Global Seabird Programme

Nic Huin A Black-browed Albatross on its nest Zoom In

Seabirds, particularly albatrosses, are becoming increasingly threatened and at a faster rate globally than all other species-groups of birds; they face a wide variety of threats.

Many declines are closely linked to the expansion of commercial longline fisheries in seabird feeding areas, combined with the impacts of invasive alien species at nesting colonies.

The world’s oceans are open and dynamic systems that pose few physical barriers to the dispersal and migration of many seabirds: seas are not separated as are the continents. Seabird conservation issues need therefore to be addressed globally, which led BirdLife International to establish a Global Seabird Conservation Programme in 1997. The objectives of the programme are:

• To address seabird conservation issues at a global level, as appropriate, and engage relevant stakeholders regionally and internationally
• To facilitate existing, and promote new, initiatives to reduce the incidental mortality of seabirds by fisheries, particularly in respect of longlining.
• To establish and support a network of BirdLife partners and others to influence global and regional policies affecting seabirds.

Please click a link below to find out more about BirdLife’s Global Seabird Programme’s work on:

• Save the Albatross
• Global Agreements
• Alien Eradications
• Marine Important Bird Areas
• Seabird News
• Contact and Information