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The Caribbean is home to over 185 species of waterbird (seabirds, wading birds, marshbirds, waterfowl and shorebirds), including a number of endemic and globally threatened species.

Throughout the Caribbean, wetlands – and the birds that rely on them – are in dire need of conservation action. Many of the region’s original wetlands have been lost, and those that remain are subject to destruction for development (e.g., for tourism, industry, housing, agriculture) and degradation (e.g. pollution, cutting of mangroves, invasive species).

Waterbird populations are also subject to hunting, human disturbance, egg and chick harvest, and predation by introduced invasive species such as rats, cats and mongoose. These threats are all compounded by lack of protection, poor enforcement of existing protections or insufficient management. Despite this bleak picture, there are a number of promising approaches being applied in the region, and an energy and level of investment which bode well for wetland and waterbird conservation, even if one site at a time!

The SCSCB has had a long-standing interest in waterbirds and their wetland habitats. Efforts to develop an overarching waterbird conservation framework or plan for the region began in 2001, and all subsequent SCSCB meetings have included sessions to share and expand on approaches to waterbird and wetland conservation. Although the plan has never been formally completed, significant steps have been made in assessing the region’s waterbird and wetland resources and SCSCB, together with our partners, has made marked progress achieving some of the plan’s goals, especially with regards to outreach and education. Through a project coordinated by BirdLife International on behalf of Waterbird Conservation for the Americas, identification of the most important waterbird sites has been completed and national-scale information on species, threats, and conservation activities has been gathered. The West Indian Whistling-Duck (WIWD) and Wetlands Conservation Project has been conducting training workshops and providing educational materials to teachers and natural resource agency staff throughout the region to raise awareness about the functions and values of wetlands. The project has also sponsored WIWD surveys and monitoring, conducted hunter outreach and education, organized and facilitated a workshop on the restoration of Ashton Lagoon in Union Island, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and promoted and assisted with the development of Watchable Wildlife Ponds (Cayman Islands, Bahamas, Dominican Republic, Jamaica). Activities relating to advocacy, monitoring, site protection and restoration have also been ongoing on various islands.

At the most recent SCSCB meeting in San Juan, Puerto Rico (August 2007), a symposium entitled Conserving the Region’s Waterbirds and Wetlands – Challenges, Successes, and Solutions was held. Click here to read the report online; click here to download the report in Word.

Caribbean Waterbird Conservation Plan (CWCP)

A draft Caribbean Waterbird Conservation Plan was prepared by the Waterbirds Task Force (click here to download the plan). The plan is intended to increase awareness of waterbird conservation needs throughout the region, and was conceived as a process through which the SCSCB can coordinate its efforts with international initiatives such as Waterbird Conservation for the Americas, Partners in Flight, the Important Bird Areas (IBA) program, and TNC’s Eco-regional planning initiative, amongst others.

Although the plan has not been formally completed, much progress has been made in moving forward on some of the plan's goals. It was recognized at the Waterbirds Symposium in San Juan, August 2007, that the Waterbirds Plan should be revised and updated, based on new information that will soon be available in the national waterbird reports in the Waterbird Conservation for the Americas project (for more information, contact Verónica Anadón).

Resources

Visit the West Indian Whistling-Duck (WIWD) and Wetlands Conservation Project webpages to see educational materials and resources that are available for outreach and education on wetlands and waterbirds. Click here for materials that can be downloaded.

Past News

A waterbird conservation planning workshop was convened at the 2005 SCSCB meeting in Guadeloupe to discuss consolidation of the existing CWCP and to move towards the achievement of its goals. Details of the results of this workshop and current plans for the Waterbird Task Force can be read in the full workshop report published in the Journal of Caribbean Ornithology 18: 101-102.

Download the workshop report (PDF)