Pioneering bird conservationist gerard c. Boere, who created international “flyway” protection system, dies at 83

Gerard C. Boere, a visionary conservationist who revolutionized how the world protects migratory birds, passed away on January 6 at age 83. The Dutch scientist pioneered the groundbreaking “flyway approach” to conservation—recognizing that migratory waterbirds connect wetlands from the Arctic to southern Africa into one vulnerable ecosystem that requires international cooperation to protect.

Long before cross-border environmental thinking became mainstream, Boere understood that birds don’t recognize human boundaries. Starting as a zoogeographer and paleontologist studying Arctic waders and the Wadden Sea, he spent years observing birds that arrived and departed on schedules completely independent of political borders. This hands-on fieldwork convinced him that effective bird conservation required countries to work together along the actual migration routes birds use.

Boere’s most significant achievement came in the 1980s and 1990s when he transformed this scientific insight into international law. Recognizing an opportunity within the newly adopted Convention on Migratory Species, he dedicated years to creating the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA). This landmark treaty, concluded in The Hague in 1995 and implemented in 1999, legally binds countries to protect migratory birds across their entire journey.

His work required a rare combination of scientific rigor, bureaucratic persistence, and diplomatic skill—convincing governments that international cooperation wasn’t a concession but an environmental necessity. Boere’s flyway approach has since become the gold standard for migratory species protection worldwide, ensuring that mudflats, wetlands, and stopover sites receive coordinated protection across continents.