The Migratory Birds for People (MBP) programme is about 30 wetland visitor centres across Europe and West Africa in a network that follows the flight path of many migratory wetland birds species.
These centres are working together to share best practice and develop new approaches to delivering wetland messages to their visitors. We have an MBP strategic plan and the MBP Mission visual update 2018 that will help you understand what the programme aims to do, an MBP workplan 2021-22, and a summary action plan poster to which you can add your details.
The lead group for the project consists of the Dutch Staatsbosbeheer, WLI, and Wetlands International West Africa. We also work with partners across Europe and Africa. Please see the contacts list for details.
Optics for Africa
Where possible, MBP visitor centres in Europe collect binoculars and telescopes and share them with members in West Africa. So far we have collected more than 80 binoculars and telescopes.
We invite any member centre to participate! Find out how.
Social media guidelines
Together with partners Eurosite we produced an introductory guide to using social media at wetland visitor centres and nature reserves. In 2021 we produced these more advanced guidelines.
Educational Map
Discover the East Atlantic Flyway through games! The MBP flyway map is an educational resource developed by MBP members, a fabric map of 2 x 1.5 metres. It is rugged so you can bring it to schools or out to the wetland to illustrate migration and how wetland centres are networking to help migratory birds. Members, please contact us for a copy.
You can also download a free guidebook of activities, compiled by the network, to make use of the map.
Newsletter, films, coordination and meetings
Regular newsletters are produced by Isabelle Zwick and Audrey Cadou. Please also check out the archive of more than a decde of newsletters produced by MBP co-founder Roelof Heringa.
They give updates on meetings, project development, and partner news: subscribe here. We also have a Facebook and Instagram page.
Video for centre screens
We have a promotional video for visitor centre screens. MBP volunteers produced and translated it in Arabic, Basque, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Luxembourgish, Portuguese, Spanish, and Swedish. You can view it on YouTube and we can send it to you as a PowerPoint or mp4 video file, as suits your technical setup.
Map of the Migratory Birds for People network
Our poster (on the left, with version for Naturum Getterön, Sweden) that can be tailored to your own centres – we can provide the design file for you to add your own logo, pictures and examples, for display at your centre. Just contact Chris Rostron to arrange for us to send it to you.
Connecting Birds and Schools
We arrange video conferences between schools for World Migratory Bird Day. Pupils love it! Previous events have been in across three languages and two flyways.
Flyway Youth Forum
Since 2021 we have co-organised the East Atlantic Flyway Youth Forum. Along with the Common Wadden Sea Secretariat and Youth Engaged in Wetlands, we bring young people together virtually to expand their skills as wetland conservationists in the Flyway.
Flyway expeditions
We are supporting two expeditions on the East Atlantic Flyway.
For Conservation Without Borders' Flight of the Osprey we have developed educational materials. With insight from multiple MBP members and the Trust for Sustainable Living (TSL), we have made a PowerPoint, factsheets, and activity guides. You can download them to use in your centre and with schools. You can access them from the TSL app, where you will also see updates on the expedition, as well as this download pack.
For the Sounding Wild Exploration, we are connecting MBP members with the Drioli brothers to create 3D audio and immersive image magic with local people at MBP member wetland centres.
Annual meetings
2021
Our 2021 annual meeting was online, in the afternoons of October 11 and 12. We had our usual review of the past year and planning for the next, as well as presentations from MBP members and inspirational external groups.
This meeting had full simultaneous interpretation between French and English.
Read the meeting report, including our work plan for 2021/2.
2020
In 2020 we held our first virtual Annual Meeting. On 12 November we met, as usual, to review the past year, and plan for the next one, but we even managed some online birding!
The meeting report summarises the presentations from members and guests, and links to recordings and PowerPoints from the meeting.
2019
Twenty MBP colleagues gathered at WWT Slimbridge Wetland Centre, in October 2019 to review the past year and plan for the next. Here’s the summary, with some photos, or read the full meeting report here.
2018
This meeting took place at the Maison du Lac de Grand Lieu, near Nantes, France from the 24th to the 27th of September 2018. To see the summary report of the meeting, please click here. For some feedback from some of the participants here’s what said they would be taking home to their wetlands centres and organisations.
MBP News
What WLI did in 2017
Migratory Birds Day, May 2017 Connecting Birds and Schools project. We facilitated 6 schools and wetland centres to take part, with a final skype conference call between three of the schools. WLI internship: Our intern, Patricio Guerrero from Chile, started in June, replacing our previous intern Abdallah Khazene. Chilean exchange partners came to…
MBP Annual meeting, Denmark
Plans are well underway for our annual meeting 2016, to be held in Denmark at the Vestamager Centre, near to Copenhagen from the 11th to the 14th September, see MBP registration form which contains the programme and registration details. This will be followed by an optional trip to the Vadehavscentret in the West of Denmark from…
WLI Update, June 2016
WLI Update June 2016 New Partners New partners this month include two Russian wetland centres, the Nenetsky State Natural Reserve, and the Imeretinskaya Natural Ornithological Park. WLI internship programme We are still working to promote the WLI Internship Programme, open to suitable graduates / early career professionals who could lend support to the WLI programme,…
BirdFlyway – Urdaibai Bird center
BirdFlyway is a nature tourism project that covers a network of European wetlands that have at least two elements in common: they have a visitor’s centre and they are located on the migration route of two well-known bird species, the goose and the osprey. The project is run by the Urdaibai Bird Center (Aranzadi Society…
Grazing Guilds, Denmark: Amager, Copenhagen
In the nature reserve “Amager” we have no less than 4 volunteer Guilds for grazing. Three of them are with cows and one with sheep. We have got two new herds just this year. And it is the same message in the entire country that herds for grazing are booming in many nature areas. Grazing…
MBP Newsflash
MBP is working with Eurosite to hold the next annual MBP meeting with support from the Natura 2000 Biogeographical Region programme. Please click on the newsflash or visit the MBP page for more information. The meeting will be held at the Urdaibai Bird Center, in the Basque Country, northern Spain, from the 13th to the 16th of…
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