BirdLife International's in-depth study, Birds in Europe, revealed that 226 species (43 percent) of birds occurring regularly in Europe are in peril, facing an uncertain future due to intensive agriculture and climate change. Some are so threatened, they may completely disappear soon.

Government officials and envrionmental groups from 25 European Union members, plus three candidate states and Turkey met at a conference this week in the Netherlands and agreed to expand protected bird territories. Although it awaits approval by the EU's environment bodies, recommendations include expanding Europe's protected areas from the current 8% to 10-15% of the continent's territory as well as extending protected areas at sea to include all of the continental shelf's coastal areas.

The Eurasian griffon and the white-tailed eagle have shown recovery since Europe's conservation efforts under the Bird Directive, adopted 25 years ago. Let's hope a new plan can help save the rest of them.