The International Convention for the Protection of Birds was signed at Paris on 18 October 1950. The authentic text is French; instruments of ratification are deposited with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of France, which notifies the signatories and acceding States. Between the countries which ratify or accede to it, the Convention replaces the 1902 Convention for the protection of birds useful to agriculture. It is not the Ramsar Convention and it is not the Convention on trade in wild species.

Article 1 limits the object to birds living in the wild. Article 2, subject to the exceptions in Articles 6 and 7, requires protection of all birds at least during the breeding season and, in addition, of migrants on their return to the nesting ground, particularly in the spring and early summer months, and throughout the year for species threatened with extinction or of scientific interest.

Article 3 prohibits, during the close season, the import, export, transport, sale, purchase, gift and keeping of a live or dead bird, or of any part of a bird, killed or captured in breach of the Convention. Article 4 prohibits, in the same season, the taking or destruction of nests under construction or occupied, and the taking, damaging, transport or trade in eggs, shells and young birds living in the wild. The exception for eggs accompanied by a certificate of restocking, of a scientific purpose or of captive origin remains a document rule, not a collecting method. A local exception, for the Netherlands only, concerns lapwing eggs.

Article 5 requires the parties to prohibit methods of mass destruction or capture and methods which inflict unnecessary suffering, and, where such methods are still lawful, to introduce progressively measures to prohibit or restrict them. The text lists categories of gear and means; this article does not repeat them. The obligation is one of prohibition and restriction, not a handbook.

Article 6 allows the authorities, by individual permits, to lift the prohibitions in Articles 2 to 5 if a species endangers certain agricultural or animal production or threatens other species whose conservation is desirable; birds so killed may not be bought, sold or transported outside the region. Sweden, Norway, Finland and the Faroe Islands may grant derogations for their own economic reasons, and Iceland could request them if it acceded. No measure may cause the total destruction of the indigenous or migratory species concerned. Article 7 allows exceptions for science, education, restocking, the breeding of game birds and falconry, with precautions against abuse. The United Kingdom is excepted from the transport rules in Articles 3 and 4. Feathers of species which may lawfully be killed fall outside Article 3.

Article 8: each party draws up a list of birds which may be killed or captured in its territory, within the limits of the Convention. Article 9: it may list species which private persons may keep in captivity, and it must regulate the market in protected birds. Article 10: the parties study and adopt means to prevent the destruction of birds by water pollution, lighthouses, cables, insecticides, poisons and other causes, and endeavour to educate the public. Article 11: they encourage aquatic and land reserves where birds can nest and where migrants can rest and feed. None of these clauses describes a capture or control technique.

The final clauses: accession is open to non-signatory States; entry into force is on the ninetieth day after the sixth instrument, and for later States on the ninetieth day after their own instrument. For the Convention that date was 17 January 1963. Duration is unlimited; denunciation is possible at any time five years after entry into force, taking effect one year after notification to the French ministry. The cover shows the Quai d’Orsay in Paris, the seat of the depositary ministry, not the signing hall.

Sources consulted: International Convention on the Protection of Birds; authentic French text, Convention internationale pour la protection des oiseaux.