About the Project
The migratory Soaring Birds Project is a 2-tranche project, aims to mainstream migratory soaring bird considerations into the productive sectors along the Rift Valley/Red Sea flyway that pose the greatest risk to the safe migration of these birds – principally hunting, energy, tourism development, agriculture and waste management.
The second tranche (2018-2022) of this project builds on the successes of the first tranche, which established the Regional Flyway Facility (RFF) to act as a locus for conservation efforts related to MSBs along the flyway and to implement mainstreaming activities specifically aimed at MSBs. The focus of the mainstreaming has been to integrate flyway issues into existing national or donor-funded "vehicles" of reform or change management in the key sectors through the provision of technical tools, content, services and support.
A key aspect of the project is that it involves governments and civil society organisations to conserve MSBs and mainstream conservation measures. The MSB Project provides a platform that links the conservation efforts in the north and south with the flyway, which is a critical weak point in MSB conservation.
Participating Partners
Funding Agency: GEF is the Donor Agency for the MSB Project
Tranche 2 Funding Amount: $3,500,000
UNDP is the Executing Agency for the MSB Project
BirdLife International is the Implementing Agency for the MSB Project
The National Independent Organisations working together as one for Migratory Soaring Birds
SPNL – Society for the Protection of Nature in Lebanon
RSCN – Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature
SWS – Sudanese Wildlife Society
NCE- Nature Conservation Egypt
ADN – Association Djibouti Nature
EWNHS - Ethiopian Wildlife and Natural History Society
EEAA - Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency
The Flyway
The Rift Valley/Red Sea flyway is the second most important flyway for migratory soaring birds in the world, with over 1.5 million birds of at least 37 species, including 5 globally threatened species, using this corridor between their breeding grounds in Europe and West Asia and wintering areas in Africa each year. MSBs Such as raptors, storks, pelicans and some ibis
The Migrating Species:
Migratory soaring birds are large, highly visible slow-moving birds, and they are highly vulnerable during the migration along the Rift Valley/Red Sea flyway to localized threats such as hunting and collision with wind turbines and associated power lines (particularly when they fly low or come in to land). That could have severe impacts on global populations and might disrupt the assemblage of species in the critical ecosystems of both Europe-West Asia and Africa.
