25th anniversary of the Birds Directive
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The year 2004 marked the 25th anniversary of the Birds Directive (Council Directive 79/409/EEC on the conservation of wild birds). The Directive aims to conserve all wild birds naturally occurring in the European territory of the Member States, and is one of the soundest pieces of bird conservation legislation worldwide.
BirdLife International has supported the Birds Directive and its implementation since the very beginning over 25 years ago. In this context BirdLife is an officially recognized authority for reference data on sites (Important Bird Area inventories) and species. The new BirdLife publications Birds in Europe and Birds in the European Union: a status assessment provide cutting edge scientific data on where we are with bird conservation in Europe.
On the occasion of the anniversary BirdLife produced a brochure that summarised the most important results of these data and gave recommendations for action.
![]() Chris Gomersall
Roseate Terns (Sterna dougallii), one of Europe's rarest seabird species
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Learn more on the Birds Directive and BirdLife’s involvement on the following pages
Throughout the year 2004 the anniversary was celebrated across the EU’s Member States with public events, scientific conferences and political meetings. To find out more about what’s going on in your country by looking at the European Commission’s Calendar of Events (managed by EUROSITE; for search choose the theme “25th anniversary of the Birds Directive”).
See also the European Commission’s website on the anniversary. There, you can also find the official logo, which you can download if you want to use it for a related event or publication.
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