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Efforts on for conservation of houbara

The agency mission includes promoting bustards, falcons and bird conservation and reconciling traditions of Arab falconry with a sustainable use of the resources throughout the bustards and falcons range. ERWDA annual report says that the Asian houbara population suffers from hunting and poaching pressures high enough to explain the massive decline that ERWDA has been monitoring for years.

It was calculated by ERWDA scientists that the maximum sustainable yield is about 7 per cent of the adult size houbara population but that about 21 per cent is currently taken by falconers and poachers.

At the current pace, the houbara population declines by 15 per cent every year. In its global strategy for the conservation of the falcons and houbara, ERWDA has proposed the implementation of a series of conservation measures aimed at preserving the remaining wild houbara populations in their ecological, migratory, physiological and genetic diversity.

The ERWDA houbara strategy proposes a substantial reduction in the hunting and poaching pressure on wild birds on a global scale through management of the breeding and hunting grounds and through management of the wild houbara populations.

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