The Lesser Flamingo, (Phoeniconaias minor) is one of the species in decline in Africa. Image taken in Kuifkopvisanger, Western Cape, South Africa (Credit: Daniel J Field, Milner Centre for Evolution)
Protecting an area for wildlife can work-but only if there is robust political governance. That's the research conclusion of twenty-three years of bird counting by an international team of researchers, including a scientist from the Milner Centre for Evolution at the University of Bath and published in the journal Nature . The researchers have combined long-term global bird surveys with diverse factors which may impact on the richness of nature. The analysis shows that governance predicts population abundance better than does GDP, agricultural expansion, climate change, or human population growth. 23 years of bird-watching data. The finding is one outcome from thousands of hours of work, not just data-processing but also in the field. It combines visits to 25,769 sites across the globe, from the International Waterbird Census coordinated by Wetlands International, and the National Audubon Society's Christmas Bird Count.
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