A preliminary overview of monitoring for raptors in Croatia

There are 40 regularly occurring raptor species in Croatia (diurnal raptors and owls), but only for two species (Griffon Vulture Gyps fulvus and Eleonora’s Falcon F. eleonorae) long-term monitoring (more than 10 years) of significant parts (i.e. > 80%) of their national population has been implemented. For 23 species (58%), the coverage of monitoring is limited to several locations (often within borders of given protected area), involving small percentage of national population or/and has started recently. Therefore, they do not satisfy the main purpose of national monitoring programmes, i.e. to draw conclusions about the trend of the species’ national population and to support the decision-making process about conservation measures to be applied. Besides the Institute of Ornithology and several ornithological NGOs, which are recognized as main actors for the implementation of raptors monitoring, the State Institute for Nature Protection (SINP) is setting up a framework for the nationwide bird monitoring complying with the legal provisions of the EU Birds Directive and the Natura 2000 network. The highest priority is to improve the coordination between state institutions, scientific and non-governmental organizations involved in raptor conservation with the final aim to develop a national raptor conservation strategy that sets priority target species and standardized monitoring systems