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Contracting Parties to the Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats of 1979 (the Bern Convention) are required take appropriate and necessary legislative and administrative measures to ensure the conservation of the habitats of wild fauna species, especially the Specially Protected Species listed in its appendices.

Seven species and one family of procellariiform seabirds have been listed in Appendix II of the Convention since March 2002.

Appendix II-listed shearwaters are the Barolo or Macaronesian Puffinus baroli (listed as a subspecies of the Little Shearwater P. assimilis baroli), Manx P. puffinus, Yelkouan P. yelkouan and Cory's Shearwater Calonectris diomedea [but cited as Procellaria diomedea, presumably in error).  Although not specifically stated, it would seem that the Yelkouan Shearwater when listed was considered conspecific with the closely-related Balearic Shearwater P. mauretanicus (an ACAP-listed species).  Further, Cory's Shearwater C. borealis of Macaronesia is now commonly regarded as specifically distinct from Scopoli's Shearwater C. diomedea of the Mediterranean.

The Manx and Cory's (sensu lato) Shearwaters are not considered threatened by BirdLife International and the Barolo Shearwater which breeds in the Azores (Portugal) and the Canary Islands (Spain) of Macaronesia in the North Atlantic has yet to be accorded a threatened status.

A 2008 review considered by ACAP identified the Vulnerable Yelkouan Shearwater as a potential candidate species for inclusion within the Agreement.  The species, endemic to the Mediterranean Sea, has been the recent subject of conservation-orientated research and a workshop, as regularly reported over the last year in ACAP Latest News (click here).

The EU LIFE Yelkouan Shearwater Project operated by BirdLife Malta was a European Union LIFE Nature-funded project that aimed to reverse population declines and reduce future threats facing the species in Malta.  Activity directed at the species is continuing as part of the Malta Seabird Project.  Among the Yelkouan Shearwater's 10 or so breeding range states is France, a Party to the Albatross and Petrel Agreement.

Yelkouan Shearwater.  Photograph by Matthew Borg Cardona

Other procellariiform species listed on Appendix II of the Bern Convention are the globally non-threatened (Least Concern) Bulwer's Petrel Bulweria bulwerii, the Endangered Zino's Petrel Pterodroma madeira and the Near Threatened Fea's Petrel P. feae, all of which breed on various island groups within Macaronesia.

In addition "all Hydrobatidae" (storm petrels) are listed on Appendix II of the Bern Convention.  Four species of storm petrels breed within Europe (defined here as including the Macaronesian island groups): Leach's Oceanodroma leucorhoa, Madeiran O. castro, European Hydrobates pelagicus and White-faced Pelagodroma marina. None is considered globally threatened (click here).

Selected references:

Austin, J.J.; Bretagnolle, V. & Pasquet, E. 2004.  A global molecular phylogeny of the small Puffinus shearwaters and implications for systematics of the Little-Audubon's Shearwater complex.  Auk 121: 847-864.

Cooper, J. 2010.  A brief review of the conservation status of shearwaters Calonectris and Puffinus.  Fifth Meeting of the Advisory Committee Mar del Plata, Argentina, 13-17 April 2010.  AC5 Inf 15. 7 pp.

Cooper, J. & Baker, G.B. 2008.  Identifying candidate species for inclusion within the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels.  Marine Ornithology 36: 1-8 + appendices.

Heidrich, P., Amengual, J.F. & Wink, M. 1998.  Phylogenetic relationships in Mediterranean and North Atlantic shearwaters (Aves: Procellariidae) based on nucleotide sequences of mtDNA.  Biochemical Systematics and Ecology 26: 145-170.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 7 January 2013