Assessing and monitoring bird populations in Africa: an overview

Access to reliable population data is crucial for effective conservation and management of birds. So far, relatively little attention has been paid to assessing and monitoring bird populations in Africa. This is beginning to change. Regional meetings, for example in East Africa, are discussing and defining standard methodologies, and making technical information more widely available. Researchers are using these methods to access the populations of threatened species, or those of economic value. Projects involving long-term monitoring, particularly of waterbirds, ale beginning to yield results that are useful for management. Some challenges that remain include: securing institutional and financial support for longterm monitoring work; integrating monitoring efforts (especially of migratory species) across borders; understanding the ecological significance of population trends; finding robust and reliable methods to census economically important species, such as game-birds; and making accurate global assessments of the populations of threatened species.