The many unknowns about plovers and sandpipers of the world : introduction to a wealth of research opportunities highly relevant for shorebird conservation

We review the current information, especially with respect to conservation biology, about the plover (Charadriidae) and sandpiper (Scolopacidae) families, based on information assembled for the family-chapters in the Handbook of the Birds of the World, Volume 3 (del Hoyo et al. 1996). The existing information about 155 species is summarized in a comprehensive table (Appendix 1), and some informative statistics have been derived. Existing knowledge is very unequally distributed. For example, for those plovers and sandpipers breeding in South America only, nothing is known about the demography of of the species. Species confined to Africa and Asia are slightly better known, but also here demographic and feeding ecological knowledge is absent in most cases. Best studied are species in the remaining regions of the world, but even for species breeding in Europe any demographical knowledge, so critical for sound conservation practise and management, is lacking for a third of the species. There are no fewer than 27 plover and sandpiper species about which virtually nothing is known. Inland species such as several lapwings, plovers, woodcocks and snipes with restricted distribution in South America, Africa and Asia, feature prominently in this list; a third of these species are known to face conservation problems. There is work to be done by waderologists all over the world.