Italy Promotes CMS: Italian Migration Atlas Now Freely Available Online

Bonn, 18 March 2011 - As a natural bridge across the Mediterranean, Italy is a key passage and wintering area for migrants travelling between the Palaearctic and Africa. The Italian Migration Atlas, now available online, offers the most complete and updated set of information on migratory routes involving Italy.

The atlas features English versions of the introduction and materials/methods sections, as well as of captions to all graphics, figures and summaries of species accounts. The two volumes show results of analyses of ring recoveries between 1906-2003. Over 165,000 data refer to 213 species/taxa, many of which are of direct interest and concern also from a CMS perspective.

The overall picture provided by the atlas confirms the crucial role played by Italy as a crossroad for migrants. Hence the conservation value of the country and the importance of a detailed knowledge of the movements of birds originating from huge geographical areas. Also the flyways and wintering areas of bird populations breeding in Italy are described in detail.

Being the first migration atlas from a southern European country, the book offers insight into species- but also population-specific flyways across the ecological barrier represented by the Mediterranean. From a perspective of issues like those tackled by the CMS Flyway Working Group, the Italian Migration Atlas offers scientific evidence to be used when planning conservation strategies for the many bird species involved in the Palaearctic-African bird migration system.

The Atlas can be downloaded from the website of the Institute for Environmental Protection and Research. .

A summary, introduction and instructions on how to access the contents of the 2 volumes are available in English.