Studies show that each year, around 1.5 million waterfowl fall victim to lead poisoning across Europe. Lead is a very toxic substance, affecting not only birds, wildlife and the environment, but also human health. While hunting in wetlands, a part of the fired pellets fall to the ground or into the water. Waterbirds can pick …

What is the IWC? The International Waterbird Census (IWC) is a site-based counting scheme for monitoring waterbird numbers, organized since 1967 by Wetlands International, formerly the International Waterfowl and Wetlands Research Bureau (IWRB). The Census operates at a global level, and the former division into four separate continental-scale surveys was superseded in 2003 by a …