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Birds of Danish SPA's

Foreword

20 years have passed since the adoption of the Birds Directive. On such an occasion it is relevant to ask, what has been achieved, and what is still to be done? Although simple questions they are not easy to answer given the complexity of the issue.

In Denmark one of our efforts to fulfil the obligations arising from the Birds Directive was the initial designation of 111 Special Protected Areas (SPAs) in 1983.

The designation was made on the basis of available information at that time which to a large extend was provided by bird censuses organised by the Danish Ornithological Society. Site specific information of bird occurrences and other features of the sites were compiled and published at the time of designation. Since then, dedicated monitoring of birds within the SPAs, mainly marine areas, has been performed by the National Environmental Research Institute, but the censuses of the Danish Ornithological Society are still important sources of information. A new site specific publication was issued in 1995. In 1998, all data on relevant bird species occurring within the SPAs were compiled and reported to the European Commission in 1999.

The basic idea of the present publication is to compile the two sets of data from 1983 and from 1998 species by species and in addition provide existing data on the overall trends for these species. This is by no means a scientific analysis, but the publication provides an overview, that will help focus our attention in our future efforts with regard to science, monitoring and management relating to the Danish SPAs, and thus help answer the questions on what has been achieved and what is still to be done.

The publication is provided in English in order to serve as inspiration and information to a wider audience than those normally interested in the Danish Special Protection Areas.

Hans Henrik Christensen
Director General

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