In September 2026, representatives of more than a hundred organizations gathered in Nairobi to discuss an alarming trend: nearly half of all migratory bird species are in decline.
According to the BirdLife International report "State of the World's Birds," 45 percent of migratory species are showing a decline, and every ninth one is threatened with extinction.
Waders and seabirds are especially hard hit, as their routes pass through dozens of countries and continents.
The main threats — habitat loss, agriculture, hunting, pollution and climate change — know no borders.
A bird may nest in Scandinavia and winter in Africa, depending on several key stopover sites along the way.
BirdLife's chief scientist, Stuart Butchart, stressed that the threats require action across the entire flyway, not in individual countries.
The outcome of the summit was the Nairobi Flyway Declaration, signed by more than a hundred organizations.
The Asian Development Bank has committed to allocating three billion dollars to protect fifty priority wetlands along the East Asian–Australasian Flyway.
Development banks in Latin America and the Caribbean plan to raise between three and five billion dollars by 2050 to protect more than thirty landscapes.
The World Bank and BirdLife are working to mobilize funds in Africa, Europe and Asia.
The World Bank's environment director, Valerie Hickey, noted the economic potential: international bird tourism is valued at 70 billion dollars.
BirdLife CEO Martin Harper expressed hope that joint efforts will help create a network of protected areas along all the main flyways.
The involvement of financial institutions shows a shift: biodiversity conservation is becoming part of mainstream economic planning.
Protecting migratory birds is not only a matter of caring for individual species, but also of preserving the interconnected ecosystems on which people and nature depend.
Coordinating action at the flyway level makes it possible to prevent extinctions and restore populations when the solutions are already known.
