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Last Christmas to give a species as a gift and support EBBA2

Our big goal of publishing the EBBA2 book is only one Christmas away – December of 2020. If you wish to support the European Breeding Bird Atlas in its final phase and at the same time give a like minded bird enthusiast a perfect gift for Christmas – now is your chance!

Why support EBBA2?

EBBA2 is the biggest standardised biodiversity data collection on European level, showing current distribution and abundance of all breeding bird species occurring in Europe.

EBBA2 will be an important basis to determine and shape nature conservation priorities on continent wide level.

The Species sponsorship will bring funding needed for completion of the project and it will help to lower the price of the publication and give free copies to national coordinators, which will make it easily available in less wealthy countries in Europe.

: The map of distribution and abundance of the Common Rosefinch Carpodacus erythrinus on European level.

: One of the outputs provided by EBBA2 are change maps which compare the current species distribution with its distribution from the 1980s (in the previous Atlas). These maps will show areas where individual species have disappeared and where they have spread.The map above shows how the White-tailed Sea-eagle Haliaeetus albicilla significantly increased its distribution (green).

: A new methodological approach will present modelled maps of probability of species occurrence based on standardised surveys. Here example of Tree Sparrow Passer montanus..

Where are we now in our EBBA2 journey?

All the data on breeding bird distribution in Europe were have been collected and subsequently checked. From this dataset, we managed to produce distribution, abundance and change maps at a resolution of 50x50km for almost 600 species. Similarly, modelled maps will be shown alongside the main distribution maps for over 200 species. In 2019, we have finished writing the texts and collecting the illustrations for all 555 species that will have a full account in the book. Over 300 authors and 44 artists have contributed to this work. Additional species, i.e. those which occur in Europe only rarely or some non-native species, will be presented in Annexes. Similarly, the main book chapters are being written as you read these lines. Currently, everything is focused on preparing the final maps, graphs and texts for the publisher in order to be able to place the product, our EBBA2 book, into your hands by next Christmas!

Where is there still a need?

Finishing the book is currently our priority. However, EBBA2 goes beyond just publishing a book. We want to make the results widely available. Together with our publisher, Lynx edicions, we intend to sell the book at a price which many people can afford and we want to provide free copies to the national coordinators who collaborated in the project. To finance this we have to raise 50’000 Euro.
The outputs will be published at a later stage on the website too, we also plan to contribute with analyses of the EBBA2 data for biodiversity reporting in 2020 and other urgent policy purposes. We try to encourage and raise awareness in the scientific community on the potential and usage of the data and outputs that was collected during EBBA2 for their own research. In other words, we need to make sure the Atlas will be used as widely as possible in research and conservation.

How can you support EBBA2?

You can support the project via the Species sponsorship scheme. Just choose your favourite species and donate the amount you wish to help us in our final phase of the project. You can donate in your name, but can also donate a species sponsorship to someone else. If you are seeking for meaningful Christmas gift, ideally with added value for nature and people, then donating a species sponsorship as a Christmas gift is an ideal option for you!

Marina Kipson, Petr Voříšek, Alena Klvaňova and Verena Keller, 29.11.2019