Species Protection under Birds Directive
Hunting, capture or killing of birds
Regarding the implementation of the Article 7 (4) of the Birds Directive, in 1994 the Court of Justice ruling C-435/92 concluded that complete protection of huntable species must be guaranteed during these periods. This led to the production of the Key Concept document, initiated by the ORNIS Committee in 1998 in recognition of the need to have a clearer interpretation of Article 7(4) and how to apply it. The document contains the dates (in decades – 10 day periods) of the reproductive period, and for migratory birds the prenuptial migration for each Annex II species by Member State. The resulting document (Key Concepts of Article 7(4) of Directive 79/409/EEC) completed in 2001 covered 15 Member States.
With the accession of 12 more Member States and the accumulation of additional data there was a need to update the Key Concepts document. This process was started by the European Commission at the beginning of 2008, followed by a second consultation open to stakeholders in October 2008. This second consultation was deemed necessary due to gaps in data, and to provide the opportunity for Member States to verify the data given for their country. The latest version of the document was completed in 2009 and made available on the DG Environment website in early 2010.
However, the European Commission acknowledges that the 2009 version of the Key Concepts document can be reviewed on a regular basis, to take into account emerging knowledge from modern research and monitoring methods and, potentially, the effects of climate change on phenology. In March 2012 a “proposal for a methodology for the regular updating of the Key concepts of Article 7(4) of the Birds Directive” was included in the final report of BirdLife International and FACE for the European Commission under the title “Methodology for bird species recovery planning in the European Union”. In this context, the new version of the “Key concepts of Article 7(4) of Directive 79/409/EEC – Period of reproduction and prenuptial migration of Annex II bird species in the 28 Member States” was published in August 2014.
This report presents information on the timing of the reproduction period and of prenuptial migration for bird species listed on Annex II of the Directive on the conservation of wild birds (79/409/EEC) occurring in EU28. Annex II lists those bird species that, owing to their population level, geographic distribution and reproductive rate, may be hunted throughout the Community (part 1) or in the Member States in respect of which they are indicated (part 2). This document is an updated and extended version of the original “Key Concepts” report published in September 2001. Since the publication of the original report, 13 new countries have become Members of the EU. Furthermore, a great deal of new information on population size and trends has also become available for the entire EU since 2001. This report is intended to update the version from October 2009 (which included information on the EU-12 new Member States and new information on the status of the species in the 15 Member States that were covered by the first version) with the data from Croatia. However, a thorough update of the document remains necessary for the future to take into account the latest data for all Member States.
- 1. In respect of the hunting, capture or killing of birds under this Directive, Member States shall prohibit the use of all means, arrangements or methods used for the large-scale or non-selective capture or killing of birds or capable of causing the local disappearance of a species, in particular the use of those listed in Annex IV, point (a).
- 2. Moreover, Member States shall prohibit any hunting from the modes of transport and under the conditions mentioned in Annex IV, point (b).
Under Article 8 of the Birds Directive, Member States have to outlaw all forms of non-selective and large scale capture or killing of birds, especially the methods listed in Annex IV of the Birds Directive. In this context, the Commission has supported the preparation of European management plans for several huntable species which are considered to be in an unfavourable conservation state, such as the Redshank.
These plans should assist Member States to fulfill their obligations under the Directive. However, they are neither binding nor do they commit the Member States beyond their existing legal commitments under this Directive.