Greg Laden's Blog

Branta ruficollis is endangered. The Red Breasted Goose International Working Group (RbGIWG, which is unpronounceable) has a new species action plan to save this critter.

Here's some info from Redbrested Goose Central:

Red-breasted Goose (Branta ruficollis) is a charismatic globally threatened species highly dependent on wetlands and farmed areas. In the last 50 years, the distribution of the breeding and wintering grounds of Red-breasted Goose has changed dramatically for unknown reasons.

This species has a small wintering range with 80-90% of the population concentrated in just five roost sites covering less than 20 000 km2 and the remainder occurring in a few other areas.

The European wintering population is estimated to be more than 27,000 individuals, but this has fluctuated wildly.

It is markedly lower than during the period 1970 -1990, but after remaining stable from 1990 to 2000, significant reductions have recently been observed. For these reasons, in 2007, Branta ruficollis was up listed to Endanger.

[source]

And here is a cool goolge map thingie that lest you monitor the geese on their flyway.

From Birdlife International:

The Red-breasted Goose is highly dependent on wetlands and farmed areas. Over recent years, the global population has declined by between 52 and 70%. The species is known to have a small wintering range, with 80-90% of the population concentrated in just five roost sites. Twenty-five science and conservation experts were present. They represented countries all along the bird's flyway, including: Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Romania, Russia and Ukraine. The experts were also joined by delegates from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB; BirdLife Partner in the UK), Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT), Wetlands International and the Romanian Water Authority.

The priority conservation objectives identified by the group will set the stage for effectively addressing the key threats through cooperative 'on-the-ground' activities. Progress can be closely monitored via the working group's newly launched website - www.brantaruficollis.org

The workshop was organized by the Romanian Ornithological Society/BirdLife Romania and was attended by representatives of the AEWA Secretariat, RSPB, WWT, Wetlands International and the Romanian Water Authority. The workshop was generously supported by the European Commission through the EU-LIFE project, by the African Eurasian Waterbird Agreement, the RSPB, the WWT, Vogelbescherming Nederland (BirdLife Partner in the Netherlands), and the National Authority for Scientific Research from Romania.