Wader Conservation World Watch

Every year on the first weekend of November we celebrate the Anniversary of the start of Wader Quest, which occurred on the 1^st of November 2012, when we started our travels to find waders around the world. The celebration takes the form of an international event – Wader Conservation World Watch.

The first WCWW was in 2014 the year we finished our travels. Each year since then it has grown in the number of people taking part and also the number of locations and species counted.

The purpose of WCWW is not just to highlight waders and the problems they are facing, but also to celebrate the people who are involved, either professionally or voluntarily, in their conservation. Whether a person’s involvement is as a researcher, a ringer, a conservationist, a birdwatcher or a fundraiser, this event is there to say ‘thank you’ to them and for the participants to say ‘I Care’ about what is happening to the worlds waders.

So far, more thank 300 individuals and 27 organisations have taken part in the event demonstrating that they, like us, care that:

• 48% of known wader populations are in decline;
• 6 wader species are already Extinct;
• 8 wader species are Critically Endangered;
• 4 of those are probably already Extinct;
• 9 wader species are Endangered (2 added to the list recently);
• 9 wader species are Vulnerable;
• 29 wader species are Near threatened (6 added to the list recently);
• the Yellow Sea is being devastated;
• 80% of UK Northern Lapwings have disappeared;
• the Spoon-billed Sandpiper is heading for extinction;
• hay meadow nesting chicks are being destroyed by early mowing;
• thousands of waders are still hunted every year;
• Hooded Plovers still can’t find a place on the beach to breed;
• wetlands are being drained at an astounding rate;
  97% of Irish breeding Eurasian Curlews have gone;
• Black Stilts only cling to existence due to captive breeding;

Why not join in?

email address waderquest@gmail.com

 

Participating organisations in 2018

Species recorded

Participating Organisations – 2017

Wader Conservation World Watch – 2015 statistics

125 species

182 Observers

33 Countries

6 Continents

9 flyways

Read the WCWW Special Edition Newsletters.

Wader Conservation World Watch – 2014 statistics

Read the WCWW Special Edition Newsletters.