Hemispheric Shorebird Reserves and Ramsar Sites
by: Peter W. Hicklin and Allan D. Smith
SUMMER 1988
IMAGE: Map of project
On August 10, 1988, the Canadian Wildlife Service (Environment Canada) and the Nova Department of Lands and Forests jointly designated Minas Basin as a Western Hemispheric Shorebird Reserve.
Each year for 6 to 8 weeks, between late July and September, 1.5 million semipalmated sandpipers visit the Minas Basin and Shepody Bay on their way south from breeding grounds in the Canadian Arctic. These two Bay of Fundy sites contain one of the Western Hemisphere's largest concentrations of migratory shorebirds.
In the course of their annual migration cycle this population of sandpipers depends upon 4 critical site. During our winter, 70% of an estimated population of 1.9 million birds can be found along the warm coast of Suriname, South America. In spring they migrate northward to Delaware Bay, New Jersey, where they feed on horseshoe crab eggs to replenish depleted fat reserves before departing for their northern breeding grounds. Southbound at the end of the breeding season, the sandpipers stop along the west coast of James Bay and the muddy intertidal flats and saltmarshes of the upper Bay of Fundy.
Like the links in a chain, each of these habitats is critical to the success of these 2 trans-equatorial migrations. For this reason 25 miles of beach and mudflat along Delaware Bay, a large portion of intertidal lands along the Suriname coast, and the beaches and flats of Fundy's Minas Basin and Shepody Bay have all been declared Hemispheric Shorebird Reserves by their respective provincial or state and federal governments.
In the Atlantic Provinces we already have a considerable list of protected sites that go by many different names - National Wildlife Areas, Bird Sanctuaries, Wildlife Management Areas and Ecological Reserves, to name a few. In the United States similar protected areas are called Wildlife Refuges or National Seashores. National Wildlife Areas and Wildlife Refuges are particularly important to many species of waterfowl as habitat for breeding, moulting and staging.
The key staging areas (way-stations used for "refuelling" by very large number of shorebirds) typically support primarily sandpipers and plovers. Such areas feature wide expanses of mud and sandflat of little interest to other groups of birds at any time of year. But they often contain whole continental populations of certain species. For example, it a serious oil spill happened in Delaware Bay in May, in the upper Bay of Fundy in August or along the coast of Suriname between September and April, it could drastically reduce - or quickly and silently wipe out - the world population of the semipalmated sandpiper. Therefore, those sites are of "hemispheric" importance to these large populations. No link in the chain can be broken without catastrophic implications.
When a proposal was brought forward to the International Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies in 1984, the membership - Wildlife Directors from Canada, the U.S. and Mexico - approved Resolution No. 7: "Establishment of Western Hemisphere Reserve System to Protect Shorebird Populations". Thus a new phrase in the lexicon of wildlife protection was born: "Western Hemisphere Reserve", Resolution No. 7 read in part:
- NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the International Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies supports the concept of developing a reserve system of essential shorebird habitats in North America; and
- BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the International Association pledges to cooperate with the World Wildlife Fund, the various states and other appropriate interests and individuals in delineating the most essential migratory shorebird habitats in the Western Hemisphere; and
- BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the International Association supports future efforts to encourage South and Central American countries to establish a system of reserves in these neo-tropical countries where essential habitat must be protected; and
- BE IT LASTLY RESOLVED, that the International Association further encourages the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, Canadian Wildlife Service, the Provinces, Territories and Mexico to recognize the need to develop an international shorebird management plan which will include a reserve system and, in cooperation with the states, implement planning and management programs to protect the shorebird habitat in the Western Hemisphere.
This very important resolution started the international lines of communication humming. Very quickly Dr. J. Peterson Myers of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural History (now with the National Audubon Society) set up an administrative framework to inform interested countries of a new initiative for habitat protection, namely Hemispheric Reserves specifically for sand pipers and plovers.
The great importance of each of these habitats, many thousands of miles apart, led to the separate designation and the creation of a reserve "network". To qualify as a Hemispheric Reserve as area must support at least 250,000 birds or at least 30% of a flyway population. Only 15 such sites exist in the Americas (Canada, U.S., Mexico, Central and South America). Each reserve is part of an intercontinental network of protected sites known formally as the Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network (WHSRN). This network has an administrative body, the WHSRN Council, representing the National Audubon Society, the Canadian Wildlife Service, the International Association of Fish and wildlife Agencies, world Wildlife Fund, Manomet Bird Observatory and representatives from Costa Rica and Argentina.
How the reserves are managed is strictly the responsibility of the "owner",be it the provincial, state or federal governments, or even a private owner. By joining the network, "owners" accept the moral responsibility to manage the site so as to benefit the shorebird populations which use them. The WHSRN Council identifies new sites and maintains communication among the countries which share migrant shorebird populations through these reserves.
The appearance of Hemispheric Reserves in our neck of the woods is relatively new. In fact, the world's first reserve was declared only 3 years ago, in May 1985 (Delaware Bay, NJ). But some Maritimers find this designation confusing when they look at the growing list of protected wildlife sites in Atlantic Canada. And when the Canadian wildlife Service had the audacity to lobby to get the same areas also listed as RAMSAR sites, even some of our own colleagues seemed mystified.
The name RAMSAR is not an acronym but simply the name of the town in Iran where the Convention on Conservation of Wetlands of International Significance first met in 1971. The convention consists of representatives from 48 countries, including Canada, the United States and Suriname. It is the only international group that seeks to protect habitat worldwide.
Areas such as Minas Basin can qualify as Hemispheric Reserves and RAMSAR sites because the former recognizes the need to protect the large numbers of birds using so few sites, while the latter focuses on the importance and unique habitats which warrant protection.
The main protection afforded by the RAMSAR designation is based on focusing international attention on their importance. As the booklet Canada and the RAMSAR Convention states:
The Convention does not override national legislation to protect wetlands, but helps to support that legislation by drawing international attention to threats of serious damage to listed wetlands. So far, no listed sites have been lost and a number have been saved, at least partially due to the strong international pressure that the Convention helps to create.
The fact that both the WHSRN Council and the RAMSAR Conventions recognize Minas Basin as a shorebird reserve of hemispheric stature and a RAMSAR site clearly points out its crucial and international importance.
A later article will discuss other Maritime Provinces habitat designations created to protect wildlife. We will look at how each designation has its own name and criteria, and how it seeks to offer the best form of protection to wildlife populations, whether endemic to the Atlantic Provinces or just passing through.
IMAGE: Semipalmated sandpipers roosting behind net
IMAGE: Semipalmated sandpipers in flight
