Throughout the month of January, thousands of people roamed wetlands around the world to take part in the 60th edition of the International Waterbird Census (IWC), an extraordinary citizen science project that has played a major, yet largely unknown, role in global conservation efforts over the past six decades.
Designed to estimate the size and trends of waterbird populations, identify and monitor priority wetlands for waterbirds, and support the protection and management of wetlands, this census, initiated and coordinated by Wetlands International, has contributed to remarkable conservation successes, including:
• 1.9 billion waterbirds counted since the first census in 1967
• the designation of 956 Ramsar Wetlands of International Importance – 1.5 million km²
• the identification of 2,701 Important Bird Conservation Areas – 1.75 million km²
• the identification of 2,721 Special Protection Areas in the EU (418,000 km²).
The Tour du Valat , a research institute dedicated to the conservation of Mediterranean wetlands and based in the Camargue, has been deeply involved in these waterbird counts since the early 1960s, both in the Camargue and across the entire Mediterranean region.
In the Camargue at this time of year, you may encounter scientists, site managers and volunteers, many from local nature conservation organizations, armed with telescopes and binoculars around local wetlands, counting thousands of waterbirds and contributing to the international census. An emblematic region of exceptional richness for many bird species, the Camargue hosts these winter surveys. The Tour du Valat will compile data collected both on the ground and by aerial surveys and transmit them to the LPO (Bird Protection League), the national coordinator. Founded in 1954 by Luc Hoffmann, a fervent ornithologist and pioneer in wetland conservation, this research institute has played a major role in monitoring since its beginning. It also hosted, from the 1960s onwards, the International Waterfowl Research Bureau (IWRB), which later became Wetlands International.
“Since the 1960s, wintering waterbird aerial surveys have been conducted across the vast Camargue territory. The Tour du Valat, the CNRS and the French Office for Biodiversity (OFB) therefore maintain a unique database built over more than 60 years. It documents the international importance of the Camargue as well as trends in monitored species. This is a treasure, but it requires considerable effort to maintain this monitoring for many years to come! " Jocelyn Champagnon, Research Director at the Tour du Valat.
La Tour du Valat has also been involved for many years in activities it initiated and developed within the "Medwaterbirds" network . It coordinates actions to improve the quantity and quality of monitoring in the Mediterranean through the provision of optical equipment, organization of training courses (counting or data management), and data centralization. This network, supported by the French Ministry for the Environment, the French Development Agency (AFD), and the French Office for Biodiversity (OFB) and BirdLife International, has made a major contribution to Wetlands International’s annual censuses since 2013.
These scientific collaborations within the network enhance the value of the data, contribute to better knowledge of waterbirds, and support their conservation at the Mediterranean scale. The production of syntheses assessing the status and trends of waterbird populations in around fifteen countries and across the Mediterranean is proof of this.
Thus, in 2025, La Tour du Valat coordinated the production of 13 national technical reports, as well as an overall synthesis on the status of waterbird counts in 13 Mediterranean countries between 2019 and 2023, building on previous work conducted between 2009 and 2018.
To find out more
Overall synthesis for 13 countries “Waterbird counts 2019–2023” https://tourduvalat.org/en/download/48479/
Country technical reports:
Portugal (EN), Spain (EN), France (FR), Albania (EN), Serbia (EN), Montenegro (EN), (North Macedonia – ongoing), Greece (EN), (Turkey – ongoing), Libya (EN), Tunisia (FR), Algeria (FR), and Morocco (EN)
https://tourduvalat.org/en/publications-en/technical-reports-of-the-mediterranean-waterbird-network-mwn-2/