Monitoring and Research Activities. BHP shall carry out the monitoring and research activities contemplated in Section 7.1 in a manner which will provide data which will be useful in cumulative effects monitoring programs and shall consult and cooperate with the agencies undertaking such programs, as appropriate.
Monitoring and Research Activities. The main coordinated monitoring activities covering the species are: (1) the International Waterbird Census (IWC), which is carried out on an annual basis in mid-January, and (2) the International Bewick’s and Whooper Swan Census which is coordinated by the WI/IUCN Swan Specialist Group and is carried out every five years. In most countries the IWC is fully implemented, especially in the key wintering countries – UK, Netherlands, Germany – and data is submitted regularly, providing the basis for the analysis of long-term population trends. All range countries participate in the Bewick’s Swan census. In the breeding areas in Russia, the breeding success of Bewick’s Swan was monitored in the Nenetski Nature Reserve in the 1990s. Ringing was also started there and has continued ever since. Irregular field surveys have been undertaken elsewhere in the East European tundra. Regular monitoring of key swan stop-over sites takes place in Estonia and Lithuania as part of the state monitoring programme. In the wintering range, all core countries make regular counts of the species as part of their national waterbird monitoring programmes. Ecological and behavioural studies were carried out in the UK in the 1970s–1990s (Xxxx 2006 provides a review), but this has been more limited in recent years (X. Xxxx in xxxx.). Intensive research on various aspects of the ecology of the species has been carried out in the Netherlands and at different stop-over sites in recent decades (x.x. Xxxxxxx et al. 2002, Xxxxxxxx et al. 2006, Xxxxx et al. 2006, Xxxxxxxx et al. in press). Monitoring of breeding success takes place on an annual basis in the wintering range in the Netherlands (November-December), Germany (autumn), Denmark (biennially) and the UK (November–January inclusive). November-December counts are coordinated to occur simultaneously in The Netherlands, Denmark and UK (X.X. Xxxxxxx pers. comm.). At Slimbridge, detailed monitoring of Xxxxxx’x Swan life histories has been undertaken for more than 40 years, from the 1963/64 winter onwards (Xxxx 2006). Colour ringing schemes are continuing, including fitting plastic leg rings and neck bands so that individual swans can be identified in the field, with most ringing taking place in Britain and the Netherlands but also in key staging countries (in some years) and in the Nenetski region of the Russian arctic (most years from 1991 onwards).
