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National accounts suggest that the Common Pochard Aythya ferina was an uncommon breeding bird throughout western Europe before 1850. Extensions to the breeding range in the late 19th century were potentially aided by the rapid development of managed fish-ponds in eastern Europe, which provided suitable novel habitat at that time. Expansion into western Europe followed in subsequent decades. Wetland and waterbody eutrophication throughout Europe, which likely provided food and cover for the birds, may have accelerated the rapid expansion from the 1950s until the early 1980s. Widespread declines in the last 30 years, especially in eastern Europe, where breeding numbers are highest, are possibly linked to intensification and/or abandonment of freshwater fish farming and changes in water quality. Studies show that Pochard gain fitness benefits from nesting in Black-headed Gull Chroicocephalus ridibundus colonies and hence has been affected by major losses of European gull colonies in the last 30 years. The spread of alien fish species such as the Carp Cyprinus carpio, which compete with Pochard for food resources, is a problem in the Mediterranean region. Changing predation pressures (in some cases linked to invasive alien mammals) are also implicated in some areas. Relatively modest numbers breeding in the UK, France and the Netherlands have remained stable or increased over the same recent span of years, confirming that different factors currently affect Pochard breeding abundance throughout its range. We urgently need better information relating to key factors affecting Pochard breeding success and abundance, which is currently showing an unfavourable conservation status throughout much of Europe

The Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna (CAFF), the biodiversity working group of the Arctic Council, established theCircumpolar Biodiversity Monitoring Program (CBMP) to address the need for coordinated and standardized monitoringof Arctic environments. The CBMP includes an international network of scientists, conservation organizations, governmentagencies, Permanent Participants Arctic community experts and leaders. Using an ecosystem-based monitoring approachwhich includes species, ecological functions, ecosystems, their interactions, and potential drivers, the CBMP focuses ondeveloping and implementing long-term plans for monitoring the integrity of Arctic biomes: terrestrial, marine, freshwater,and coastal (under development) environments.The CBMP Terrestrial Expert Monitoring Group (CBMP-TEMG) has developed the Arctic Terrestrial Biodiversity Monitoring Plan(CBMP-Terrestrial Plan/the Plan) as the framework for coordinated, long-term Arctic terrestrial biodiversity monitoring. Thegoal of the CBMP-Terrestrial Plan is to improve the collective ability of Arctic traditional knowledge (TK) holders, northerncommunities, and scientists to detect, understand and report on long-term change in Arctic terrestrial ecosystems andbiodiversity. The CBMP-Terrestrial Plan aims to address these priority management questions:1. What are the status, distribution, and conditions of terrestrial focal species, populations, communities, andlandscapes/ecosystems and key processes/functions occurring in the Arctic?2. How and where are these terrestrial focal species, populations, communities, and landscapes/ecosystems and keyprocesses/functions changing?3. What and how are the primary environmental and anthropogenic drivers influencing changes in biodiversity andecosystem function?4. Where are the areas of high ecological importance including, for example, resilient and vulnerable areas (related tothe FECs) and where are drivers having the greatest impact?

We report on the status of theBaltic/Wadden Sea flyway Eider population based on trends in breeding and wintering numbers throughout the region, supplemented by changes in the sex ratio and proportion of young Eiders as monitored in the Danish hunting bag. At the flyway scale, total numbers of breeding pairs decreased by 48% during 2000–2009, after relatively stable breeding numbers in 1991–2000. The majority of the population nest in Finland and Sweden,where the number of breeding pairs has halved over the same period. After initial declines in winter numbers between 1991 and 2000, during 2000–2009, national wintering numbers increased in the Baltic Sea, but decreased in the Wadden Sea. The annual proportion of adult females in the Danish hunting bag data de creased from ca.45%(1982) to ca.25%(2009) and simultaneously the proportion of firstwinter birds fell from ca. 70% to ca. 30%, indicating dramatic structural changes in the Danish wintering numbers. These results suggest that the total flyway populationwill experience further declines, unless productivity increases and the factors responsible for decreasing adult female survival are identified and ameliorated.We discuss potential population drivers and present some recommendations for improved flyway-levelmonitoring and management of Eiders.