Governments, conservation groups and financial institutions have committed to scaling up protection of the world’s migratory bird routes as a new report revealed that 45 per cent of migratory bird species are in decline.
The commitments were made at the Global Flyways Summit in Nairobi, where stakeholders signed the Nairobi Flyways Declaration, calling for coordinated conservation across national borders and entire migration routes.
The summit also brought together multilateral development banks that are mobilizing billions of dollars for conservation programmes spanning Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas.
BirdLife International, which convened the summit alongside partners, said the declaration represents a shift from protecting individual sites to safeguarding entire flyways — the networks of breeding, feeding and resting areas that migratory birds depend on during their journeys.
The organisation also unveiled its latest State of the World’s Birds report, the first edition of the four-yearly assessment dedicated entirely to migratory birds and the flyways they use.
The findings paint a troubling picture.
According to the report, 45 per cent of migratory bird species are declining globally, while one in nine is threatened with extinction. Seabirds, shorebirds and species dependent on forests, marine environments and coastal wetlands are among those facing the greatest pressure.
The report also highlights the 2025 extinction of the Slender-billed Curlew, which was last recorded at a lagoon in Morocco in February 1995.
BirdLife says its extinction was the first recorded global bird extinction in mainland Eurasia and Africa in recent centuries. Six other migratory species have either been confirmed or are suspected to have disappeared over the past 150 years.
Dr Stuart Butchart, BirdLife International’s Chief Scientist and a senior editor of the report, said the decline in migratory birds was also an indicator of wider pressure on ecosystems.
“Migratory birds are sentinels, and their declines reveal growing pressure on the natural systems that sustain us,” Butchart said.
“But the science is equally clear: conservation works, with co-ordinated action preventing extinctions and helping populations recover.”
The report identifies agricultural intensification, invasive species, climate change and unsustainable hunting among the major human-driven threats affecting migratory birds.
However, BirdLife says there is evidence that populations can recover when conservation efforts tackle threats across an entire migration route rather than concentrating on isolated sites.
It cites coordinated action involving several countries to protect the Egyptian Vulture, which has helped halt the decline of the species’ Balkan breeding population.
The Nairobi summit placed financing at the centre of efforts to expand such interventions.
Three multilateral development banks are integrating flyway conservation into their financing frameworks, with conservation commitments made since 2021 amounting to more than $6 billion.
The Asian Development Bank is mobilising $3 billion over the next decade to protect at least 50 priority wetlands along the East Asian-Australasian Flyway. The ecosystems targeted by the programme support nearly 200 million people.
In Latin America and the Caribbean, the Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean plans to mobilise between $3 billion and $5 billion through 2050 to protect more than 30 landscapes and seascapes.
The World Bank and BirdLife International are also working to mobilise several billion dollars for conservation initiatives across Africa, Europe and Asia along migration routes used by more than two billion birds.
Additional funding is expected to reach communities directly involved in conservation.
In June, the Global Environment Facility approved the Global Flyways Grant Mechanism, which will provide $8.97 million in direct grants alongside $107 million in co-financing for conservation and restoration work covering nine million hectares of wetlands.
The initiative is expected to benefit about 330,000 people.
Nature Kenya Executive Director Dr Paul Matiku said hosting the summit in Nairobi had helped place Africa’s role in protecting global migratory routes at the centre of the conversation.
“The birds that breed in Europe, Asia and the Arctic depend on our wetlands, grasslands and forests,” Matiku said.
“The Nairobi Declaration and finance commitments recognise that African nations are not just stakeholders: we are stewards of solutions.”
Migratory birds can travel thousands of kilometres and cross numerous national borders during their annual journeys, making conservation efforts in one country dependent on what happens elsewhere along the route.
A wetland lost in one country, for instance, can remove a crucial feeding or resting point for birds that breed or spend other parts of the year thousands of kilometres away.
Honorary President of BirdLife International, Princess Takamado, said this interdependence made international cooperation critical.
“We stand at a turning point. Migratory birds do not recognise borders. They connect Asia to Africa, the Arctic to the tropics,” she said.
“The Nairobi Flyways Declaration acknowledges this reality.”
BirdLife International Chief Executive Martin Harper said the scale of the decline required governments, businesses, financial institutions and civil society organisations to translate the commitments made in Nairobi into action.
“The State of the World’s Birds report is unambiguous: we are losing migratory birds at an alarming rate,” Harper said.
“But today’s Nairobi Declaration signals a turning point.”
He added: “We need everyone to step up and play their part. That means governments, business and civil society.”
BirdLife says the challenge now is to ensure that financing and conservation interventions follow the birds themselves — across breeding grounds, stopover sites and non-breeding areas — rather than stopping at national borders.
The organisation’s Global Flyways Programme brings together its network of 125 conservation partners in 120 countries and territories to coordinate protection and restoration efforts across these interconnected migration routes.
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