Wetlands I.W.C.

The monitoring of aquatic bird populations is an indispensable tool for obtaining the information necessary for the development of sound policies for the conservation of bird populations and their habitats.The objectives of the winter censuses of waterbirds, coordinated in Italy by the National Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (hereinafter referred to as ‘ISPRA’), are:- to establish annually the size of the populations present in January; identify variations in the size and distribution of populations;- determine the importance at international and national level of the various sites;- contribute significantly to local, national and international efforts to conserve aquatic birds and their habitats.The results of these censuses also feed into the Wetlands International database (a non-profit world organisation dedicated exclusively to the conservation of wetlands and their sustainable management), this allows analysis on larger scalegeographics, such as to understand the entire wintering range of the various populations and to allow the identification of rankings of absolute importance of the sites, the overall numerical trend of the populations and their conservation status.