BirdLife awarded £7.5 million to protect African-Eurasian Flyway
BirdLife International has reported that new funding from the Ecological Restoration Fund will support conservation work across one of the world’s most important migratory bird routes.
BirdLife International has reported that it has been awarded £7.5 million to help protect and restore key sites along the African-Eurasian Flyway - one of the world’s great migratory bird corridors.
The three-year grant from the Ecological Restoration Fund will support work across a flyway used by more than two billion migratory birds and more than 500 species. Stretching from the Arctic tundra to the southern tip of Africa, the route links breeding, feeding and wintering areas across Europe, Asia and Africa.
BirdLife says the funding will be used to strengthen protection and restoration at priority sites and landscapes, including critical wetlands. On-the-ground work is planned in Romania, Bulgaria, Iraq, Jordan, Uganda, Malawi and Zimbabwe, with the programme also aiming to support nature-based economies and jobs for local communities.
The announcement comes at a time of growing concern for migratory birds. BirdLife says one in nine migratory bird species is threatened with extinction, while 45% are in decline. Many depend on a chain of safe stopover sites, feeding areas and breeding grounds, meaning losses in one country can affect populations across entire continents.
Martin Harper, CEO of BirdLife International, described the grant as “a major milestone” in efforts to strengthen conservation across borders. He said BirdLife and its 80 Partners in the African-Eurasian Flyway wanted to ensure “an ecologically coherent network of sites” was protected, managed and restored so that birds could “fly free from harm”.
The funding will also support rapid-response work against damaging developments that threaten key flyway sites. BirdLife says this will include efforts to ensure major infrastructure planning - including renewable energy development - takes flyway conservation into account.
The new grant follows an earlier three-year phase of work supported by the Ecological Restoration Fund and delivered by BirdLife and its UK Partner, the RSPB. BirdLife says that work included protection and restoration at key sites, support for UNESCO World Heritage status for Sierra Leone’s Gola Rainforest National Park, and the leveraging of a further £19 million for habitat restoration along the flyway.
Lenke Bálint, Executive Director at the Ecological Restoration Fund, said the African-Eurasian Flyway was “one of the world’s great ecological networks”, connecting landscapes, cultures and communities across three continents. She said the programme would benefit migratory species as well as the communities that depend on healthy ecosystems for livelihoods and wellbeing.
Among the birds highlighted by BirdLife are White Stork, Egyptian Vulture and European Turtle Dove - species that symbolise both the scale of migration along the flyway and the pressures facing birds that rely on safe routes between continents.
BirdLife says the grant will help restore vital habitats, strengthen cross-border conservation and unlock new sources of finance for nature, climate and people. For migratory birds, the aim is simple but ambitious: to keep the chain of places they depend on intact from one end of the flyway to the other.
June 2026
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