and associations and individual volunteers; these realities have recently met  within  the EURAPMON project to which the Italian Ministry of the Environment has offered its scientific and  financial support;

call on  the Italian Ministry of the Environment to:

• promote and support the setting up  of a national working group with the formal role to monitor the migration of raptors and to build up a national data bank in line with international standard;
• continue supporting the EURAPMON project so as to promote the integration of national activities at the European level.