Birds of the Red Book of Kyrgyzstan
More than twenty years have passed since the publication of the last edition of the Red Book of the Kyrgyz SSR. It included 20 species from 16 genera of the class Aves. Even then, scientists from our country referred to international experience in nature conservation through the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources – IUCN. However, this did not go beyond references to this experience in the preface. At the same time, any wildlife conservation strategy, particularly for birds, is only as strong as its implementation, which must abstract from national borders and linguistic divisions. Only joint efforts can preserve certain bird species that use the territories of some countries as nesting sites, others as resting places during migration, and finally, others as wintering grounds. This also means that specialists from different countries must apply unified approaches and criteria in determining categories for species that need protection, in order to establish common priorities for the same bird species, which in turn will lead to the development of similar national wildlife conservation strategies with compatible goals, under which international efforts to protect these species can and should unite.
Otherwise, the efforts of one country to protect a particular species, chosen based on one set of national criteria, will be undermined by another country where that species is not protected due to entirely different criteria, or is only partially protected, only in the territories of reserves and sanctuaries, as this species is not threatened within that country. Therefore, the efforts of an international organization like IUCN, which has developed sufficiently unified categories and quantitative criteria for including species in the red book, should be welcomed and supported in every way.
Table 1. Distribution of Red Book Bird Species of Kyrgyzstan by Ecosystems
The issue of international cooperation is quite pressing because the latest trends observed in monitoring the status of natural populations of several species of global fauna and flora suggest very grim prospects for the transfer of biological diversity from one generation to another (Table 1). In particular, the number of species that have moved into categories at risk of extinction has increased almost across all higher taxa of animals and plants over the past 9 years, and in the class Amphibia – by an order of magnitude.
Therefore, finding common agreed positions, applying coordinated methods and approaches to determining the categories of red-listed species based on unified criteria will allow for the establishment of a common list of the most vulnerable species for all countries and the development of national strategies for their protection under unified global strategic goals. Then, it will be much easier to mobilize existing transnational and national resources to implement such a unified global strategy in practice and to reverse the emerging trends of the eventual loss of a large number of species in the foreseeable future. It is from these positions that the categories of red-listed bird and mammal species inhabiting the Kyrgyz Republic were determined. The authors understand that this approach is an essential first step in the inventory of species at risk of extinction. The next step should be the development of country-specific categories and quantitative criteria for red-listed species. However, this step requires adequate resources, both intellectual and material, and the involvement of both the scientific community and the conservation public, including non-governmental organizations, and participation is a lengthy process that requires consensus in decision-making by various actors in this process. At the preparatory stage of this edition of the Red Book, such conditions were not present, therefore, country-specific categories and criteria were not developed, and the authors did not consider it fair to make such a decision unilaterally.
A total of 57 bird species are included. The following species, classified by IUCN as category VI, Near Threatened, NT, were not included due to the lack of adequate assessment data: Anas formosa Georgi, 1775 Baikal Teal, Kлoктун Коркулдак чурёк, Falco jugger Gray, 1834 Laggar Falcon, Лaггaр Лаггар, Gallinago media (Latham, 1787) Great Snipe, Дупель Дупель. Additionally, about 300 species inhabiting Kyrgyzstan and classified by IUCN as category VII, Least Concern, LC, are not included in this edition even as a list, as they are either quite common or even numerous within Kyrgyzstan, and their population status does not raise concerns among the ornithologists of the republic, or for some of them, again, there is a lack of adequate assessment data.
