Snowy owls are among 42 species proposed for international conservation under the U.N.’s Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals.
The snowy owl is one of 42 species that have been proposed for inclusion under the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS), an international treaty under U.N. auspices.
Snowies were proposed for listing under the treaty’s Appendix II, which includes species that warrant international concern. Appendix I covers species judged to be endangered.
Among the other species included in the proposal are giant river otters, striped hyena, great and scalloped hammerhead sharks, certain populations of cheetahs, 26 species of gadfly petrels, and three species of North American shorebirds – Hudsonian whimbrel, Hudsonian godwit and lesser yellowlegs. The 42 represent species proposed for both appendices.
From the CMS press release announcing the proposal:
“Similarly, the snowy owl (Bubo scandiacus) has become widely recognized in recent years through popular culture, but its status is increasingly precarious. Over the past three decades, the species has lost a third of its global population; the international conservation organization BirdLife International recently declared it extinct in Sweden. As a top predator and an avian icon of the Arctic tundra, the snowy owl is a key indicator of the health of this fragile ecosystem. Climate change and overexploitation are among the primary drivers of its population decline, underscoring the species’ vulnerability despite its iconic status.”
The reference to the loss of third of its population in the past three decades is based on work that Project SNOWstorm and its colleagues in the International Snowy Owl Working Group (ISOWG) published in 2024 in the journal Bird Conservation International.
Also known as the Bonn Convention after its signing in Bonn, West Germany in 1979, the CMS took force in 1983, and by 2020 had 131 signatory countries by 2020. (The United States is not a signatory, but is a participating party.)
The proposal to add snowy owls to the CMS Appendix II was made by the Norwegian government, with the scientific basis for the proposal drafted by our ISOWG colleagues in the Norwegian Snowy Owl Project. The proposed amendments to the appendices of CMS will be considered at the upcoming 15th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP15), to be held in Campo Grande, Brazil, from March 23-29, 2026.
