BirdLife The Magazine June 2016
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JUNE <strong>2016</strong><br />
PACIFIC<br />
<strong>The</strong> voyage<br />
to discover<br />
Beck’s Petrel<br />
breeding grounds<br />
CAMBODIA<br />
New wildlife<br />
sanctuary<br />
in Siem Pang<br />
GOOD PRACTICE<br />
<strong>The</strong> drink that<br />
can save forest<br />
in Paraguay<br />
ONCE UPON<br />
A TIME<br />
Can Africa’s vultures be saved from extinction?<br />
Economics vs Ethics: to protect nature should<br />
we give it a monetary value or a moral one?
EDITORIAL1<br />
Together we are <strong>BirdLife</strong> International<br />
Partnership for nature and people<br />
TIME TO MOULT<br />
World Birdwatch is growing, it’s<br />
moulting. Bigger, stronger and more<br />
colourful feathers will enable this bird to<br />
reach the rapidly increasing number of<br />
<strong>BirdLife</strong>’s supporters. A make-over has<br />
been on the cards for a while.<br />
Whether it is the biologist in the dinghy<br />
in the Pacific, the ranger patrolling the<br />
savannah against poachers, the instructor<br />
working with fishermen to save seabirds<br />
despite sea-sickness, the 16 year old<br />
girl that spots and films with her mobile<br />
one of the rarest birds in the world,<br />
the former hunter who now monitors<br />
wildlife in Cambodia, the policy officer<br />
wearing out his/her soles and patience<br />
chasing policymakers in the corridors of<br />
power, this incredible community, the<br />
<strong>BirdLife</strong> family, deserves to see their story<br />
told, their culture reflected, their effort<br />
recognised, in a place (<strong>BirdLife</strong> <strong>The</strong><br />
<strong>Magazine</strong>) that is as good as their<br />
extraordinary work.<br />
You who subscribe to receive our<br />
news, and through that support<br />
our work, deserve a product that speaks<br />
to you better. Now it’s here, and while<br />
the final plumage has not yet set, the<br />
colours and array of these new feathers<br />
are showing the way and demonstrating<br />
how strong <strong>BirdLife</strong> can be.<br />
I hope you enjoy the new magazine<br />
and that this helps us grow closer and<br />
stronger. <strong>The</strong> change in the look and<br />
feel is part of a plan to make <strong>BirdLife</strong>’s<br />
work more visible and more accessible,<br />
so that we can continue to have your<br />
support, but also gain more fans and<br />
through that enable the work of the<br />
<strong>BirdLife</strong> Partners to be sustainable, with<br />
long lasting results around the world.<br />
With the magazine, a new website, new<br />
products for our initiatives and more<br />
active social media, we hope to break<br />
for good the notion of <strong>BirdLife</strong> being<br />
the best kept secret. We hope these<br />
efforts help us to be closer and to<br />
make many new friends for birds,<br />
nature and people.<br />
Time to take flight.<br />
Patricia Zurita<br />
Chief Executive<br />
<strong>BirdLife</strong> International<br />
DUST OF SNOW<br />
www.birdlife.org<br />
<strong>BirdLife</strong> International is the world’s largest nature conservation partnership.<br />
Through our unique local-to-global approach, we deliver high impact<br />
and long-term conservation for the benefit of nature and people<br />
<strong>The</strong> way a crow<br />
Shook down on me<br />
<strong>The</strong> dust of snow<br />
From a hemlock tree<br />
Has given my heart<br />
A change of mood<br />
And saved some part<br />
Of a day I had rued.<br />
Robert Frost<br />
JUNE <strong>2016</strong> • BIRDLIFE<br />
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Wildlife personalities • Events and talks<br />
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19–21 August <strong>2016</strong><br />
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All profits will be donated by Leicestershire Wildlife Sales to <strong>BirdLife</strong> International. Leicestershire Wildlife Sales is a wholly-owned<br />
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is a registered charity: England and Wales no. 1042125; LRWT is a registered charity: England and Wales no. 210531.<br />
EDITORIAL2<br />
Dear reader,<br />
After much debating we’re still not entirely sure<br />
of what we want this magazine to become.<br />
However, we know who we are and what we do<br />
around the world. We’ll start from there.<br />
We also know that we need to explain better why<br />
bird-issues are vital for nature and people, we<br />
need to explain the links. And we need to leave<br />
our comfort zone: another birding magazine<br />
just won’t do it in the context of the collapse of<br />
nature and the catastrophic change in climate.<br />
<strong>The</strong> average age of birders tells us that we<br />
struggle to reach the younger generation. Despite<br />
notable exceptions, in the environmental arena<br />
it’s not us winning hearts and minds of young<br />
BMXers, surfers, Snap-chatters, video gamers<br />
and tattooed hipsters. Is it the lack of sense of<br />
adventure? (Tell the guys on page 24, on a kayak,<br />
in the Pacific, trying to catch an elusive Petrel).<br />
However, despite the infinite number of bands<br />
with ‘birdy’ names or writing masters like Jonathan<br />
Franzen, and despite the heartening feeling<br />
that there is a new generation of birding enthusiasts,<br />
the problem does stand. We’ll need to investigate<br />
why birds are not ‘edgy’ enough.<br />
We know we want to be difficult. This will be<br />
a ‘complex’ magazine, because complexity is<br />
clearly the main victim of our time. Ours is the era<br />
of black and white arguments, of TV screamers<br />
and raging preachers. We (you) know life isn’t that<br />
simple and, actually, ecosystems are incredibly<br />
complex, most of their interdependence and links<br />
still largely unknown. We worship complexity.<br />
That is what we will search: not the easy answers.<br />
At times... not even an answer, but simply a deeper<br />
understanding of an unresolved issue.<br />
Not much of an editorial plan? Well at least,<br />
borrowing from a great poet, we know what we do<br />
NOT want this to be. <strong>BirdLife</strong>’s magazine will not<br />
be a polished marketing instrument. Not the place<br />
where we embellish our conservation projects.<br />
Not a parade of NGOs looking for donors.<br />
JUNE <strong>2016</strong> • BIRDLIFE<br />
BACON<br />
OR MACAW?<br />
WHY DO WE KEEP<br />
LOSING NATURE?<br />
BECAUSE IT HAS NO<br />
PRICE, HENCE NO<br />
VALUE, OR BECAUSE<br />
WE LACK VALUES?<br />
Luca Bonaccorsi<br />
Chief Editor<br />
<strong>BirdLife</strong> International<br />
Yes, we will tell you about our work, and yes, we<br />
will appeal for your help at times. But hopefully<br />
we’ll be honest enough to tell the whole story:<br />
failures included. And the first one is probably<br />
the very reason why we are here, working at<br />
a new publication: because we’re losing. We<br />
lose biodiversity every day. And birders know<br />
that biodiversity is not an ‘aspect’ of life, ...it IS<br />
life. Every species counts, every thread of life<br />
matters. Which is why we have dedicated most<br />
of the magazine to amazing creatures that risk<br />
extinction.<br />
Why are we losing nature? Is it because we do<br />
not care? Or because many natural resources<br />
have no price, hence no value in our economic<br />
system? Why are we failing, how can we win?<br />
This is the first BIG question in conservation that<br />
we will ‘attack’ in this issue. Two of our brightest<br />
minds, Tris Allinson and Pepe Clarke, and VIP<br />
environmentalist Tony Juniper will tell us what<br />
they think and what our strategy should be to<br />
make things better. Economists or idealists? Find<br />
out at pages 12-17.<br />
Birds depend on their habitats, which in<br />
turn depend on the way we treat our natural<br />
resources. And that has a lot to do with the way<br />
we live, the food we consume, the policies our<br />
governments enact. Sometimes the link might<br />
not be so obvious (from the bacon on our plate,<br />
to the soy that fed the piglet, to the forest that<br />
was cleared to farm the soy, to the bird, that went<br />
extinct because it lost its forest home). And when<br />
you look at the links again the question does<br />
arise: did we eat bacon or a macaw this morning?<br />
We need to make these links.<br />
But, whilst we analyse what is going wrong,<br />
what we do NOT need is... to lose the magic, the<br />
peace, pleasure and infinite poetry of the relationship<br />
with nature.<br />
Quite a challenge. Ready?<br />
Happy reading.<br />
5
CONTENTS<br />
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3 EDITORIAL1<br />
Time to moult<br />
Patricia Zurita<br />
5 EDITORIAL2<br />
Bacon or macaw?<br />
Luca Bonaccorsi<br />
HEADINGS<br />
8 ONE TO WATCH<br />
Rustic Bunting<br />
at risk?<br />
10 FLIGHT OF FANCY<br />
Common Pheasant<br />
John Fanshawe<br />
10<br />
14<br />
38 IRREPLACEABLE<br />
Huge protected forest<br />
jigsaw completed<br />
s.h.<br />
42 GOOD PRACTICE<br />
Fancy a mate?<br />
Only if shade grown<br />
Louise Gardner<br />
46 PORTFOLIO<br />
Turkey’s changing<br />
landscape<br />
48 NATUREALERT<br />
Defending nature<br />
laws in Europe:<br />
the fight continues<br />
Christopher Sands<br />
Name ....................<br />
Email ....................<br />
Home address ....................<br />
Postcode ....................<br />
Phone number ....................<br />
36 IRREPLACEABLE<br />
Sierra de Bahoruco<br />
PREVENTING EXTINCTIONS<br />
50 MEET THE PARTNER<br />
100 years<br />
of Aves Argentinas<br />
Hernán Casañas<br />
My preferred contact methods are: Email Telephone Post Mail<br />
JUNE <strong>2016</strong><br />
NUMBER 2<br />
VOLUME 38<br />
ISSN 0144-4476<br />
CHIEF EDITOR Luca Bonaccorsi<br />
<strong>The</strong> views expressed are those of the contributors<br />
and not necessarily those of <strong>BirdLife</strong> International.<br />
GRAPHIC DESIGN Andrea Canfora<br />
Printed by On Demand Print Services Ltd<br />
Printed on processed chlorine-free paper made from at least 80%<br />
post-consumer waste recycled fibre.<br />
To advertise in BIRDLIFE please contact Ian Lycett,<br />
Solo Publishing Ltd, B403A <strong>The</strong> Chocolate Factory,<br />
5 Clarendon Road, London N22 6XJ, UK<br />
Tel. +44 (0)20 8881 0550<br />
Fax +44 (0)20 8881 0990<br />
Email advertising@birdlife.co.uk<br />
To subscribe to BIRDLIFE please email membership@birdlife.org<br />
BIRDLIFE is available by subscription from <strong>BirdLife</strong> International<br />
at the above address and from some Partner organisations.<br />
CONTRIBUTORS TO THIS ISSUE<br />
Ian Burfield, Hernán Casañas, Pepe Clarke, Steve Cranwell, John Fanshawe, Louise Gardner, Shaun Hurrell, Ade Long, Irene Lorenzo, James Lowen,<br />
Ali North, Judith Rumgay, Roger Safford, Christopher Sands, Claire Thompson, Obako Torto, Mike Unwin, Zoltan Waliczky, Hannah Wheatley<br />
SCIENCE EDITOR<br />
Tris Allinson<br />
FRONT COVER White-headed Vulture Trigonoceps occipitalis © Kevin Penhallow/Shutterstock<br />
BACK COVER Bee-eater Merops apiaster © Jan Veber<br />
OFFICERS OF BIRDLIFE INTERNATIONAL<br />
President Emeritus Her Majesty Queen Noor of Jordan<br />
Honorary President Her Imperial Highness Princess Takamado of Japan<br />
Honorary Vice-Presidents Baroness Young of Old Scone (UK), Gerard A Bertrand (USA), A. P. Leventis (UK), Ben Olewine IV and Peter Johan Schei<br />
Chief Executive Patricia Zurita<br />
Chairman Khaled Anis Irani<br />
Treasurer Nick Prentice<br />
COUNCIL OF BIRDLIFE INTERNATIONAL<br />
Africa Achilles Byaruhanga (Uganda) and Idrissa Zeba (Burkina Faso)<br />
Asia Sarath Wimalabandara Kotagama (Sri Lanka) and Shawn Lum (Singapore)<br />
Americas Peg Olsen (USA), Jaqueline Goerck (Brazil) and Yvonne A. Arias (Dominican Republic)<br />
Europe Luís Costa (Portugal), Nada Tosheva-Illieva (Bulgaria), Fred Wouters (Netherlands) and Mike Clarke (UK)<br />
Middle East Imad Atrash (Palestine) and Assad Adel Serhal (Lebanon)<br />
Pacific Philippe Raust (French Polynesia) and Paul Sullivan (Australia)<br />
BIRDLIFE is published quarterly by <strong>BirdLife</strong> International, <strong>The</strong> David Attenborough Building, Pembroke Strert, Cambridge CB2 3QZ, UK<br />
Tel. +44 (0)1223 277318 Fax +44 (0)1223 277200<br />
Email birdlife@birdlife.org, UK registered charity n. 1042125<br />
<strong>BirdLife</strong> International is a worldwide partnership of conservation organisations working to protect the world’s birds and their habitats.<br />
12 THE DEBATE<br />
Value vs $value<br />
Tris Allinson, Pepe Clarke<br />
14 THE INTERVIEW<br />
TONY JUNIPER<br />
It’s time<br />
to change strategy<br />
l.b.<br />
18 Two steps towards death;<br />
one towards life<br />
Shaun Hurrell<br />
24 What the Beck’s...?<br />
Steve Cranwell<br />
27 Extremely rare Macaw<br />
reappears in Brazil<br />
s.h.<br />
28 A lifeline<br />
for ancient mariners<br />
Mike Unwin<br />
32 “Species X”<br />
rediscovered in Brazil<br />
after 75-year disappearance<br />
34<br />
38<br />
46<br />
BIRDFAIR SPECIAL<br />
54 YOU CANNOT MISS<br />
From Rutland<br />
to the world<br />
James Lowen<br />
56 ACTION REPORT<br />
Fighting<br />
the killing<br />
Claire Thompson<br />
58 YOUNG<br />
CONSERVATIONIST AWARDS<br />
Protecting<br />
the future<br />
s.h.<br />
60 IRREPLACEABLE<br />
Conserving Madagascar’s<br />
Forest of Hope<br />
Roger Safford<br />
64 AFRICAN IBAs IN DANGER<br />
In need of urgent help<br />
s.h.<br />
<strong>The</strong> production of BIRDLIFE is generously<br />
supported by the A. G. Leventis Foundation.<br />
34 I AM NOT A BIRD<br />
Digging deep<br />
to save Rock Iguana<br />
Ali North<br />
60<br />
6<br />
BIRDLIFE • JUNE <strong>2016</strong><br />
JUNE <strong>2016</strong> • BIRDLIFE<br />
7
ONE TO WATCH<br />
Rustic Bunting at risk?<br />
<strong>The</strong> striking Rustic Bunting Emberiza rustica breeds in<br />
damp coniferous forests across northern Eurasia, from<br />
Norway to eastern Siberia, and winters in eastern China,<br />
Korea and Japan. It has always been considered secure,<br />
but a new paper in <strong>BirdLife</strong>’s journal Bird Conservation<br />
International (http://bit.ly/283NUsD) suggests it may<br />
have declined by 80% since the 1980s, and by more than<br />
30% over the last decade. Pending a global status review<br />
(http://bit.ly/24jcUHE), the species’ threat level could<br />
soon be upgraded by <strong>BirdLife</strong> International on the IUCN<br />
Red List. <strong>The</strong> decline of the Rustic Bunting appears to<br />
mirror that of the threatened Yellow-breasted Bunting<br />
Emberiza aureola, which has suffered from unsustainable<br />
trapping for food on its wintering grounds and<br />
agricultural intensification. <strong>The</strong> Rustic Bunting might<br />
also be affected by these factors, but further research<br />
is vital to improve our understanding and help conserve<br />
this and other bunting species.<br />
PHOTO BY AARON MAIZLISH
FLIGHT OF FANCY<br />
Common Pheasant<br />
Villa of the Aviary, Carthage, Tunisia<br />
John Fanshawe<br />
Birds are a constant interwoven presence throughout<br />
human culture, not least for food, for warmth, as companions,<br />
and inspiration.<br />
From rock art depictions, through a roll-call of painters<br />
and sculptors, such as Vincent van Gogh’s Wheat Field with<br />
Crows, and Constantin Brancusi’s carvings and bronzes<br />
inspired by flight; the sights, sounds, lives and migrations of<br />
birds are celebrated by artists.<br />
Throughout the Mediterranean fringe, birds appear in<br />
Roman mosaics, and this image of Common Pheasant<br />
Phasianus colchicus, photographed by David Tipling for Birds<br />
and People, is from the Villa of the Aviary in Carthage, Tunisia.<br />
It is the first image of a new series that will reveal how artists<br />
have taken birds, and used them figuratively, and in the<br />
abstract, to delight and shock audiences from pole to pole.<br />
Whether it is Tlingit shamanic bone carvings of eagles from<br />
Alaska and British Columbia, or the influence of form and<br />
feathers on the extraordinary fashion of the late Alexander<br />
McQueen, we intend to explore visual arts practice from<br />
painting to performance and build a sense of how traditional<br />
and contemporary societies respond to the birds that<br />
surround them.<br />
PHOTO BY DAVID TIPLING<br />
10 BIRDLIFE • JUNE <strong>2016</strong><br />
JUNE <strong>2016</strong> • BIRDLIFE<br />
11
PREVENTING EXTINCTIONS THE DEBATE<br />
VALUE<br />
$VALUE<br />
MORALITY, NOT ECONOMICS, SHOULD BE THE BASIS FOR CONSERVATION<br />
IN DEFENCE OF ECONOMIC VALUATION<br />
<strong>The</strong> interactions of a myriad living organisms<br />
make our planet habitable, but it’s money that<br />
makes the world go round. At least, that seems<br />
to be the driving ethos in conservation these<br />
days. Economics would appear to offer an<br />
objective, evidential justification for conservation.<br />
By contrast, conscience-based arguments<br />
seem idiosyncratic, emotive and idealistic. Put<br />
simply, morality seems of the heart, economics<br />
of the head.<br />
Most conservationists come from a scientific<br />
background, they regard themselves as dispassionate<br />
purveyors of fact and reason. For them<br />
the very worst allegation that can be levelled is<br />
one of emotional attachment and sentimentality.<br />
If you want to get under the skin on a conservation<br />
biologist call them a tree hugger. Conservationists<br />
are naturally more comfortable with the<br />
empirical assumptions of economics than with<br />
matters of conscience.<br />
All of this is fine if we are really prepared to treat<br />
conservation as strictly business. However, if, as<br />
I suspect, there lurks a secret tree hugger within<br />
many of us in the conservation community, then<br />
we might find that economics throws up solutions<br />
that sit uneasily with our collective conscience.<br />
For instance, one way to help save Black Rhino<br />
would be to allow some to be killed by those<br />
wealthy trophy hunters willing to pay top dollar<br />
for the privilege. This would provide a monetary<br />
incentive to sustainably manage the population.<br />
From a purely economic viewpoint such a<br />
strategy makes good sense, however, I suspect<br />
many conservationists will feel a pang of unease<br />
emanating from their inner tree hugger at such<br />
a suggestion. Deep down many of us find the<br />
thought of killing a rhino for sport morally objectionable.<br />
Suppressing this ethical consideration<br />
is disingenuous and doesn’t make us better<br />
conservation biologists. As Michael J. Sandel<br />
argues in his excellent book What money<br />
can’t buy, market reasoning is incomplete<br />
without moral reasoning.<br />
In reality, moral arguments of conservation<br />
are every bit as robust and<br />
universal as economic ones. Yes,<br />
there are plenty of people who are<br />
morally untroubled by the hunting of<br />
Black Rhino (there are equally many<br />
Tris Allinson<br />
Global Science Officer<br />
<strong>BirdLife</strong> International<br />
people unconvinced by free-market economics),<br />
this doesn’t detract from the fact that there<br />
remains a large and expanding body of society<br />
who share a common conservation ethic.<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>BirdLife</strong> Partnership is the embodiment of<br />
this—119 national organisations, encompassing<br />
13 million members and supporters from all parts<br />
of the world and every strata of society, united,<br />
not by a shared sense of economic pragmatism<br />
or a common belief in the primacy of the<br />
markets, but through a mutual love and concern<br />
for the natural world.<br />
<strong>The</strong> great social movements of history, those<br />
that radically and permanently shifted the moral<br />
centre of humanity for the better, succeeded<br />
by galvanising hearts and minds around unambiguous<br />
moral causes. Such movements have<br />
benefited us economically. Yet economic expedience<br />
was never their driving motivation, nor<br />
their key achievement. Nobody would<br />
seriously argue that the core legacy of<br />
abolitionism is that it transformed<br />
disincentivised slaves into motivated<br />
employees and willing<br />
consumers, ultimately benefiting<br />
GDP. <strong>The</strong> conservation agenda<br />
needs greater prominence in<br />
every quarter of society. It is<br />
vital that we utilise a plurality<br />
of arguments and approaches. We<br />
absolutely should develop robust economic<br />
arguments for conservation. We absolutely<br />
should ensure that nature’s value is properly<br />
recognised within global economic systems. But<br />
we should not undermine the moral foundations<br />
of our movement by allowing economics to<br />
become the defining philosophy underpinning<br />
our conservation action.<br />
Just as conservationists have had to learn the<br />
principles and terminology of economics,<br />
so they must now educate themselves in<br />
the fundamentals of moral reasoning. In<br />
short, they need to free their inner tree<br />
huggers. Only by effectively articulating<br />
the moral case for conservation<br />
will we build a movement<br />
capable of transcending the biodiversity<br />
crisis.<br />
ABOLITIONISM<br />
WAS NOT ABOUT<br />
BENEFITING<br />
GDP, TURNING<br />
DISINCENTIVISED<br />
SLAVES INTO<br />
MOTIVATED<br />
EMPLOYEES<br />
AND WILLING<br />
CONSUMERS<br />
ECONOMIC<br />
VALUATION HELPS<br />
US UNDERSTAND<br />
THE CONTRIBUTION<br />
NATURE MAKES TO<br />
HUMAN WELLBEING,<br />
STRENGTHENING<br />
THE CASE<br />
FOR NATURE<br />
CONSERVATION<br />
In this crowded and complex world, we cannot<br />
ignore a very simple fact: prospects for the<br />
conservation of nature rest on our ability to<br />
inform and influence the decisions of consumers,<br />
producers, policy makers and the broader public.<br />
From the supermarket aisle to the halls of Parliament,<br />
financial considerations loom large in our<br />
decision making calculus.<br />
Critics claim that ‘placing a dollar value<br />
on nature’ is inherently unethical and ultimately<br />
self-defeating, as it reduces nature to<br />
a commodity and reinforces<br />
a dominant<br />
political narrative<br />
that seeks to transform<br />
every facet of<br />
life to a series of economic<br />
transactions. <strong>The</strong>se criticisms are not without<br />
merit, but they tend to over-simplify the debate<br />
in a number of important respects. By helping us<br />
to better understand the contribution that nature<br />
makes to human wellbeing, economic valuation<br />
strengthens the case for nature conservation.<br />
In 1997, the cost of preserving upstream watersheds<br />
for New York City was estimated at US$1.5<br />
billion, a fraction of the US$8-10 billion price<br />
tag for a water treatment plant large enough<br />
to meet the city’s needs. Since then, the city<br />
has implemented an ambitious and successful<br />
programme to protect the city’s water catchments,<br />
delivering benefits for residents, landholders<br />
and wildlife.<br />
Used wisely, economic valuation can help<br />
to prevent perverse decisions, with negative<br />
impacts on both nature and people, and presents<br />
opportunities for exposing the often inequitable<br />
impacts of environmental degradation. In Thailand,<br />
researchers found that the economic benefits<br />
to local fishing communities from an intact<br />
mangrove forest were ten times higher than<br />
the private benefits accrued from conversion<br />
to shrimp farms. In coming decades,<br />
our changing climate will force us to make<br />
difficult choices: from coastal protection<br />
and flood control to water<br />
supply and food production, we will<br />
face new dilemmas that will demand<br />
new thinking, new analytical tools.<br />
Pepe Clarke<br />
Global Head of Policy<br />
<strong>BirdLife</strong> International<br />
Understanding the social and economic value<br />
of ‘nature-based solutions’, and the costs of<br />
environmental harm, has the potential to tip the<br />
balance of decision-making in nature’s favour. In<br />
developing countries, policy makers and local<br />
communities face stark choices: in the face of<br />
grinding poverty, prioritising nature conservation<br />
without consideration of social costs presents<br />
very real ethical issues.<br />
Economic analysis can help us to understand<br />
the costs and benefits of conservation and<br />
more fully appreciate the role of healthy natural<br />
systems in supporting the livelihoods of the<br />
poor households.<br />
Research into the value of natural ecosystems<br />
is pushing the boundaries of economic theory<br />
and practice. Traditional economic models have<br />
systematically undervalued nature, treating environmental<br />
harm as an externality and the natural<br />
world as an inexhaustible source of resources.<br />
Economic models and methods that better<br />
account for the diverse values of nature provide<br />
an opportunity to address these limitations.<br />
Historically, environmental advocacy based on<br />
an intellectual, emotional or spiritual response to<br />
the beauty, grandeur and endless fascination of<br />
nature has achieved remarkable results. Millions<br />
of hectares worldwide have been successfully<br />
safeguarded in national parks, with little recourse<br />
to economic analysis. However, as our conservation<br />
aims become more ambitious and human<br />
pressures on nature more intense and widespread,<br />
our efforts to safeguard nature increasingly<br />
place us in direct conflict with plans for<br />
social and economic development. Refining<br />
our ability to make the economic case for<br />
the conservation of nature – and to present a<br />
robust critique of misleading claims by industry<br />
– strengthens our hand in the contest of ideas<br />
that will determine the fate of nature in the<br />
twenty-first century.<br />
Ultimately, dry economic analysis will<br />
not replace the sheer love of nature,<br />
but we must recognise its value as a<br />
tool to more fully understand our<br />
reliance on nature and to make the<br />
case for living in harmony with the<br />
natural world.<br />
12 BIRDLIFE • JUNE <strong>2016</strong> JUNE <strong>2016</strong> • BIRDLIFE<br />
13
PREVENTING EXTINCTIONS THE INTERVIEW<br />
IT’S TIME<br />
TO CHANGE<br />
STRATEGY<br />
WE MUST WIN<br />
THE ECONOMIC ARGUMENT<br />
Conservationist and author Tony Juniper on the value vs $value debate.<br />
We must understand the way politics, business and the public discourse work<br />
Luca Bonaccorsi<br />
C<br />
onservationist (with a severe passion for<br />
Spix’s Macaw), passionate campaigner,<br />
writer and sustainability expert Tony Juniper is<br />
one of the most prominent environmentalists<br />
in Britain (and beyond). We met him in his very<br />
“biodiverse” house in Cambridge, after the presentation<br />
of his new book What’s really happening<br />
to our planet? (a true encyclopaedia of infographics<br />
on threats and solutions for Earth’s<br />
problems that would make a great text book for<br />
secondary schools). Convinced advocate for<br />
ecosystem services – notably in his book What<br />
has nature ever done for us?, we have dragged<br />
him into our dispute: value or $value?<br />
So, Mr. Juniper, can we, or should we, give a<br />
dollar value to nature?<br />
Yes, we must try to understand the economic<br />
value of nature. Sometimes we can see it clearly,<br />
sometimes it’s more difficult, sometimes impossible.<br />
It’s about spotting when it’s the best tool,<br />
and exploiting it to the best we can. For example:<br />
working with water companies has allowed us<br />
to show very clearly the value of conserving<br />
and restoring blanket bogs to have clean water,<br />
reducing costs in chemicals and engineering for<br />
water treatment. Winning the economic argument<br />
in that case allowed us to restore habitats<br />
for Golden Plovers, rare insects and plants with<br />
the support of the water company. Because it<br />
made economic sense to them.<br />
Not always that easy.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re are cases where it’s very hard to see<br />
an economic value, saving the rare Blueeyed<br />
Ground-dove (see page 32) might be an<br />
example. In these cases I would rather go for<br />
the moral, intrinsic, scientific argument we’re<br />
very familiar with.<br />
Are you suggesting all conservationists must<br />
become economists?<br />
Environmentalists must understand the way politics<br />
and the public discourse work. We have not<br />
lost the argument of nature being beautiful, or<br />
important. We have lost, time and time again,<br />
the argument of the ‘choice’ between economic<br />
growth and the protection of nature. If we don’t<br />
win ‘that’ narrative we will continue to lose. We<br />
have to locate economics inside ecology in order<br />
to win the big battle that lies ahead.<br />
Isn’t it dangerous to even just “concede” to the<br />
argument that either the “rare bird” has a clear<br />
economic value or it is not even worth considering?<br />
By accepting this framework are we not<br />
drawn into the logic that is causing the problem<br />
in the first place?<br />
No. We must be pragmatic: if you don’t have a<br />
clear economic argument then don’t make it. <strong>The</strong><br />
arguments we have been using until now (beauty,<br />
WE HAVE LOST<br />
THE ARGUMENT<br />
OF THE CHOICE<br />
BETWEEN GROWTH<br />
AND NATURE<br />
WHEN YOU DO NOT<br />
HAVE A STRONG<br />
ECONOMIC CASE<br />
DON’T MAKE IT<br />
ULTIMATELY, OUR<br />
BELOVED BIRD WILL<br />
SURVIVE THERE:<br />
IN A FOREST WE<br />
HAVE SAVED USING<br />
AN ECONOMIC<br />
ARGUMENT<br />
4 Tony Juniper.<br />
Photo www.tonyjuniper.com<br />
intrinsic value, irreplaceability, etc.) sometimes<br />
are just not enough. I’ve just returned from a trip<br />
to the Ivory Coast for a project on cocoa farming.<br />
<strong>The</strong> farmers are the main drivers for forest loss in<br />
that region, but now we have a new argument:<br />
water. In the past we have been saying: the forest<br />
is great, with its White-necked Picathartes, the<br />
elephants and chimpanzees, but it hasn’t worked.<br />
Now policy makers have finally realised that rain,<br />
from which their export cash-crops depend, is<br />
affected severely by deforestation. Saving the<br />
forest has become the twin argument of saving<br />
the countries’ crops, we have a much stronger<br />
argument and things are changing. We are not<br />
abandoning our previous values, we are just<br />
“adding” tools to achieve our conservation goal.<br />
Some of us are sceptical about this, they see it as<br />
“either/or”. It is not like that at all.<br />
Hence your passion for ecosystem services?<br />
Pricing the oxygen produced by a tree?<br />
Absolutely: carbon capture, water purification, soil<br />
nutrients recycling, flood protection, pollination;<br />
they all have clear values that deliver benefit to<br />
the economy. For decades politicians have been<br />
blind to this. <strong>The</strong>y have seen the destruction of<br />
nature like the inevitable price for progress. That’s<br />
why we’ve continued to lose even when we had<br />
very strong scientific information.<br />
So science is not the answer?<br />
We keep losing nature. Not because we do not<br />
have strong scientific evidence or because we<br />
have not won the moral argument, but because<br />
we have failed to win the economic one.<br />
<strong>BirdLife</strong>’s Tris Allinson (see page 12), argues that<br />
the big advances in civilisation were achieved in<br />
the name of values, not economic convenience,<br />
like the abolition of slavery.<br />
It is one reading of history. Ten years ago I was<br />
running a campaign for Friends of the Earth in<br />
the UK on setting national carbon targets to<br />
fight climate change. In Parliament, the stronger<br />
argument was that limiting carbon would have<br />
produced innovation, new technologies, jobs,<br />
a competitive advantage for our economic<br />
system. This was used together and successfully<br />
with, for example, the moral argument of our<br />
“legacy”. Also in the Abolitionist fight economics<br />
played a big role. For one slave owners had to<br />
be compensated, and secondly the abolition<br />
was great because instead of slaves we had<br />
motivated workers, part of a wage economy,<br />
who contributed hugely to economic growth<br />
and progress. <strong>The</strong> parallel with climate change<br />
works: the slave owners used to say “if we lose<br />
our slaves we will be less competitive” just like<br />
those who now refuse de-carbonisation at<br />
home. If you do not win the economic argument<br />
you simply… lose.<br />
14 BIRDLIFE • JUNE <strong>2016</strong><br />
JUNE <strong>2016</strong> • BIRDLIFE<br />
15
PREVENTING EXTINCTIONS THE INTERVIEW<br />
You are saying that people respond more to the<br />
economic argument rather than the value one?<br />
This is based on clear evidence.<br />
And children in factories? Did economics play<br />
a role too?<br />
Probably. <strong>The</strong>re had to be an economic alternative<br />
to child labour or it would not have happened. At<br />
the time we had mechanisation, new technology,<br />
labour being replaced by machinery: the system<br />
could afford it. In Ivory Coast I spoke to one of<br />
the companies that buys cocoa. <strong>The</strong>y are very<br />
concerned with child labour because, on top of<br />
feeling it’s wrong, they have a business argument:<br />
without the next generation of farmers properly<br />
trained and educated, they will not have secured<br />
cocoa supply in the future. Children in school,<br />
future farmers able to read and write and understand<br />
technology makes economic sense to them.<br />
Do you really not see a risk from this “supremacy<br />
of economics”?<br />
Of course I do. <strong>The</strong>re are risks with every strategy<br />
we pursue. But I see the isolation of ecology<br />
from economics a far bigger risk. It is foolish to<br />
put ourselves out of “the question”, ignoring the<br />
economic dimension of choices, whether it’s<br />
about nature, health care, education, housing.<br />
Furthermore, in this era of rising population and<br />
booming demand, “human progress” will always<br />
trump conservation unless we link them.<br />
0 White-necked Picathartes<br />
Picathartes gymnocephalus.<br />
Photo Guy Shorrock/RSPB<br />
NATURAL CAPITAL<br />
IS A POWERFUL IDEA<br />
IN A CAPITALIST<br />
ECONOMY.<br />
A FOREST IS<br />
CLEARLY AN ‘ASSET’<br />
WE HAVE DONE<br />
GREAT SCIENCE<br />
AND ADVOCACY<br />
AND STILL WE ARE<br />
ON THE BRINK OF<br />
A MASS EXTINCTION<br />
AND CATASTROPHIC<br />
CLIMATE CHANGE.<br />
WHY? THE PROBLEM<br />
IS THE ECONOMY,<br />
AND ECONOMICS<br />
You make it sound very reasonable. Why the<br />
opposition then? Is it a “chip on the shoulder”, a<br />
sense of moral superiority, ideology in the environmental<br />
camp, or can we save something of<br />
the argument in favour of the “rare bird”?<br />
Of course I will fight for the conservation of that<br />
bird. But I will also insist on the economic arguments<br />
for forests, bogs, soil. And I think that it<br />
is more likely that we save the forest if we win<br />
the economic argument for forests. And that, ultimately,<br />
our beloved bird will live there: in a forest<br />
we have saved using an economic argument.<br />
Could it be a language issue? Calling trees,<br />
macaws and rivers “capital” doesn’t make you<br />
uncomfortable?<br />
No. “Natural capital” is a very powerful idea in<br />
a capitalist economy. Capital generates returns<br />
and the same goes for a tropical forest. You have<br />
an asset – the forest – that you can either cut<br />
down into timber (liquidation of the capital) or<br />
enjoy the dividends this produces: fresh water,<br />
oxygen, soil, carbon storage, biodiversity. <strong>The</strong>se<br />
are the precious flows of incomes coming from<br />
an intact capital. It is a very neat parallel: if we<br />
can locate natural assets into economic strategies<br />
we can show that an ecosystem has more<br />
value when intact, rather than when destroyed<br />
for the production of goods. Our scientific<br />
arguments for biodiversity must be reflected in<br />
how the economic system works. It is not the<br />
case now.<br />
So you’re an environmentalist that decided to<br />
use, mimic, the language of economics only to<br />
better convey ecology, not because you “buy<br />
into” the logic.<br />
Exactly: it’s a “utilitarian” strategy, one that<br />
works. I saw it when speaking in Ivory Coast<br />
to ministers, farmers, multinationals. Forest<br />
protection, if linked economically to rain,<br />
hence dams and hydroelectric and crops was<br />
suddenly a powerful argument, more than rare<br />
White-necked Picathartes. We must make this<br />
argument to economists, who must include it<br />
in their models and strategies, that are currently<br />
deficient because they are missing the fundamental<br />
underpinning of it all.<br />
Contemporary economics is clearly not<br />
equipped for that. Lord Stern’s report on climate<br />
change, severely criticised in the Academia is a<br />
good evidence of that.<br />
Ours must be a long term strategy. It took<br />
some 40 years to the people who invented the<br />
free market myth and the neo-liberal ideology<br />
to become mainstream. <strong>The</strong> job of locating<br />
economics inside ecology is not going to happen<br />
with one book or one lecture, it will take decades<br />
of hard work to convince the right people that<br />
our economy is very vulnerable and ultimately<br />
unsustainable, because it’s destroying the very<br />
things that keep it going: fresh water, soil, climate<br />
air, ecosystems.<br />
So you would use instrumentally the “economic<br />
consequences” of the collapse of our ecosystems<br />
as an argument to save those ecosystems.<br />
But what if it was theoretically possible<br />
to have a world with only 3 species of animals,<br />
say chickens, pigs and cows, and yet have a<br />
thriving economy… what would happen to the<br />
“economic argument”?<br />
<strong>The</strong> fight to win the economic argument does<br />
not diminish one bit the argument we have<br />
been making until now for biodiversity. I do not<br />
understand why it is so hard to see for some<br />
conservationists. I think that ideology is not<br />
only an issue among those policy makers who<br />
destroy nature, but also among ourselves. We<br />
must step back, take a cold look at what tools<br />
and opportunities we have, and use them all.<br />
Instead we are trapped in a mind-set that sees<br />
that as “selling out”, going in dangerous territory.<br />
We have done great science and advocacy<br />
and we’re still going down very fast. We are on<br />
the brink of a mass extinction and catastrophic<br />
climate change: carrying on doing what we’ve<br />
been doing for the last 40 years does not seem<br />
like a good strategy to me. And if we do change,<br />
what do we do? For me the problem is the<br />
economy, and economics.<br />
Economics and the “demographic bomb”: in<br />
your new book you show the clear relationship<br />
between a girl’s education and the number of<br />
children she will have. Isn’t putting a little girl<br />
into school in a developing country the best<br />
“conservation measure” there is then?<br />
Who would disagree that young girls need an<br />
education? Why is it happening now? It is the<br />
example of the Ivory Coast again: if governments<br />
and corporates see the economic rationale of an<br />
educated workforce they will oppose child labour<br />
and send children to school. Which of course<br />
would produce smaller families in the future.<br />
Women’s (and little girls’) rights depending<br />
from economics alone? And patriarchy, culture,<br />
misogynist values?<br />
Economics and values go together. Some economies<br />
are doing well compared to those were<br />
half the workforce is excluded, where women<br />
have to wear impossible gears, cannot drive a car,<br />
must sit indoor, etc. I cherish cultural differences<br />
but by doing so they are hampering their country’s<br />
success by excluding or limiting the ability of<br />
half the people to contribute.<br />
We must come to “some” conclusion: value or<br />
dollar value to achieve nature conservation?<br />
I am not being elusive: I am increasingly convinced<br />
CHILD LABOUR?<br />
CORPORATES NOW<br />
SEE THE VALUE<br />
OF AN EDUCATED<br />
WORKFORCE<br />
AND OPPOSE IT<br />
WE MUST LOCATE<br />
ECONOMICS INSIDE<br />
ECOLOGY. IT WILL<br />
NOT BE DONE<br />
WITH ONE BOOK.<br />
IT MUST BE OUR<br />
LONG TERM GOAL<br />
THE CONSERVATION<br />
COMMUNITY<br />
IS STILL SPLIT IN<br />
COMPETING NICHES<br />
that there is no “one” conservation strategy. It’s a<br />
very complex world and we must win the argument<br />
at very different levels simultaneously. Use<br />
all tools. This might require organisations having<br />
multiple competences. Or, maybe, for them to<br />
specialise, one in ecosystem services/economic<br />
arguments, one in the “moral” argument, etc.<br />
Well actually the large NGOs are somewhat<br />
“specialised”: Greenpeace has a younger,<br />
adventurous narrative, WWF has the “positive”,<br />
politically measured, business friendly one,<br />
<strong>BirdLife</strong> is very science and civil society based,<br />
Friends of the Earth more grass-root and somewhat<br />
anti-capitalist, and so on.<br />
True, we have all looked for a niche in the<br />
marketplace, but we are still missing a combined<br />
strategy towards the “big outcome”. We are still<br />
working too much in isolation, in competition.<br />
<strong>The</strong> conservation community has yet to develop<br />
a strategic view that embraces the whole movement.<br />
Ideally we all agree on what the “big jobs”<br />
are and who is going to do them: educate the<br />
public, change investments, get multinationals<br />
to see the business case for conservation. Who’s<br />
best placed amongst us to do it? Which arguments<br />
need to be technical, which moral, or<br />
emotional? We have not worked that out as a<br />
community.<br />
A review of the state of the planet and the way in which<br />
our unchecked human activity could change the<br />
world forever, with a perspective on what we can do<br />
to reverse the damage. Wide ranging, heart-stopping<br />
research is distilled into one reliable and eye-opening<br />
book that charts the dramatic explosion of human<br />
population and consumption and its impact on climate<br />
change and our planet.<br />
16 BIRDLIFE • JUNE <strong>2016</strong><br />
JUNE <strong>2016</strong> • BIRDLIFE<br />
17
PREVENTING EXTINCTIONS<br />
TWO STEPS TOWARDS<br />
DEATH<br />
ONE TOWARDS<br />
LIFE<br />
In the last 30 years, seven of Africa’s 11 vulture species have declined<br />
by over 80% and now face extinction. After a public mobilisation<br />
African governments promise action at UN meeting in Nairobi<br />
Shaun Hurrell<br />
8 Dec 09:29. Adult Gyps africanus, White-backed Vulture 9805. 12 lb 7 oz.<br />
Died last night… likely fed on lion carcass. Under nearby tree I found a regurgitated 300g parcel of meat.<br />
Insects, flies and sarcophagous beetles are actually dying from eating the vulture. I buried it.<br />
T<br />
his extract from African raptor expert<br />
Simon Thomsett’s diary describes a<br />
poisoning incident in Kenya in December 2015.<br />
<strong>The</strong> deaths of three lions from the Marsh Pride<br />
in Kenya’s Masai Mara National Reserve, made<br />
famous by BBC television series, Big Cat Diary,<br />
caught the world’s attention. But there is a<br />
related, often overlooked, story.<br />
White-backed Vulture 9805 flew in from a nearby<br />
breeding colony to feed opportunistically on a<br />
lion carcass. But this Marsh Pride lion had fed on a<br />
cow carcass that had been maliciously laced with<br />
suspected carbamate-based pesticide – lions are<br />
increasingly persecuted for attacking livestock in<br />
the Masai Mara. Poisoned, Vulture 9805 stumbled<br />
under the shelter of a tree, regurgitated some<br />
meat, collapsed and died. A total of 11 Critically<br />
Endangered White-backed Vultures died that day,<br />
some slumped where they landed in trees.<br />
Unfortunately the use of readily available poison<br />
fuels African wildlife crime. From conflict incidents<br />
like this, to lucrative poaching, agro-chemicals<br />
easily available from shops and markets are<br />
being used for the purpose of killing wildlife. One<br />
COMMISSIONER<br />
OF AFRICAN UNION:<br />
“IT IS ABUNDANTLY<br />
CLEAR THAT IF WE<br />
DO NOTHING NOW,<br />
THE HEALTH OF OUR<br />
PEOPLE IN AFRICA<br />
COULD BE AT RISK”<br />
4 White-Headed Vulture<br />
Trigonoceps occipitalis.<br />
Photo Kevin Penhallow/<br />
Shutterstock<br />
is nicknamed “two-step” because a creature takes<br />
two steps before dying. Between 2012 and 2014,<br />
11 known poaching-related incidents involving<br />
vulture poisoning were recorded in seven, mostly<br />
southern, African countries: 155 elephants and<br />
2,044 vultures were killed. In one incident in<br />
Namibia in 2013, 500 vultures died after feeding<br />
on the poisoned carcass of a single poached<br />
elephant. Worryingly, there is evidence that the<br />
use of poisons to kill elephants and rhinoceros in<br />
sub-Saharan Africa is actually increasing, threatening<br />
not only large mammals, but also Africa’s<br />
endangered vultures.<br />
Africa has intensified its fight against wildlife<br />
crime and illegal wildlife trade, and a hugely<br />
symbolic ivory burning took place in Kenya earlier<br />
this year. Mounting pressure (predominantly<br />
regarding elephant and rhinoceros trade) has led<br />
to a recent commitment by African governments<br />
to take more action.<br />
<strong>The</strong> media paid scant attention to the numbers<br />
of vultures killed in the Mara incident. But things<br />
changed after the aggressive awareness raising<br />
campaign run by <strong>BirdLife</strong> (see box on page 21).<br />
JUNE <strong>2016</strong> • BIRDLIFE<br />
19
THE COLLAPSE OF AFRICAN VULTURES<br />
(RED LIST INDEX)<br />
PREVENTING EXTINCTIONS<br />
1.0<br />
LEGEND<br />
0.9<br />
0.8<br />
ALL BIRDS GLOBALLY<br />
0.7<br />
AFRICA’S VULTURES<br />
0.6<br />
1.0 LEAST CONCERN<br />
0.5<br />
0.4<br />
0.3<br />
0.2<br />
7 OF 11<br />
Africa’s<br />
vulture<br />
species<br />
are on the<br />
edge of<br />
extinction<br />
0.0 EXTINCT<br />
YEAR<br />
0.1<br />
0.0<br />
1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 ????<br />
›<br />
›<br />
›<br />
›<br />
POISONING<br />
Poisoning as a result<br />
of human-wildlife<br />
conflict where vultures<br />
are incidental victims.<br />
Intentional poisoning by<br />
ivory poachers not wanting<br />
to be found by rangers.<br />
WHAT THREATENS AFRICA’S VULTURES?<br />
61% 9%<br />
29% 1%<br />
PERSECUTION<br />
For body parts used in traditional medicine.<br />
Also involves the use of poison.<br />
Percentages are only representative reasons for recorded deaths.<br />
Other important threats, as yet hard to quantify, such as habitat reduction,<br />
disturbance at nesting sites and reduced food availability are not illustrated.<br />
ELECTROCUTION<br />
& COLLISION<br />
With poorly-planned<br />
powerlines,<br />
windfarms and roads.<br />
Increasing threat<br />
with investment<br />
in development.<br />
OTHER RECORDED KILLING<br />
People are potentially<br />
eating poisoned vultures.<br />
‹<br />
‹<br />
‹<br />
“Since our campaign which started at the end of<br />
last year, we are being really effective in advancing<br />
the vulture conservation agenda,” says Richard<br />
Grimmett, Director for Conservation at <strong>BirdLife</strong><br />
International. Nevertheless, combating this deeprooted<br />
threat requires the commitment of governments<br />
and civil society across Africa. Moreover, the<br />
perception of vultures as “disgusting undertakers”<br />
must change to harness public sympathy.<br />
<strong>BirdLife</strong> has been working hard to highlight the<br />
plight of vultures and its implications for Africa.<br />
Awareness is certainly rising amongst governments,<br />
but international policy has yet to fully<br />
recognise basic facts such as that one poisoned<br />
elephant can kill hundreds of Critically Endangered<br />
vultures.<br />
<strong>The</strong> situation is still dramatic: in the last 30 years,<br />
seven of Africa’s 11 vulture species have declined<br />
by over 80% and now face extinction. Poisoning<br />
accounts for 61% of the recorded deaths. Persecution<br />
for their body parts for use in traditional medicine<br />
accounts for 29%, also involving poisoning<br />
and thus also threatening human health. <strong>The</strong>re is<br />
an undeniable moral and social imperative to save<br />
them. <strong>BirdLife</strong> has called on African governments<br />
to act, not only for the vultures themselves, but<br />
for the benefit of human health and the African<br />
economy. Vultures are nature’s clean-up crew. In<br />
their unique niche in the ecosystem, they clear<br />
away germ-laden carcasses, thus reducing the<br />
spread of many diseases fatal to humans. A single<br />
vulture has been estimated to be worth over US$<br />
11,000 just for its cleaning services. But they are<br />
worth even more to governments both in saved<br />
health service costs and tourism.<br />
JUNE <strong>2016</strong> • BIRDLIFE<br />
0 Poisoned Marsh Pride Lion<br />
and White-backed Vulture<br />
Gyps africanus. Masai Mara<br />
National Reserve, Kenya.<br />
Photo L. Sankai<br />
IN BOTSWANA,<br />
KENYA AND<br />
ZIMBABWE,<br />
BIRDLIFE PARTNERS<br />
ARE WORKING<br />
TO REDUCE<br />
THE ILLEGAL USE<br />
OF AGROCHEMICALS<br />
AND OTHER TOXIC<br />
COMPOUNDS<br />
KNOWN TO POISON<br />
VULTURES<br />
GUDKA: “WE STILL<br />
HAVE A LONG ROAD<br />
AHEAD TO SAVE<br />
AFRICAN VULTURES”<br />
Only a few days after his colleagues helped<br />
bury and sample the poisoned Masai Mara lions<br />
and vultures, Paul Gacheru from Nature Kenya<br />
(<strong>BirdLife</strong> Kenya) got straight to work on developing<br />
a Kenyan poisoning protocol, aided by<br />
funding from Fondation Segré. “Whilst we are<br />
working towards the long-term goal of ending<br />
wildlife poisoning completely, in the meantime we<br />
can save the lives of hundreds of vultures in Kenya<br />
if poisoning incidents that occur are handled<br />
Media reach of the<br />
Love Vultures campaign<br />
› <strong>BirdLife</strong>’s press release on African vulture declines<br />
reached 800+ media websites, reaching 40+ countries,<br />
with a potential viewership 4,251,510,563.<br />
› BBC national TV news, World Service interview, Focus<br />
Africa radio, news & website.<br />
› Field visit by Associated Press journalist leading to large<br />
circulation of articles, published in more than 250 news<br />
publications worldwide, including New York Times,<br />
with a readership of tens of millions.<br />
› <strong>BirdLife</strong>’s ‘I am misunderstood’ vulture video reached<br />
more than 1.1 million, with 375,000 views (mostly on<br />
Facebook).<br />
› On Twitter, our campaign ran end-October-early<br />
December 2015, reaching 43.3 million people,<br />
including <strong>BirdLife</strong>’s largest ever day for Twitter impressions<br />
(180,000).<br />
› #LoveVultures hashtag has been used 9,300 times<br />
since October 2015.<br />
› Ghana Wildlife Society (<strong>BirdLife</strong> Partner) had a six-minute<br />
feature on national TV news in April <strong>2016</strong> on saving the<br />
Hooded Vulture, and other Partners are soon to follow suit.<br />
21
AFRICA’S VULTURES COLLAPSE<br />
VULTURES CLEAN UP CARCASSES<br />
PREVENTING EXTINCTIONS<br />
<strong>BirdLife</strong> International for the IUCN Red List; Ogada et al 2015. Last 30 years<br />
1<br />
RÜPPELL’S VULTURE<br />
Gyps rueppellii<br />
WHITE-HEADED VULTURE<br />
Trigonoceps occipitalis<br />
WHITE-BACKED VULTURE<br />
Gyps africanus<br />
HOODED VULTURE<br />
Necrosyrtes monachus<br />
EGYPTIAN VULTURE<br />
Neophron percnopterus<br />
CAPE VULTURE<br />
Gyps coprotheres<br />
LAPPET-FACED VULTURE<br />
Torgos tracheliotos<br />
BEARDED VULTURE<br />
Gypaetus barbatus<br />
CRITICALLY ENDANGERED<br />
CRITICALLY ENDANGERED<br />
NEAR THREATENED<br />
IUCN RED LIST SCALE<br />
ENDANGERED<br />
ENDANGERED<br />
ENDANGERED<br />
2 NEAR THREATENED CRITICALLY ENDANGERED 5<br />
3<br />
LEAST CONCERN<br />
VULNERABLE<br />
CRITICALLY ENDANGERED<br />
CRITICALLY ENDANGERED<br />
ENDANGERED<br />
EXTINCT<br />
70%<br />
83%<br />
80%<br />
90%<br />
97%<br />
96%<br />
92%<br />
92%<br />
4<br />
6<br />
WITH VULTURES › ONE HOUR<br />
<strong>The</strong>y clean carcasses bare<br />
before disease spores can form<br />
WITHOUT VULTURES › A FEW DAYS<br />
<strong>The</strong>y reduce the spread of diseases like Anthrax,<br />
Rabies, Tuberculosis, Botulism, Brucellosis<br />
VULTURES ARE WORTH MILLIONS<br />
A single vulture is worth over US $ 11,000<br />
dollars just for its cleaning services.<br />
By halting the spread of disease, they are worth<br />
much, much more to governments in saved<br />
health service costs, not to mention tourism, etc.<br />
POISONING<br />
1 Poisoned elephant carcass =<br />
up to 500 dead vultures per incident<br />
better. We are working with many different organisations<br />
to develop a simple way of responding<br />
to poisoning incidents, including carnivore<br />
researchers, the Peregrine Fund, the Kenya Wildlife<br />
Service, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture<br />
and Technology. We aim to hold training sessions<br />
at Masai Mara where we’ll introduce the protocol<br />
to the local stakeholders and ways this can be<br />
applied on the ground.”<br />
In Botswana, Kenya and Zimbabwe, <strong>BirdLife</strong> Partners<br />
are also working to reduce the illegal use of<br />
agro-chemicals and other toxics poisonous to<br />
vultures through law, policy and awareness.<br />
ONE STEP TOWARDS LIFE: THE UNEA MEETING<br />
In May, a <strong>BirdLife</strong> team held a special event in Nairobi<br />
at the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA), entitled<br />
Healthy Vultures, Healthy People. UNEA represents<br />
the world’s highest-level decision-making body on<br />
the environment, which culminates in resolutions<br />
and a global call to action to address the critical<br />
environmental challenges facing the world today.<br />
Moved by the plight of their continent’s endangered<br />
vultures and its wider implications, African<br />
Ministers gave their support to <strong>BirdLife</strong>’s vulture<br />
campaign. Moreover, they approved a new resolution<br />
on wildlife crime and trade empowering<br />
African governments to take action to prevent the<br />
poisoning of vultures and other wildlife.<br />
“It is abundantly clear that if we do nothing now,<br />
the health of our people in Africa could be at great<br />
risk,” said H.E. Rhoda Peace Tumusiime, Commissioner<br />
for Rural Economy and Agriculture at the<br />
African Union. Her words capture African governments’<br />
renewed desire to honour regional and<br />
global commitments on illegal wildlife trade. She<br />
added: “<strong>The</strong> African Union Commission will remain<br />
committed to supporting member states and other<br />
stakeholders in addressing illegal wildlife trade<br />
including addressing the plight of our vultures.”<br />
“We are excited to announce some good news<br />
for vultures”, says Ken Mwathe, Policy & Advocacy<br />
Coordinator, <strong>BirdLife</strong> International. “Governments<br />
have now agreed to implement an Action Plan for<br />
the African Strategy on Combating Illegal Exploitation<br />
and Illegal Trade in Wild Fauna and Flora in<br />
Africa. This means African governments can now<br />
take action to prevent the poisoning of vultures,<br />
by applying available poisoning guidelines.”<br />
Good news indeed. <strong>The</strong> road to save Africa’s<br />
vultures, however, is still a long one.<br />
Our African Vulture Campaign has been financed<br />
by appeal donations from numerous individuals,<br />
and supporters of the <strong>BirdLife</strong> Gala Dinners in<br />
Tokyo and Osaka (Japan), Fondation Segré, Tasso<br />
Leventis Foundation, Tolkien Trust and British Birds<br />
Charitable Trust. Please continue to support our<br />
work at www.birdlife.org/savevultures.<br />
JUNE <strong>2016</strong> • BIRDLIFE<br />
VULTURE WOMAN<br />
MASUMI GUDKA<br />
Unlike the terrible chain of events leading to Vulture 9805’s death,<br />
a positive chain that started in October 2015 led to this success at<br />
UNEA. What happened at the <strong>BirdLife</strong> Africa Partnership Meeting in<br />
Ghana would profoundly influence the future of Africa’s vultures.<br />
West African participants were particularly animated as experimental<br />
evidence, anecdotes, details of threats, species ranges and possible<br />
solutions emerged. One thing was sure: threats from poisoning,<br />
persecution, energy infrastructure and other killing necessitated at<br />
least 10 years planned work. A coordinator was needed urgently.<br />
Masumi Gudka, <strong>BirdLife</strong>’s new Vulture Conservation Manager, was<br />
appointed in November 2015. Based in Nairobi, Kenya, she is already<br />
proving effective in stimulating and coordinating conservation actions<br />
throughout the Birdlife Africa Partnership. She has worked on poisoning<br />
issues affecting carnivores and vultures before, and her family used to<br />
call her ‘Vultureous’, so she has earned the nickname ‘Vulture Woman’!<br />
“I quite like that, it makes me feel like a comic-book super hero”,<br />
Masumi says. “After six months in this position, I do feel like I would be<br />
better off possessing a superpower to overcome the immense challenges,<br />
but the thought of saving vultures is totally worth the effort. It<br />
would be a tragedy losing our vultures, something I could not abide.”<br />
“When I started at <strong>BirdLife</strong> I was particularly amazed at how quickly<br />
everyone rallies around a cause, seamlessly works as a team to get<br />
results, all for the love of vultures. Everyone is desperately trying to<br />
ensure a better world for all and that is so refreshingly evident in all<br />
the long hours and hard work <strong>BirdLife</strong> staff have dedicated to seeing<br />
the organisation’s vision come to life.”<br />
<strong>BirdLife</strong> went on to meet with West African ambassadors setting<br />
out a vulture conservation plan: raising public awareness and<br />
building political support; creating chunks of safe habitat; combating<br />
poisoning; and testing and better understanding the science of<br />
vulture conservation. Ambassadors were persuaded by the evidence<br />
and pledged to support efforts to raise awareness and change attitudes<br />
in their countries. “I know it might sound strange to many but<br />
I think vultures are remarkable and absolutely adorably cute, lovable,<br />
creatures. <strong>The</strong> more you get to know them, the more you appreciate<br />
their character. Trust me on this!” Masumi’s enthusiasm for<br />
vultures is infectious. “Every person we convince of the high value<br />
and importance that vultures are to our survival, the closer we come<br />
to achieving our goal. Changing the negative perception of vultures<br />
commonly held by people will help garner the support duly owed to<br />
these magnificent creatures.”<br />
Enthusiasm, backed with evidence, translated into successful highlevel<br />
political support at UNEA. Masumi celebrated the success: “It<br />
is not every day that you will hear anyone, let alone the Minister of<br />
Environment for Nigeria, professing their love for vultures,<br />
but that is exactly what happened.”<br />
Hon. Amina Mohammed, Minister of Environment<br />
for Nigeria, committed unhesitatingly: “<strong>The</strong> plight<br />
facing vultures in Nigeria has been effectively highlighted.<br />
My government will work with the Nigerian<br />
Conservation Foundation (<strong>BirdLife</strong> Partner)<br />
on a strategy and take decisive action.”<br />
23
PREVENTING EXTINCTIONS<br />
WHAT THE<br />
BECK’S...?<br />
This small, dark seabird with a white underbelly faces<br />
an uncertain future unless its nesting grounds are found.<br />
It is with this sense of urgency that an intrepid <strong>BirdLife</strong> International<br />
team set off on an eight day voyage of discovery<br />
Steve Cranwell<br />
0 Lining up a Beck’s Petrel.<br />
Photo Chris Gaskin<br />
W<br />
ith over 200 kgs of chum (a frozen soup<br />
of “fishy bits”) specially designed to lure<br />
the Critically Endangered Beck’s Petrel Pseudobulweria<br />
becki, a couple of gas operated net<br />
canons for harmless capture and a keen crew of<br />
four from <strong>BirdLife</strong> International and the Wildlife<br />
Conservation Society, the PNG Explorer motored<br />
out of Kavieng, bound for Cape St George at the<br />
southern end of remote New Ireland in Papua<br />
New Guinea. Even without “spontaneous chumming”<br />
thanks to calm seas, curious Red-footed<br />
Boobies Sula sula, Black Noddies Anous minutus<br />
and other pantropical seabirds were soon<br />
escorting the ship on its 400 km trek south.<br />
<strong>The</strong> first Beck’s Petrels were soon sighted.<br />
Quietly, but with excitement and nervous anticipation,<br />
the team set a chum slick, but a few casual<br />
swoops and a shake of a tail feather later, the birds’<br />
inspection of this marine buffet was done. Nevertheless,<br />
fears that the strong El Niño conditions<br />
affecting the Pacific may have caused the petrels<br />
to move elsewhere were allayed; and with greater<br />
numbers known to be in the vicinity of the Cape,<br />
this subdued start was merely a teaser.<br />
Dawn on day two revealed Cape St George,<br />
perched on the edge of the 9,000 m deep<br />
New Britain Trench. With the rich upwellings<br />
and currents associated with these marine<br />
mountains, it was perhaps no surprise to find<br />
seabirds concentrated there. While some, such<br />
as Wedge-tailed Shearwaters Ardenna pacifica<br />
and Streaked Shearwaters Calonectris leucomelas,<br />
were passing through on their annual<br />
migrations, noddies, boobies, terns and frigatebirds<br />
were frequently seen working the “boil<br />
ups”. Scattered among them were a few Beck’s<br />
Petrels: hours were spent trying to coax them to<br />
the free banquet of chum. Over the next couple<br />
of days, all manner of techniques were used in<br />
attempting to get them to settle on the surface,<br />
but to no avail. Night time chumming and spotlighting<br />
attracted the attention of only several<br />
large sharks along with swiftlets which amassed<br />
in the ship’s lights “like a snowstorm with dark<br />
flakes swirling about” as they hawked on insects.<br />
It soon became clear that catching a single<br />
Beck’s Petrel – let alone several – was going to<br />
be no easy task. However, the team had one card<br />
left to play. Fifty kilometres up the eastern coast,<br />
the 2012 <strong>BirdLife</strong> survey had sighted many Beck’s:<br />
Silur Bay now offered the best hope of success.<br />
After several hours of searching the 20 km long<br />
bay, it was with immense relief that Jez Bird and<br />
the team were able to confirm that previous<br />
observation. Not only were Beck’s Petrels present<br />
in number, but they were bobbing about on the<br />
JUNE <strong>2016</strong> • BIRDLIFE<br />
25
PREVENTING EXTINCTIONS<br />
PREVENTING EXTINCTIONS<br />
an emergency trip to Curaçá to locate the bird.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> local people were euphoric,” said Develey.<br />
“<strong>The</strong>y set up a WhatsApp group to coordinate and<br />
maximise the search for the bird, and ensured no<br />
potential dealers could enter the area.”<br />
surface! With the tender launched and chum<br />
deployed, the hunt was finally on. Yet, despite<br />
carefully quiet, slow and stealthy approaches,<br />
the birds casually flew off whenever the team<br />
got within 100 m. Over the remaining four days<br />
this act of cat and mouse played out repeatedly.<br />
Alternative catching strategies evolved, including<br />
switching to a kayak that allowed team member<br />
Chris Gaskin to get much closer with the net gun.<br />
“Sitting in the kayak keeping as low a profile as<br />
possible I felt a bit like a polar hunter sneaking<br />
up on prey – except the sea temperature, full<br />
tropical sun and lurking sharks was a far cry from<br />
polar ice flows!” said Chris.<br />
BOOM! Another near miss. While there were few<br />
opportunities for deploying the net and even less<br />
with a good probability of capture, Chris recalls,<br />
“I connected with one as it banked across in front<br />
of me, but as the petrel and net dropped to the<br />
water it tumbled out and flew away before I could<br />
reach it. On another occasion, a bird exhibited its<br />
acrobatic prowess, flying through a 50 cm gap<br />
beneath the net and sea surface.”<br />
In the end, no capture was made during this expedition,<br />
yet a tremendous amount was learned.<br />
“Silur Bay has the greatest concentration of Beck’s<br />
Petrel we know of and seemingly with some level<br />
of consistency”, noted Jez. Moreover: “While<br />
Beck’s Petrels are extremely wary, the expedition<br />
has allowed us to test what we knew about netting<br />
seabirds at sea and advance this technique”, said<br />
0 <strong>The</strong> expedition team.<br />
Photo Chris Gaskin<br />
A BIRD EXHIBITED<br />
ITS ACROBATIC<br />
PROWESS, FLYING<br />
THROUGH A 50 CM<br />
GAP BENEATH<br />
THE NET AND<br />
SEA SURFACE<br />
BY ATTACHING<br />
SATELLITE<br />
TRANSMITTERS<br />
WE CAN DISCOVER<br />
WHERE BECK’S<br />
PETREL BREEDS<br />
IN A PROTRACTED<br />
GAME OF CAT AND<br />
MOUSE, BECK’S<br />
PETREL OUTWITS<br />
THE RESEARCH<br />
TEAM EVERY TIME<br />
Chris. “<strong>The</strong> main difference being rather than<br />
netting birds on the surface they’re going to have<br />
to be caught in the air. Toward the end it became<br />
apparent that birds would fly low and slowly<br />
upwind towards the chum and if we were positioned<br />
along this path it would put them within<br />
reach of the net. <strong>The</strong> two almost caught were<br />
on this trajectory. ”With a few refinements to the<br />
project design, including to the catching equipment<br />
and support vessels, the team are confident<br />
that Beck’s Petrel will be captured during the<br />
expedition scheduled for 2017. <strong>The</strong>n, by attaching<br />
satellite transmitters, there will then be a very good<br />
chance that we will for the first time discover<br />
where this enigmatic petrel breeds.<br />
Note<br />
<strong>The</strong> project is a collaboration between <strong>BirdLife</strong> International,<br />
the New Ireland Provincial Government, the<br />
Conservation and Environment Authority of Papua New<br />
Guinea, Ailan Awareness and the Wildlife Conservation<br />
Society, funded by the Critical Ecosystem Partnership<br />
Fund. <strong>The</strong> Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund is a join<br />
initiative of l’Agence Française de Développement,<br />
Conservation International, the European Union, the<br />
Global Environment Facility, the Government of Japan,<br />
the MacArthur Foundation and the World Bank. A<br />
fundamental goal is to ensure civil society is engaged<br />
in biodiversity conservation.<br />
For further information about the Beck’s Petrel project<br />
please contact Steve.Cranwell@birdlife.org<br />
Extremely rare Macaw<br />
reappears in Brazil<br />
Critically Endangered Spix’s Macaw<br />
thought extinct in the wild seen by local community<br />
I<br />
It was Grandpa Pinpin’s dream: to see his<br />
favourite bird, Spix’s Macaw, fly again over<br />
the skies of Curaçá, a small town of about 30,000<br />
in the dry Caatinga area of Bahia, Brazil. Pinpin<br />
Oliveira passed away last year, aged 94, his wish<br />
unfulfilled. But the baton was passed to his 16<br />
year old grand-daughter, Damilys, who not only<br />
saw the macaw, but also managed to film it with<br />
her mobile phone. Spix’s Macaw Cyanopsitta<br />
spixii has not been seen in the wild since 2000<br />
and is Critically Endangered, primarily as a result<br />
of trapping for trade plus habitat loss. Only 130<br />
Spix’s Macaws worldwide exist as part of a captive<br />
breeding programme.<br />
<strong>The</strong> bird was first sighted on 18 th <strong>June</strong> by local<br />
farmer Nauto Sergio de Oliveira. On the following<br />
day, his neighbour Lourdes Oliveira and her<br />
daughter Damilys woke up before dawn to look<br />
for the macaw in Barra Grande creek’s riparian<br />
forest. At 6:20 AM they found and filmed it.<br />
Lourdes contacted the Society for the Conservation<br />
of Birds in Brazil (SAVE Brasil, <strong>BirdLife</strong> Partner),<br />
one of the organisations that make up the project<br />
Ararinha na Natureza (Spix’s Macaw in the Wild)<br />
which aims to bring the bird back from extinction.<br />
<strong>The</strong> video and the distinctive vocal calls<br />
killed all doubts: it was indeed a Spix’s Macaw.<br />
Pedro Develey, SAVE Brasil’s Director, organised<br />
0 Spix’s Macaw<br />
Cyanopsitta spixii.<br />
Photo Al Wabra Wildlife<br />
Preservation<br />
1 Lourdes & Damilys Oliveira<br />
where they filmed the bird.<br />
Photo Pedro Develey<br />
This individual’s origin is uncertain, but was<br />
quite possibly released from captivity. Conservationists<br />
have had a large presence in the area<br />
where it would likely have been seen, and recent<br />
patrols and project warning signs against trapping<br />
might have prompted a panic release. One thing<br />
is for sure: a Spix’s Macaw in the wild is precious.<br />
“Now we have a model to understand the bird’s<br />
behaviour in the wild, ready for the reintroduction”,<br />
said Develey.<br />
Another project expedition has also commenced,<br />
led by the federal government’s Instituto Chico<br />
Mendes para a Conservação da Biodiversidade.<br />
In parallel to the field efforts, breeding the<br />
species in captivity for future reintroduction in<br />
the wild is crucial for the project’s success, and<br />
is thanks to the participation of the breeders<br />
AWWP (Qatar), ACTP (Germany) and Fazenda<br />
Cachoeira (Brazil). According to Ugo Vercillo,<br />
Director of Biodiversity of the Ministry of the<br />
Environment, Spix’s Macaw appearing here reinforces<br />
the necessity of protecting this area. Since<br />
2014, the project has been working to create a<br />
44,000 hectare protected area in the municipality.<br />
In fact, Grandpa Pinpin’s family donated<br />
a small area of their property (30 hectares) to<br />
become a reserve for Spix’s Macaw. And the bird<br />
then appeared in front of their house! “It’s very<br />
symbolic,” said Develey.<br />
Thanks to two years of community work from<br />
SAVE Brasil, the people are really committed for<br />
the reintroduction. “<strong>The</strong>re’s hope again,” he says.<br />
Many questions remain. For now, just one, thrillingly<br />
pleasant thought: a Spix’s Macaw is soaring<br />
free, again, in Curaçá’s Caatinga.<br />
s.h.<br />
26 BIRDLIFE • JUNE <strong>2016</strong><br />
JUNE <strong>2016</strong> • BIRDLIFE<br />
27
PREVENTING EXTINCTIONS<br />
A LIFELINE FOR<br />
ANCIENT<br />
MARINERS<br />
<strong>The</strong> world’s albatrosses have been in catastrophic decline,<br />
due largely to commercial fishing practices. But thanks to your support,<br />
the Albatross Task Force is out on the seas fighting back – and winning<br />
Mike Unwin<br />
T<br />
he scent of squid hangs on the ocean<br />
breeze. With an effortless tilt of its threemetre<br />
wingspan, the Wandering Albatross<br />
changes direction. Zigzagging low over the peaks<br />
and troughs of the heaving south Atlantic, it heads<br />
towards the unmistakable silhouette of a fishing<br />
boat on the horizon. On board, the crew is hard at<br />
work setting the long line. As thousands of metres<br />
of nylon monofilament spool out slowly over the<br />
stern, sea-hardened fingers bait each hook with<br />
a tempting piece of freshly thawed squid. With<br />
more than 1,500 hooks, the job will take them<br />
five hours. It’s exhausting work. And as they bend<br />
to the task, seabirds come angling in from all<br />
directions: Black-browed Albatrosses – a smaller<br />
species – are first on the scene. Behind them, our<br />
Wandering Albatross is fast making up ground.<br />
<strong>The</strong>se birds spend their lives combing the ocean<br />
for food: they can’t afford to pass up a free lunch.<br />
But this lunch could be their last. Any albatross<br />
that grabs the bait is liable to find itself hooked,<br />
dragged underwater and drowned. Longline<br />
SMALLEST<br />
SPECIES<br />
Indian Yellow-nosed<br />
Albatross<br />
Thalassarche carteri<br />
2.5 kg,<br />
6.5 ft wingspan<br />
BIGGEST<br />
WINGSPAN<br />
Wandering Albatross<br />
Diomedea exulans<br />
3.5 m, 11 ft<br />
MOST COMMON<br />
SPECIES<br />
Black-browed<br />
Albatross<br />
Thalassarche<br />
melanophrys<br />
600,000 pairs<br />
LONGEST<br />
MIGRATION<br />
Wandering<br />
Albatross<br />
Diomedea exulans<br />
120,000 km in a year<br />
RAREST<br />
SPECIES<br />
Amsterdam<br />
Albatross<br />
Diomedea<br />
amsterdamensis<br />
18-25 pairs<br />
4 Portrait of a Shy Albatross<br />
Thalassarche cauta.<br />
Photo AndreAnita/Shutterstock<br />
“WHEN FISHERMEN<br />
SEE US WORKING<br />
WITH BIRDS AND<br />
SEE THE RESULTS<br />
FOR THEMSELVES,<br />
THEY BEGIN<br />
TO UNDERSTAND”<br />
fishing has had a devastating impact on albatrosses<br />
and other pelagic (ocean-going) seabirds.<br />
One line may stretch for up to 65 km and carry<br />
1,500 baited hooks – set to capture tuna and<br />
other ocean-going fish. <strong>The</strong> birds, adapted over<br />
millions of years to scavenge floating food from<br />
vast areas of ocean, cannot resist the bait. Some<br />
300,000 seabirds a year have been dying in<br />
longline and trawl fisheries, including 100,000<br />
albatrosses. Fifteen of the 22 albatross species<br />
are at risk of extinction – but the Albatross Task<br />
Force is changing that.<br />
GETTING ALBATROSSES OFF THE HOOK<br />
Today, the birds are hanging back in the boat’s<br />
wake. <strong>The</strong> reason for this uncharacteristic caution<br />
is clear: a colourful curtain of plastic streamers<br />
flutters over the stern, blocking their route to the<br />
line. On deck, Sebastian Jimenez watches with<br />
quiet satisfaction. Sebastian, from Montevideo,<br />
works for the Albatross Task Force (ATF). For the<br />
last seven years, he has been heading out to sea<br />
with the fishing fleet, observing their work and<br />
gathering data. He is one of a team of dedicated<br />
individuals braving some of the roughest seas in<br />
the world to help protect albatrosses. And today<br />
he can see the fruit of his hard work.<br />
<strong>The</strong> coloured streamers, called tori lines, are<br />
among several simple measures developed by the<br />
ATF to help tackle the needless slaughter of albatrosses<br />
in what the fishing industry calls ‘seabird<br />
bycatch’. In the South African trawl fleet, the use<br />
of tori lines has reduced albatross bycatch by an<br />
astonishing 99% since ATF started working with<br />
the fishing fleet. In longline fisheries a combination<br />
of measures is required; using lead weights<br />
on hook lines, so they sink before the birds can<br />
reach the bait, and setting the lines by night, when<br />
the birds are least active. <strong>The</strong>se measures have<br />
been designed with fishermen in mind, being<br />
simple to implement and requiring little training or<br />
expense. And they’ve proved amazingly effective.<br />
ALL AT SEA TOGETHER<br />
This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Albatross<br />
Task Force, a pioneering conservation<br />
programme led by the RSPB on behalf of the<br />
<strong>BirdLife</strong> Partnership. Starting in South Africa in<br />
2006, it has since taken its mission to Argentina,<br />
Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Namibia, Peru and Uruguay,<br />
all of whose offshore waters are among the world’s<br />
hotspots for both foraging seabirds and longline<br />
fishing. It is by directly targeting these fisheries that<br />
the ATF can make the most difference.<br />
Of course, fishermen making a precarious living<br />
at sea might, understandably, not take kindly to<br />
strangers telling them what to do. So Task Force<br />
members get hands-on, joining the fishing fleets<br />
to demonstrate exactly how the new measures<br />
28 BIRDLIFE • JUNE <strong>2016</strong><br />
JUNE <strong>2016</strong> • BIRDLIFE<br />
29
PREVENTING EXTINCTIONS<br />
can work. In this way they can understand the<br />
issue from the fishermen’s perspective, and help<br />
them find solutions that suit both them and the<br />
albatrosses. “When we climb aboard we are often<br />
viewed as odd people who have come to perform<br />
a strange job,” says Argentinian ATF member<br />
Nahuel Chavez. “But when the fishermen see us<br />
working with birds and see the results for themselves,<br />
they begin to understand. We find we<br />
suddenly have their help.” ATF members don’t<br />
spend all their time at sea. Much of the work<br />
takes place onshore, raising awareness through<br />
talks, meetings and training workshops.<br />
Fishery managers need convincing that reducing<br />
seabird bycatch won’t make life harder for fishermen<br />
or reduce the industry’s profitability. Ultimately,<br />
the goal is to persuade the fisheries and<br />
governments to adopt new best-practice regulations<br />
across the industry. But regulations are<br />
worth little unless those at the sharp end – the<br />
fishermen themselves – buy into the idea.<br />
Happily, most fishermen like albatrosses, which<br />
provide company on the world’s wildest oceans.<br />
And, after all, a dead bird on the hook is a waste<br />
of bait, time and effort. Once they know their<br />
livelihoods will not be affected, they take little<br />
persuading. “<strong>The</strong>y were there before us,” says<br />
Carlos Aparecida Cavenaghi, a longline fisherman<br />
from Itajaí, Brazil. “It’s not fair to kill them when<br />
all they’re doing is feeding.” <strong>The</strong> work never lets<br />
up. In 2014, the team spent a combined 700<br />
days at sea in 13 different fisheries and, onshore,<br />
conducted an amazing 850 meetings, port visits<br />
and outreach events. Progress can sometimes<br />
be slow but persistence pays off. This past year,<br />
for instance, has seen the Namibian government<br />
finally overcome political obstacles and draft<br />
0 Juvenile Black-browed<br />
albatross caught on a baited<br />
longline hook, off the coast of<br />
Brazil. <strong>The</strong> bird was released<br />
by Albatross Task Force<br />
instructor Fabiano Peppes.<br />
Photo Fabiano Peppes<br />
THANKS TO THE<br />
ATF, 7 OUT OF<br />
THE 10 FISHERIES<br />
ORIGINALLY<br />
IDENTIFIED AS<br />
SEABIRD BYCATCH<br />
HOTSPOTS HAVE<br />
NOW ADOPTED<br />
REGULATIONS TO<br />
PROTECT SEABIRDS<br />
“IN SOUTH AFRICA,<br />
ALBATROSS DEATHS<br />
HAVE DROPPED<br />
BY 99% SINCE<br />
ATF STARTED<br />
WORKING WITH<br />
THE TRAWL FLEET”<br />
seabird bycatch mitigation measures into new<br />
fisheries regulations.<br />
MAKING OCEANS SAFER<br />
Albatrosses, lest we forget, are extraordinary<br />
birds, able to fly more than 1,000 km per day<br />
without a flap and to live for more than 60 years.<br />
But unfortunately their slow-paced lifecycle<br />
makes them uniquely vulnerable. <strong>The</strong> largest<br />
species takes 12 years to reach breeding maturity<br />
and lays just one egg every second year,<br />
from which the chick takes nearly nine months<br />
to fledge. This means that declining populations<br />
take a very long time to recover. Today, without<br />
speedy action to reverse their decline, extinction<br />
looms large for such critically endangered<br />
species as the Amsterdam Albatross.<br />
Longlining isn’t the only threat. <strong>The</strong> ATF is also<br />
addressing other forms of fishing, such as trawling,<br />
purse-seine and gill-netting, which all take a heavy<br />
toll on seabirds. New technology, meanwhile, is<br />
offering new solutions. Recent innovations include<br />
the hookpod, in which the hook is contained<br />
within a plastic pod and released by water pressure<br />
only when it has sunk out of reach of seabirds.<br />
Alternatively, lines can now be set from a chute<br />
below the surface, concealing the hooks from<br />
seabirds as they enter the water. So, it seems that<br />
the ATF represents a rare conservation success<br />
story. <strong>The</strong> team’s valiant efforts have seen critical<br />
research completed, mitigation methods adopted<br />
and awareness spreading fast. But huge challenges<br />
remain. <strong>The</strong> priority now is to work with the fishing<br />
industry and governments to ensure that seabird<br />
protection is integral to all new fisheries regulations<br />
– and then to ensure that the fishermen on their<br />
boats comply with these regulations.<br />
As the work continues, both out on the high seas<br />
and back in the boardroom, you too can play a<br />
part by supporting the ATF. After all, albatrosses<br />
have been flying the world’s oceans for at least<br />
30 million years. <strong>The</strong>y are the original ancient<br />
mariners. Look after them, and they might teach<br />
us something about how we, too, can live in<br />
harmony with the sea.<br />
<strong>The</strong> ATF is an initiative led by the RSPB for the <strong>BirdLife</strong><br />
International Partnership. <strong>The</strong> initiative involves work 8<br />
countries including Argentina (hosted by Aves Argentinas),<br />
Brazil (Projeto Albatroz), Chile (CODEFF), Ecuador<br />
until 2013 (Aves y Conservación), Namibia (Namibia<br />
Nature Foundation), Peru (ProDelphinus), South Africa<br />
(<strong>BirdLife</strong> South Africa) and Uruguay (Proyecto Albatros y<br />
Petreles de Uruguay).<br />
Article reproduced from the<br />
RSPB Nature’s Home magazine, Spring <strong>2016</strong>.<br />
MEET A CONSERVATION HERO<br />
CLEMENS NAOMAB<br />
Albatross Task Force Coordinator in Namibia<br />
With his dreadlocks and smile, Clemens is the kind of charming guy you instantly get on with. A real ‘high-seas hero’ who coordinates<br />
the ATF in Namibia, where his work has led to the government recently passing regulations to stop seabird bycatch. Spending weeks at sea,<br />
he has spent the last year befriending and convincing fishermen to help save seabirds, and seems to have charmed a bird as well…<br />
What’s your favourite bird?<br />
When I started I didn’t really know much about<br />
birds. I love conservation, not just seabirds, but<br />
I remember when I first saw the Shy Albatross<br />
Thalassarche cauta. Wow! With its eyebrows it<br />
looks sort of mean, but it’s very beautiful.<br />
Tell us about the situation in Namibia<br />
Namibia was a very destructive fishery in terms<br />
of bycatch, with 30,000 seabirds a year killed. It’s<br />
really sad to see a drowned bird, especially the<br />
big ones because you know their long life cycle,<br />
that they might have chicks waiting for them<br />
on nests, and that it can be avoided by simple<br />
measures. It got a lot of attention of the ‘people<br />
upstairs’, if I can say it that way. <strong>The</strong> regulations<br />
have now been implemented so we’re hoping<br />
to reduce the numbers by 85-90%. Now when<br />
I go out on a trip on a longline vessel where<br />
they’ve taken up the measures I actually have<br />
no dead birds to record.<br />
So some fishing vessels adopted the measures<br />
before the regulations were in place?<br />
Yes, the Hake Association opted to do it voluntarily.<br />
It was at a time we were doing a lot of<br />
workshops, a lot of port visits and outreach in<br />
between fishermen docking and being very<br />
busy – we were quite annoying! [laughs] And<br />
we started going on the vessels and showing<br />
the fishermen and fishing managers how to<br />
use the bird scaring lines, how easy and cheap<br />
it is and that the measures aren’t going to interfere<br />
with their daily fishing practices. That’s<br />
when they said “Okay, come on, we’re going<br />
to do this.” It was a quite an achievement.<br />
What do you do out on the fishing boats?<br />
We go with the crew, we monitor, which<br />
includes recording bycatch data, up to 12 days<br />
at a time. <strong>The</strong>y are always curious [laughs]<br />
when they see us sitting on top of the gantry<br />
counting birds, they ask: “<strong>The</strong>re are so many<br />
behind the boat why do we need to protect<br />
them?” So I explain to them the situation, the<br />
life cycles of the birds, breeding, and they<br />
are amazed the albatrosses live for 60 years.<br />
I haven’t had a bad experience, they want to<br />
save the birds when they understand. On the<br />
22<br />
Species of albatross<br />
worldwide<br />
15<br />
Species threatened<br />
with extinction<br />
(was 19 in 2004)<br />
20 KPH<br />
Minimum wind speed<br />
an albatross needs<br />
to lift from water<br />
without flapping<br />
1,000 KM<br />
Distance an<br />
albatross can fly<br />
per day without<br />
flapping its wings<br />
5,000 DAYS<br />
ATF spent at sea<br />
10,000 KM<br />
<strong>The</strong> distance<br />
a wandering<br />
albatross will fly<br />
to find food<br />
THIS YEAR<br />
MARKS THE 10TH<br />
ANNIVERSARY<br />
OF THE ALBATROSS<br />
TASK FORCE<br />
vessels, I think the best way to build a relationship<br />
is when you don’t just talk about the work<br />
that you’re doing, but when you ask and try to<br />
understand their point of view. You tell them a<br />
story, they tell you a story and then later you<br />
just become friends, and that friendship brings<br />
the trust. You bump into them at a bar, we<br />
talk about English football quite a lot – they’re<br />
impressed I went to England so now I have<br />
stories to tell them!<br />
What’s your most memorable story?<br />
One of the funniest things that happened to me<br />
was when I was on the front of the vessel and the<br />
fishermen called me over to see some dolphins<br />
they’d spotted. I was just turning around when<br />
a Skua landed on my head! I thought it was<br />
going to poke my eye or something so I moved<br />
away and it flew, and then came straight back<br />
and landed on my head again! I guess it’s my<br />
hair… <strong>The</strong> captain was in tears laughing. <strong>The</strong>y<br />
called me ‘Bird Man’ after that.<br />
How was your first trip?<br />
So, I go out on the vessel in the evening and<br />
the guys ask me if I get sick and I tell them “I<br />
don’t know, I think I’m fine with it…” When they<br />
started serving dinner, they fed me a lot of<br />
food because they knew what was coming…<br />
I held it for a good two hours but then was<br />
sick for two days straight. <strong>The</strong>y laughed saying<br />
“How is the sea life?!” but they treated me well,<br />
coming to motivate me, give me water.<br />
So you’re a seabird conservation instructor<br />
who gets seasick…?<br />
It’s worth it. You forget about the days of<br />
seasickness. If someone tells you you’ve saved<br />
30,000 birds, that is “wow” [laughs] – it’s quite<br />
an achievement. But I would also congratulate<br />
the Namibian government and the chief<br />
of fisheries for taking this issue so seriously<br />
and pushing the regulations. And sometimes<br />
the fishermen are really interested in the birds<br />
too, helping me take pictures and calling me<br />
up saying “Is this the Yellow-nosed Albatross”?<br />
(<strong>The</strong>y were right).<br />
Shaun Hurrell<br />
30 BIRDLIFE • JUNE <strong>2016</strong><br />
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31
PREVENTING EXTINCTIONS<br />
I<br />
magine the buzz in the crowd at the<br />
recent Brazilian Birdwatching Festival,<br />
when ornithologist Rafael Bessa unveiled his<br />
rediscovery. <strong>The</strong> highly anticipated talk was titled<br />
“Species X” and for the first time in history, this<br />
bird’s song was played to the public. Previously<br />
known only from a handful of stuffed and ageing<br />
museum specimens and some more recent<br />
unsubstantiated reports, Bessa brought the Blueeyed<br />
Ground-dove back to life.<br />
“When he played the video there was a commotion<br />
in the crowd and nonstop applause”, said<br />
Pedro Develey, Executive Director of SAVE Brasil<br />
(<strong>BirdLife</strong> in Brazil). “It was pure emotion.”<br />
“SPECIES X”<br />
REDISCOVERED IN BRAZIL<br />
AFTER 75-YEAR DISAPPEARANCE<br />
<strong>The</strong> blue eyes of this extremely rare bird hadn’t been seen for nearly a century. Researchers have<br />
announced the comeback of the Blue-eyed Ground-dove Columbina cyanopis. Sightings of just<br />
12 individuals have been confirmed. Securing its habitat will be key to conserving this elusive bird<br />
For the last few months, the group of researchers<br />
– supported by SAVE Brasil, the Rainforest Trust<br />
and Butantan Bird Observatory – have been<br />
working in secret to report the rediscovery<br />
scientifically, while simultaneously developing a<br />
conservation plan that will secure the Critically<br />
Endangered bird’s long-term survival.<br />
Describing the rediscovery, Bessa said: “I returned<br />
to the place and I could recreate this vocalisation<br />
with my microphone. I reproduced the<br />
sound and the bird landed on a flowering bush,<br />
coming towards me. I photographed the animal,<br />
and when I looked at the picture carefully, I saw<br />
that I had recorded something unusual. My legs<br />
started shaking.”<br />
Blue-eyed Ground-dove occurs exclusively in<br />
Brazil and is threatened by the destruction of<br />
the Brazilian Cerrado, a savannah-like habitat.<br />
<strong>The</strong> jubilation of rediscovery quickly turned to<br />
sobering thoughts of how to act fast enough to<br />
save the tiny population.<br />
“We are now worried about the conservation<br />
of the species”, explained Rafael Bessa. “We are<br />
working on several fronts to build this plan. <strong>The</strong><br />
main action is to ensure that the area where it was<br />
found becomes a protected area, which would<br />
benefit not only Blue-eyed Ground-dove, but<br />
many other threatened species occurring there.”<br />
With cobalt blue eyes and dark blue spots on its<br />
wings that stand out against its overall reddishchestnut<br />
plumage, it’s hard to believe such an<br />
eye-catching bird went unnoticed for so long.<br />
But rapid rates of habitat loss in the region mean<br />
that many more species could be heading to<br />
extinction unseen. “Increasing the knowledge<br />
on Brazilian biodiversity is the first step to ensure<br />
its conservation”, said Luciano Lima, Instituto<br />
Butantan. “And, by doing so, we contribute to<br />
a better quality of life and health for all species,<br />
including our own.”<br />
Right after first spotting the bird, in <strong>June</strong> 2015,<br />
the ornithologist Rafael Bessa contacted Lima, at<br />
Instituto Butantan. With support from the Institute<br />
and SAVE Brasil, they started studying the<br />
0 Blue-eyed Ground-dove<br />
Columbina cyanopis.<br />
Photo Rafael Bessa (2)<br />
A COMMOTION<br />
IN THE CROWD<br />
AND NONSTOP<br />
APPLAUSE.<br />
“IT WAS PURE<br />
EMOTION”<br />
“I SAW THAT<br />
I HAD RECORDED<br />
SOMETHING<br />
UNUSUAL.<br />
MY LEGS STARTED<br />
SHAKING”<br />
PREVIOUSLY<br />
KNOWN ONLY<br />
FROM A HANDFUL<br />
OF STUFFED<br />
AND AGEING<br />
MUSEUM<br />
SPECIMENS,<br />
THE BLUE-EYED<br />
GROUND-DOVE<br />
HAS BEEN BROUGHT<br />
BACK TO LIFE<br />
species. A research group was formed, including<br />
ornithologists Wagner Nogueira, Marco Rego<br />
and Glaucia Del Rio, the latter two from Louisiana<br />
State University, USA. Neither the exact<br />
location where the species was found, nor the<br />
bird’s song, will be released by the researchers,<br />
until they conclude the conservation plan and<br />
the proposed measures are implemented.<br />
Within the conservation plan, the researchers are<br />
undertaking studies on the biology of the species,<br />
especially on behaviour, breeding biology and<br />
feeding. <strong>The</strong>y are also venturing to places with<br />
geographic and environmental features similar to<br />
the site of the original rediscovery, aiming to find<br />
additional populations. <strong>The</strong> search areas are identified<br />
through satellite imagery as well as a technique<br />
called Ecological Niche Modelling: based<br />
on several environmental features of the sites<br />
where the species occur, specific software uses<br />
mathematical models to predict areas potentially<br />
suitable to the species.<br />
“So far we have visited many areas in three states,<br />
but the species was located only in two sites close<br />
together, both in the state of Minas Gerais, which<br />
reinforces the need for urgent action to guarantee<br />
its survival”, warned ornithologist Wagner<br />
Nogueira. Blue-eyed Ground-dove seems to<br />
require a specific habitat that could be as Critically<br />
Endangered as the bird itself. Let the orange-red<br />
of the birds feathers be a colour warning to potential<br />
new infrastructure projects in the region: even<br />
a small project could wipe out this entire species.<br />
Now brought to life publicly again, only time will<br />
tell how SAVE Brasil and the research team can<br />
help to improve the long-term survival prospects<br />
for this species.<br />
s.h.<br />
32 BIRDLIFE • JUNE <strong>2016</strong><br />
JUNE <strong>2016</strong> • BIRDLIFE<br />
33
PREVENTING EXTINCTIONS I AM NOT A BIRD<br />
T<br />
DIGGING DEEP TO SAVE<br />
ROCK IGUANA<br />
This robust, prehistoric looking species is fighting<br />
for survival with all populations covering an area of less than 100 km 2<br />
he soil is hot to touch, the temperature<br />
reaches over 37° C in the early morning<br />
hours, and someone is covered in dust, lying<br />
face down on the ground with their head in a<br />
hole in the sand. Not an uncommon sight in<br />
certain areas of dry forest on the Caribbean<br />
island of Hispaniola.<br />
What could at best be considered unusual behaviour,<br />
or even mistaken for illegal activity – egg<br />
stealing, a threat facing many reptiles across<br />
the globe, is a scientist – Dr Stesha Pasachnik<br />
– conducting vital research to help save a large<br />
reptile from extinction. <strong>The</strong> Ricord’s Rock Iguana<br />
Cyclura ricordii is a stocky, prehistoric looking<br />
Ali North<br />
NOWADAYS IT CAN<br />
ONLY BE FOUND<br />
ON THE ISLAND<br />
OF HISPANIOLA<br />
creature that occurs in just four sub-populations<br />
on Hispaniola (an island shared by the Dominican<br />
Republic and Haiti).<br />
Classified as Critically Endangered on the IUCN<br />
Red List, the species is fighting for its survival,<br />
with a total range of less than 100 km 2 and an<br />
uncertain global population estimate of fewer<br />
than 4,000 individuals. <strong>The</strong> threats facing this<br />
island endemic are broad, and are exacerbated<br />
by its restricted range: illegal hunting, predation<br />
and disturbance by introduced mammals, agricultural<br />
expansion and charcoal production are<br />
all ramping up the pressure.<br />
0 Ricord’s Rock Iguana<br />
Cyclura ricordii.<br />
Photo Juan Sangiovanni/<br />
Shutterstock<br />
7 Researchers collect data<br />
to better understand<br />
the nesting ecology<br />
of Ricord’s Rock Iguana.<br />
Photo Rick Hudson<br />
IT’S ONE OF OVER<br />
SIXTY BIRDLIFE<br />
PROJECTS<br />
INVOLVING<br />
REPTILES<br />
In the early 2000s, a Species Recovery Plan was<br />
developed by the IUCN and its implementation<br />
brought together five partner organisations. Grupo<br />
Jaragua (<strong>BirdLife</strong> in the Dominican Republic) was<br />
one, whose contributions have been instrumental<br />
in building a greater understanding of the species<br />
and raising environmental awareness among<br />
local communities. Ground surveys have revealed<br />
the existence of a handful of critical nesting sites,<br />
including a population in Haiti that was previously<br />
thought to be extinct. <strong>The</strong>se sites, locally called<br />
fondos, are small areas with deep dirt/clay soils<br />
where the iguanas can dig and lay their eggs in<br />
synchrony with the rainy season.<br />
One of the most dense concentrations of iguana<br />
nests is Fondo de La Tierra, a conservation area of<br />
26 hectares purchased in 2010 by Grupo Jaragua<br />
with funding from the International Iguana Foundation.<br />
Since 2006, four fondos have seen a threefold<br />
increase in Ricord’s Rock Iguana nest numbers.<br />
Research by Grupo Jaragua, INTEC University<br />
in Santo Domingo, Mississippi State University<br />
and San Diego Zoo’s Institute for Conservation<br />
Research is helping to better understand population<br />
size, genetics and the ecology of this and<br />
another iguana – the Vulnerable Rhinoceros Iguana<br />
Cyclura cornuta. This explains the dust-covered<br />
scientists, excavating nests to determine hatching<br />
success and retrieve temperature loggers.<br />
Using camera traps and frequent field surveys,<br />
Grupo Jaragua has also been able to document<br />
and help control one of the many threats facing<br />
Ricord’s Rock Iguana: invasive alien species.<br />
<strong>The</strong>se include cattle and donkeys (which degrade<br />
iguana habitat) and cats, dogs, and mongoose<br />
(which prey upon iguana hatchlings and adults).<br />
President of Grupo Jaragua, Yolanda León, adds<br />
“We are also documenting the severe habitat<br />
destruction caused by charcoal production and<br />
have been actively involved in advocacy activities<br />
to reduce this illegal activity. We are working with<br />
journalists, filmmakers, and social media to document<br />
and expose the situation”.<br />
Grupo Jaragua has trained 400 teachers about<br />
the species’ ecology and the importance of iguana<br />
conservation to help foster positive attitudes<br />
towards the species, while the use of native and<br />
endemic plants in an agroforestry programme,<br />
alongside the promotion of bee-keeping as a<br />
biodiversity friendly activity, is ensuring that critical<br />
habitat for iguanas, birds and other wildlife<br />
will remain for generations to come. To ensure<br />
the future of Ricord’s Rock Iguana and the habitat<br />
it relies on, conservation organisations on the<br />
island really are having to dig deep. However,<br />
through a huge collaborative effort involving<br />
research, land protection and local engagement,<br />
there is now genuine optimism that the decline<br />
can be reversed.<br />
This is just one of many non-avian species that are the<br />
focus of work by the <strong>BirdLife</strong> Partnership across the globe.<br />
A recent survey, supported by the Aage V Jensen Charity<br />
Foundation, revealed that 74% of <strong>BirdLife</strong> Partners are<br />
conducting work that benefits or focuses on taxa beyond<br />
birds. Over 370 projects were identified worldwide, with<br />
Grupo Jaragua’s work on Ricord’s Rock Iguana being just<br />
one of over sixty projects involving reptiles.<br />
34 BIRDLIFE • JUNE <strong>2016</strong><br />
JUNE <strong>2016</strong> • BIRDLIFE<br />
35
IRREPLACEABLE<br />
Sierra de Bahoruco<br />
Dominican Republic<br />
At 1,100 km 2 , Sierra de Bahoruco National Park, is the largest<br />
terrestrial protected area of the Dominican Republic and one<br />
of the most important refuges for Hispaniola island’s unique<br />
biodiversity. Located on the southern border separating the<br />
Dominican Republic and Haiti, this Important Bird and Biodiversity<br />
Area (IBA) supports many different subtropical foresttypes<br />
including montane pinelands, sub-humid forests and<br />
the severely threatened broadleaf forests (including cloud and<br />
humid forests). Sierra de Bahoruco’s natural ecosystems hold<br />
more than 40 globally threatened (many endemic) species<br />
including endangered birds such as the Black-capped Petrel<br />
Pterodroma hasitata, La Selle Thrush Turdus swalesi, Bicknell’s<br />
Thrush Catharus bicknelli and Hispaniolan Crossbill Loxia<br />
megaplaga; six Critically Endangered frogs and two Endangered<br />
endemic land mammals – the Hispaniolan Solenodon<br />
Solenodon paradoxus and Hutia Plagiodontia aedium. But this<br />
diverse IBA is in danger of being lost. <strong>The</strong> strongest of the many<br />
threats is illegal agriculture encroachment by local land owners<br />
and immigrant Haitian farmers, which threatens in particular the<br />
biodiverse-rich humid broadleaf forests on the southern slopes<br />
that are home to many of the endemic and migratory species.<br />
Other threats include forest fires due to agriculture and charcoal<br />
making, heavy use of agrochemical products and illegal<br />
taking of birds, mainly parrots. Grupo Jaragua (<strong>BirdLife</strong> in the<br />
Dominican Republic) has been working at Sierra de Bahoruco<br />
since 2003, developing a wide range of activities to respond to<br />
these challenges. <strong>The</strong>y have been working with local communities<br />
to encourage sustainable activities like eco-tourism and<br />
bee-keeping, and carrying out research, species and<br />
habitat monitoring, reforestation, land purchase in<br />
the buffer zone of the Park, and advocacy. As a result of<br />
their successful media campaign highlighting the effect of<br />
encroachment on the Park, the Government has established a<br />
committee of key stakeholders to prepare a Strategic Conservation<br />
Plan for the Park. <strong>The</strong> Plan is being developed in consultation<br />
with local communities, including those responsible for<br />
illegal activities and it is expected to be ready by October this<br />
year. Conservation action will follow, so fingers crossed!<br />
0 Narrow-billed Tody Todus angustirostris. Photo E. Fernandez<br />
4 Esteban Garrido, Jaragua Volunteers. Photo Grupo Jaragua<br />
36 BIRDLIFE • JUNE <strong>2016</strong><br />
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37
IRREPLACEABLE<br />
not just one, but five Critically Endangered bird<br />
species. <strong>The</strong>se include 50% of the global population<br />
of White-shouldered Ibis Pseudibis davisoni<br />
and 10% of the world’s Giant Ibis Thaumatibis<br />
gigantea. You will also find a dedicated <strong>BirdLife</strong><br />
team, skilfully covering huge distances every day<br />
on urban motorbikes unsuitable for the sandy<br />
terrain, diligently monitoring crucial forest pool<br />
habitats, or working with an enforcement team<br />
to report illegal logging and confiscate wood<br />
and captured wildlife. Some rangers, like Mem<br />
Mai, are former hunters and have an ear so well<br />
trained that they can monitor bird song over the<br />
noise of the motorbike engine.<br />
THE PRESERVATION<br />
OF WILD PLACES IS<br />
OFTEN PITCHED AS<br />
A BATTLE BETWEEN<br />
THE INTERESTS<br />
OF WILDLIFE<br />
AND THE INTERESTS<br />
OF PEOPLE.<br />
THIS IS NOT TRUE<br />
Ask Project Officer Eang Samnang and he will<br />
tell you the exact location of all three Critically<br />
Endangered vulture species’ nests. Or he will<br />
explain that the vulture “restaurant” they created<br />
to supplement feeding, necessitated by a decline<br />
in large wild mammals now supports 73% of all of<br />
Cambodia’s vultures.<br />
In the local villages, you will find Dina Yam,<br />
Community Outreach Officer, showing educational<br />
films to prevent wildlife poisonings, or<br />
helping people build up herds of cattle and<br />
buffalo. Lately, the Cambodia team and Forestry<br />
Administration had an economic land concession<br />
cancelled to prevent the clearance of the<br />
forest for plantations and came one step closer<br />
to ensuring protected status.<br />
HUGE PROTECTED FOREST JIGSAW<br />
COMPLETED<br />
Welcome to the new Prey Siem Pang Lech<br />
Wildlife Sanctuary in Cambodia, home to five<br />
Critically Endangered bird species and local communities<br />
T<br />
he picture on the jigsaw box shows an<br />
extensive swathe of unified nature, beyond<br />
borders, of thriving wildlife and local communities<br />
across 700,000 ha in Laos, Cambodia and<br />
Vietnam. Together, they make one of the largest<br />
protected landscapes in South-east Asia.<br />
However, for the last couple of years, one of the<br />
most valuable jigsaw pieces in the world was<br />
missing: a large deciduous forest called Western<br />
Siem Pang, in northern Cambodia. Now, it has<br />
finally been slotted into place. Welcome to the<br />
new Prey Siem Pang Lech Wildlife Sanctuary. In<br />
this newly protected forest you will find Endangered<br />
Eld’s Deer Panolia eldii roaming along with<br />
2 Giant Ibis<br />
Thaumatibis gigantea.<br />
Photo Jonathan C. Eames<br />
Suffice to say that the <strong>BirdLife</strong> Cambodia<br />
Programme has been working hard for years to<br />
protect Western Siem Pang. 2014 saw celebrations<br />
when the northern half was declared a Protected<br />
Forest. But the puzzle was not completed until<br />
the Prey Siem Pang Lech Wildlife Sanctuary was<br />
created, covering over 65,000 ha in the remaining<br />
southern half of the forest. <strong>The</strong> Cambodian<br />
Prime Minister, Hun Sen, signed the sub-decree<br />
establishing Prey Siem Pang Lech Wildlife Sanctuary<br />
on 9 th May <strong>2016</strong>, with a boundary that<br />
follows almost exactly <strong>BirdLife</strong>’s proposal. Now<br />
this boundary completes the regional protected<br />
area jigsaw combining forest in southern Laos,<br />
northern Cambodia and western Vietnam. This<br />
latest sub-decree also sees the upgrade of the<br />
northern half of Western Siem Pang forest from<br />
its Protected Forest status, bringing the total area<br />
designated as Wildlife Sanctuary to 132,321 ha.<br />
“We are delighted with this decision and <strong>BirdLife</strong>’s<br />
Cambodia team will continue to support the<br />
Ministry of Environment to manage this wildlife<br />
sanctuary”, said Bou Vorsak, <strong>BirdLife</strong> Cambodia<br />
Programme Manager. “This success comes from<br />
working in close collaboration with our government<br />
partners, the Forestry Administration of the<br />
Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries,<br />
and the General Department of Administration<br />
for Nature Conservation and Protection of the<br />
38<br />
BIRDLIFE • JUNE <strong>2016</strong><br />
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39
IRREPLACEABLE<br />
Ministry of Environment, and thanks to unwavering<br />
support from the MacArthur Foundation<br />
over the many years.” “My department is proud<br />
to have initiated this protected area designation<br />
process”, said Dr Keo Omaliss, Director of Department<br />
Wildlife and Biodiversity of Forestry Administration.<br />
“As someone who studied the Giant Ibis<br />
as part of my PhD research, I am pleased this<br />
population of this Critically Endangered species<br />
is now more secure. <strong>The</strong> Royal Government of<br />
Cambodia is committed to establishing more<br />
protected forest in the near future.”<br />
New grants from the MacArthur Foundation<br />
and Darwin Initiative are crucial to providing the<br />
resources to enable the process of zonation in<br />
the Sanctuaries to begin, as <strong>BirdLife</strong> works with<br />
the government to plan the management of<br />
the forest. Kong Kim Sreng, Head of the Department<br />
of Terrestrial Protected Areas at the Ministry<br />
of Environment, said: “I am so pleased to have<br />
played the final role in getting Prey Siem Pang<br />
Lech Wildlife Sanctuary nominated. I now look<br />
forward to working closely with <strong>BirdLife</strong> to make<br />
the protected area a reality on the ground.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> preservation of wild places is often pitched<br />
as a battle between the interests of wildlife and<br />
the interests of people. This is not true. It was<br />
only by understanding the value of Western Siem<br />
Pang forest both for threatened birds and for<br />
local people that its future is now secure.<br />
Western Siem Pang illustrates this connection<br />
very simply. Scattered under the broad leaves of<br />
the forest, seasonal pools called trapaengs are<br />
central to the lives of people as well as wildlife.<br />
In the dry season these trapaengs all but dry up<br />
0 Elds deer Rucervus eldii.<br />
Photo Jonathan C. Eames<br />
CONSERVATION IS<br />
NEVER AS SIMPLE AS<br />
SLOTTING A SINGLE<br />
JIGSAW PIECE<br />
INTO PLACE, BUT<br />
THE HARD WORK<br />
BEHIND THE SCENES<br />
OF BIRDLIFE’S<br />
CAMBODIA<br />
PROGRAMME<br />
CERTAINLY MAKES IT<br />
LOOK THAT WAY!<br />
(especially if buffalo aren’t around to wallow);<br />
but they are sources of water, frogs and fish<br />
for humans and birds alike, and also provide a<br />
wealth of non-timber forest products. Recognising<br />
this common interest, <strong>BirdLife</strong> works with<br />
local people and over a decade has established<br />
a network of Local Conservation Groups (LCGs)<br />
who agreed a Trapaeng Management Protocol to<br />
protect the essential pools, alongside the Ibises,<br />
Deer and other threatened wildlife like Gaur Bos<br />
gaurus, Banteng Bos javanicus, Clouded Leopard<br />
Neofelis nebulosa and Red-shanked Douc Langur<br />
Pygathrix nemaeus.<br />
Of course, conservation is never as simple as slotting<br />
a single jigsaw piece into place, but the hard<br />
work behind the scenes of <strong>BirdLife</strong>’s Cambodia<br />
Programme certainly makes it look that way!<br />
“<strong>The</strong> many years of perseverance have paid off<br />
at last”, said Jonathan Eames, <strong>BirdLife</strong> Cambodia<br />
Programme.<br />
s.h.<br />
Notes<br />
<strong>BirdLife</strong> wishes to thank all supporters of our work in<br />
Cambodia culminating in this fantastic news, including<br />
the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation;<br />
Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation; Critical<br />
Ecosystem Partnership Fund; Darwin Initiative, UK<br />
Government; Giant Ibis Transport (Species Champion);<br />
Mr Steven Martin (Species Champion); Forestry<br />
Bureau of the Council of Agriculture of Taiwan; Directorate-General<br />
for International Cooperation, Netherlands<br />
Government; British Birdwatching Fair.<br />
Western Siem Pang is an Important Bird & Biodiversity<br />
Area, and a <strong>BirdLife</strong> Forest of Hope.<br />
JUNE <strong>2016</strong> • BIRDLIFE<br />
41
GOOD PRACTICE<br />
FANCY<br />
A MATE?<br />
ONLY IF SHADE GROWN<br />
Organic yerba mate receives a healthy infusion from Darwin Initiative grants scheme.<br />
Guyra Paraguay (<strong>BirdLife</strong> in Paraguay) and its local partners awarded more than £300,000<br />
to protect Paraguay’s Atlantic Forest through their shade grown yerba mate project<br />
Louise Gardner<br />
W<br />
hen you think about plantations, several<br />
images may spring to mind. Rows of<br />
uniform trees stretching as far as the eye can see,<br />
scorched earth and withered weeds crunching<br />
beneath your feet as you wonder what chemical<br />
cocktail has been sprayed there. But visit a shade<br />
grown yerba mate (pronounced yer-bah mah-tay)<br />
plantation in Paraguay and you’ll have to throw<br />
your preconceptions out the window. Here, rain<br />
drips from the forest canopy above, unseen birds<br />
and frogs call from the undergrowth and indigenous<br />
people harvest yerba leaves according to<br />
tradition dating back centuries.<br />
This is the agricultural model that Guyra Paraguay,<br />
in a multi-layered partnership with indigenous<br />
Mbya Guarani people, campesinos (rural<br />
people), private sector, government and civil<br />
society, is keen to recreate in the globally important<br />
San Rafael Reserve in south-east Paraguay.<br />
<strong>The</strong> reserve protects over 72,000 ha of Atlantic<br />
Forest, a biodiversity hotspot and Endemic<br />
Bird Area (EBA), containing more Critically<br />
Endangered endemic bird species than any<br />
RAIN DRIPS<br />
FROM THE FOREST<br />
CANOPY ABOVE,<br />
UNSEEN BIRDS<br />
AND FROGS<br />
CALL FROM THE<br />
UNDERGROWTH<br />
AND INDIGENOUS<br />
PEOPLE HARVEST<br />
YERBA LEAVES<br />
ACCORDING TO<br />
TRADITION DATING<br />
BACK CENTURIES<br />
4 Locals harvest yerba<br />
leaves the traditional way.<br />
Photo Guyra Paraguay<br />
2 Shade grown yerba mate<br />
protects Paraguay’s Atlantic<br />
Forest.<br />
Photo Guyra Paraguay<br />
other neotropical region. In fact, San Rafael is<br />
the largest and highest priority area of Atlantic<br />
Forest in the country, home to Jaguar, Brazilian<br />
Tapir and 400 species of birds. <strong>The</strong> reserve also<br />
falls within the indigenous people’s ancestral<br />
domain, with 600 Mbya Guarani people living in<br />
22 communities.<br />
<strong>The</strong>se communities are extremely isolated:<br />
most people live in severe poverty, lacking basic<br />
health, education and sanitation services. Without<br />
technical skills or access to markets, they rely<br />
on subsistence and cash-crop agriculture that<br />
is ultimately inadequate for basic needs, leading<br />
to food insecurity and child malnutrition. <strong>The</strong><br />
Mbya Guarani depend heavily on native forest<br />
resources, but poverty forces them, as well as<br />
campesinos from the surrounding area, to clear<br />
more Atlantic Forest for agriculture.<br />
Despite the ratification of a “zero deforestation”<br />
law in 2006, effective enforcement over such a<br />
large area is difficult. A market-driven solution to<br />
provide alternative livelihoods is therefore crucial<br />
if the remaining forest is to be saved.<br />
42<br />
BIRDLIFE • JUNE <strong>2016</strong><br />
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43
GOOD PRACTICE<br />
Yerba mate Ilex paraguariensis is a South American<br />
tree related to the familiar European Holly<br />
Ilex aquifolium. It is used to make mate, a hot<br />
beverage traditionally consumed in central and<br />
southern regions of South America.<br />
A shade grown yerba producer, Guayaki says<br />
proudly that it “combines the strength of coffee<br />
with the health benefits of tea and the euphoria<br />
of chocolate”. It is usually grown in full sun plantations,<br />
but there is growing demand for shade<br />
grown, organic yerba for export to foreign<br />
markets.<br />
Using the Darwin Initiative funds, the partnership<br />
will create 50 ha of organic shade grown<br />
yerba and develop guaranteed international<br />
markets, providing communities with sustainable<br />
alternative employment. <strong>The</strong> proceeds from<br />
sales will be distributed to communities for much<br />
needed development projects. Evidence from<br />
monitoring, research and grassroots will also help<br />
to inform government good practice policies on<br />
equitable conservation of Atlantic Forests using<br />
the shade grown yerba model.<br />
So next time you fancy an invigorating cup of<br />
mate, reach for shade grown!<br />
0 San Rafael forest.<br />
Photo Guyra Paraguay<br />
“MATE COMBINES<br />
THE STRENGTH<br />
OF COFFEE<br />
WITH THE HEALTH<br />
BENEFITS OF TEA<br />
AND THE EUPHORIA<br />
OF CHOCOLATE”<br />
SAN RAFAEL: PARAGUAY’S<br />
MOST IMPORTANT SITE<br />
FOR BIRD AND BIODIVERSITY<br />
CONSERVATION<br />
James Lowen<br />
Lying in the small, land-locked South American<br />
country of Paraguay, San Rafael is a<br />
site wreathed in environmental accolades,<br />
glittering with conservation aspirations yet<br />
undermined by uncertainties. It has long<br />
been considered the country’s highest priority<br />
for biodiversity conservation, consequently<br />
receiving concerted attention from Guyra<br />
Paraguay (<strong>BirdLife</strong> Paraguay) and other conservation<br />
organisations.<br />
San Rafael contains two of the continent’s<br />
most threatened ecosystems: Upper Paraná<br />
Atlantic Forest and Mesopotamian grasslands.<br />
San Rafael protects Paraguay’s largest<br />
remnants of the former habitat, and was<br />
designated Paraguay’s first Important Bird<br />
and Biodiversity Area (IBA). <strong>The</strong> site harbours<br />
13 Globally Threatened Birds and 18 classified as<br />
Near Threatened. More bird species have been<br />
found at San Rafael than anywhere in Paraguay;<br />
roughly 430, c.60% of the country’s total.<br />
<strong>The</strong> avifauna is complemented by 61 mammal<br />
species, 35 amphibians, 52 fish, and 47 reptiles.<br />
And those numbers are rising: three reptiles new<br />
to science were discovered in San Rafael’s grasslands<br />
during 2006.<br />
Among birds, pole position is taken by 70<br />
species endemic to the Atlantic Forests. <strong>The</strong>se<br />
include numerous species that trigger IBA classification,<br />
notably globally threatened birds such<br />
as Helmeted Woodpecker Hylatomus galeatus,<br />
Bare-throated Bellbird Procnias nudicollis, and<br />
Russet-winged Spadebill Platyrinchus leucoryphus,<br />
plus Near Threatened species such as Solitary<br />
Tinamou Tinamus solitarius, Rusty-barred<br />
Owl Strix hylophila, and Yellow-browed Woodpecker<br />
Piculus aurulentus.<br />
Understandably then, San Rafael first grabbed<br />
conservationists’ attention for its Atlantic Forest.<br />
But as biologists explored the site, they discovered<br />
that its natural grasslands also teemed with<br />
rare birds. Open-country species include globally<br />
0 Rusty-barred Owl<br />
Strix hylophila.<br />
Photo Pete Morris/Birdquest<br />
2 Strange-tailed Tyrant<br />
Alectrurus risora.<br />
Photo James Lowen<br />
THE CONSERVATION<br />
OF SAN RAFAEL<br />
IS A LONG,<br />
CONVOLUTED<br />
AND ONGOING TALE<br />
threatened representatives of both damp and<br />
dry grasslands. Among them are Saffron-cowled<br />
Blackbird Xanthopsar flavus, Ochre-breasted Pipit<br />
Anthus nattereri, and a trio of Tyrants: Cock-tailed<br />
Alectrurus tricolor, Strange-tailed A. risora and<br />
Sharp-tailed Culicivora caudacuta.<br />
With such an abundance of riches, one might<br />
assume protection to be a shoe-in. Not so. <strong>The</strong><br />
conservation of San Rafael’s 70,000 ha is a long,<br />
convoluted and ongoing tale. In 1992, the Paraguayan<br />
government arrived at the Rio ‘Earth’<br />
Summit having declared San Rafael an ‘Area<br />
Reserved for a National Park’. And so the site’s<br />
status remains despite attempts to ‘upgrade’ it to a<br />
real National Park or managed-resources reserve.<br />
In consequence, San Rafael is a ‘paper park’,<br />
lacking legal protection, receiving scant conservation-management<br />
resources, and with its ownership<br />
scattered between nearly 50 landlords.<br />
Painfully aware that the country’s most important<br />
rainforest risked destruction, Guyra Paraguay has<br />
made San Rafael a strategic priority. Since 2001,<br />
it has purchased and managed 6,500 ha of land<br />
as the Guyra Reta reserve, pioneered a model of<br />
joint social and environmental ownership with<br />
local Mbya Guaraní communities, donated 500<br />
ha to the national government to formally run,<br />
and led an accredited REDD+ (Reducing Emissions<br />
from Deforestation and Forest Degradation)<br />
carbon-storage project that pays communities to<br />
manage forest rather than clear it for agriculture.<br />
Given Guyra Paraguay’s target of protecting at<br />
least 20,000 ha, San Rafael is justifiably one of<br />
<strong>BirdLife</strong> International’s 20 ‘Forests of Hope’, not<br />
just one of its 422 ‘IBAs in Danger’.<br />
44<br />
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45
PORTFOLIO<br />
0 Rows of non-native olive trees are a common sight in Turkey. <strong>The</strong>se landscapes do not allow the local economy<br />
and birds to thrive. See how Doğa Derneği (<strong>BirdLife</strong> Turkey) is changing the landscape. Photo Noradoa<br />
0 In the Seferihisar region, students at Doğa’s Nature School are using adobe bricks to build<br />
‘soil houses’ – providing a home not only for people but also for nesting birds. Photo Mahmut Koyaş<br />
1 Doğa has been helping locals manage their resources in nature-friendly ways. As a result, the district of Izmir<br />
is a rich habitat that hosts a variety of threatened animal and plant species. Photo Tijen Burultay<br />
1 Maintaining these landscapes is only possible by passing the knowledge from one generation<br />
to the next. <strong>The</strong> community aspect is key to their conservation. Photo Mahmut Koyaş
NATUREALERT<br />
DEFENDING NATURE LAWS IN EUROPE<br />
THE FIGHT<br />
CONTINUES<br />
<strong>The</strong> EU Commission has delayed the release of its technical assessment<br />
without any plausible excuse. Many fear attempts to weaken nature protection<br />
T<br />
he saga surrounding the Nature Directives,<br />
the laws that protect Europe’s<br />
nature, continues. On 20 <strong>June</strong> the EU Environment<br />
Council, (ministers with responsibility for<br />
the environment from all 28 EU member states)<br />
met in Luxembourg. <strong>BirdLife</strong> Europe was also<br />
there to support ministers in reiterating their<br />
backing for the Birds and Habitats Directives. A<br />
number of key ministers, from Germany, France,<br />
Luxembourg, Estonia and Greece joined <strong>BirdLife</strong><br />
in front of a banner calling for the Nature laws<br />
to be officially deemed fit for purpose immediately.<br />
During the meeting itself, the ministers<br />
from Luxembourg and Germany expressed their<br />
disappointment with the European Commission<br />
for not publishing its “fitness check” report<br />
on the Directives. <strong>The</strong>y called on the European<br />
Commission to publish the report as soon as<br />
possible. Commissioner Vella replied that the<br />
Christopher Sands<br />
0 Eurasian Spoonbills.<br />
Photo Frank Vassen<br />
Nature Directives are key to protect biodiversity<br />
and nature and agreed that strengthening implementation<br />
in all member states is important. He<br />
stated that the Commission is still working on<br />
this issue and is planning to present its report<br />
on the “fitness check” in autumn. He reiterated<br />
Vice President Timmerman’s emphatic statement<br />
before the ENVI committee of the European<br />
Parliament that “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”<br />
is their operating and underlying principle. <strong>The</strong>ir<br />
own commissioned study is unequivocal that the<br />
directives ‘ain’t broke and don’t need fixing’!<br />
<strong>The</strong> EU’s basic environmental laws, the Birds and<br />
Habitats Directives, came up for review starting<br />
in January 2015, with an extensive collection of<br />
evidence and relevant public input. <strong>The</strong> process<br />
is part of its Smart Regulation policy, a series of<br />
evidence-based critical reviews of all EU legislation<br />
to ensure that laws are ‘fit-for-purpose’ – that<br />
is that they deliver what’s expected, and do so<br />
intelligently, well and efficiently. Knowing full well<br />
the current Commission’s inclination to consider<br />
regulations, and environmental laws in particular,<br />
as a hindrance to unbridled economic growth,<br />
<strong>BirdLife</strong>, and a group of NGO partners including<br />
WWF and European Environmental Bureau (EEB),<br />
decided, for the first time, to attempt an unprecedented<br />
public participation in the evidence collection<br />
and citizen input phase of the EU’s evaluation<br />
of the directives. With our networks of local Partners,<br />
massive scientific evidence was collected<br />
and analysed for the Commission’s evaluation<br />
efforts, and a wide range of EU stakeholders<br />
were engaged and participated which reinforced<br />
lobbying efforts in the EU member states.<br />
And what a campaign it was! Never before<br />
have EU leaders and politicians received such<br />
an outpouring of public opinion on a matter<br />
before them. Well over half a million citizens<br />
expressed support for the Nature Directives<br />
through a specially established website providing<br />
them with the background they needed and the<br />
means to register their opinions. <strong>The</strong> campaign<br />
also received the support of the European Parliament<br />
whose Members overwhelmingly endorsed<br />
the Nature Directives. And Member States of the<br />
European Union also joined in with 12 Environment<br />
Ministers calling for the preservation of the<br />
Nature Laws and their enhanced implementation.<br />
It is apparent that this extensive public expression<br />
of support has stopped the attack in its tracks and<br />
opened up a real opportunity for a new season<br />
of better enforcement and implementation. <strong>The</strong><br />
initial results of their fitness check in November<br />
2015 have been a vindication of <strong>BirdLife</strong>’s position<br />
that the Directives are fit for purpose but<br />
suffer from a gross deficit of implementation. <strong>The</strong><br />
Commission decision, expected for Spring <strong>2016</strong><br />
has still failed to materialise however.<br />
4 Jean-Claude Juncker.<br />
Photo David Plas/cc-by-2.0<br />
7 Half a million Europeans<br />
supported our campaign<br />
to save the Nature Directives.<br />
Photo Friends of the Earth<br />
Europe<br />
TIMMERMANS,<br />
GRILLED BY<br />
THE EUROPEAN<br />
PARLIAMENT<br />
PROMISED:<br />
“IF IT AIN’T BROKE<br />
WE WON’T FIX IT”<br />
AFTER BREXIT<br />
THE EU MUST<br />
RECONNECT<br />
WITH ITS CITIZENS<br />
<strong>The</strong> Dutch government, originally very critical<br />
of the Directives, was forced by a parliamentary<br />
vote to support our demands and, having taken<br />
over the EU rotating presidency, had organised<br />
an important conference for the end of <strong>June</strong> to<br />
be called ‘Future-proof Nature Policy; Reaching<br />
common goals’. <strong>The</strong> purpose of the conference<br />
was to have extensive, collaborative discussions<br />
based on the Commission’s assessment<br />
of the Directives on how to best improve and<br />
strengthen their implementation. Whoops! With<br />
no such document released by the Commission,<br />
the Dutch Presidency has just cancelled the<br />
conference deeming it a waste of time in view of<br />
the Commission’s paralysis.<br />
Of course the inner machinations of the EU<br />
political sausage-making are inevitably difficult<br />
to decipher but it appears clear that the mobilisation<br />
<strong>BirdLife</strong> Europe and others so successfully<br />
mounted did derail the weakening and diminishing<br />
of Europe’s nature protection. On the<br />
other hand, it is also clear that intense lobbying<br />
by nature’s enemies is stonewalling progress. Of<br />
course with the impasse now having this embarrassing<br />
outcome for key Euro institutions like<br />
the Presidency and the Commission, the mobilisation<br />
will need to increase its efforts to free<br />
Europe’s nature laws from the Commission’s<br />
deep freeze. Planning and discussions are now<br />
underway to achieve just this.<br />
<strong>The</strong> shocking Brexit vote outcome has shaken<br />
the EU to its foundations, and inescapably proves<br />
that the EU Commission and political leadership<br />
must reconnect in the most essential ways with<br />
EU citizens. Responding to the popular support<br />
for the EU Nature Laws would be a great place<br />
to start. With summer at our doorstep, the Nature<br />
Directives must be allowed out into the warmth<br />
and sunshine to flourish in their critical role of<br />
protecting our lives, our biodiversity and the<br />
planet on which we temporarily live.<br />
48<br />
BIRDLIFE • JUNE <strong>2016</strong><br />
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49
MEET THE PARTNER<br />
0 Tito Narosky, Honorary President of Aves Argentinas. Photo Aves Argentinas<br />
0 Grasslands Alliance members and Princess Takamado. Photo Aves Argentinas<br />
YEARS<br />
OF AVES ARGENTINAS<br />
In 1916 the Sociedad Ornitologica del Plata was founded by a small group<br />
of visionaries. Today it counts 3,000 members and works on over 1,000 species.<br />
And its symbol, the Rufous Hornero, is a national emblem<br />
0 Students building nest boxes, 1924. Photo Aves Argentinas<br />
0 <strong>The</strong> Albatross Task Force working with schools, 2015. Photo Aves Argentinas<br />
Hernán Casañas<br />
CEO of Aves Argentinas<br />
A<br />
century ago, on July 28 1916, the Sociedad<br />
Ornitológica del Plata was born. Leading<br />
researchers and naturalists of the time, including<br />
the great writer and ornithologist William Hudson,<br />
founded the first environmental NGO of Latin<br />
America. Today, its name is Aves Argentinas, Latin<br />
America’s oldest environmental organisation.<br />
cover a wide range of issues including grasslands,<br />
urban reserves, seabirds, Important Bird & Biodiversity<br />
Areas (IBAs) and preservation of endangered<br />
species; such actions have consolidated<br />
our leadership in the conservation community. In<br />
addition, since 1917, we have published the scientific<br />
magazine El Hornero.<br />
0 Board of Directors, 1932. Photo Aves Argentinas<br />
0 One of their first birdwatching excursions, 1932. Photo Aves Argentinas<br />
0 National conference against wildlife trade, 2015. Photo Aves Argentinas<br />
0 Hooded Grebe guardians, 2015. Photo Aves Argentinas<br />
<strong>The</strong>re are now more than 3,000 members in<br />
the country, who enjoy and protect the more<br />
than 1,000 species of birds that inhabit Argentinian<br />
territory, 120 of which are threatened with<br />
extinction.<br />
To reverse the decline, we are following two<br />
strategies: first, to connect Argentinians with<br />
nature; and secondly, to manage key protection<br />
sites for species’ survival. For example, we<br />
organise hundreds of birdwatching courses and<br />
promote Argentina’s School of Naturalists, which,<br />
since 1989, has trained hundreds of naturalist<br />
interpreters and field naturalists.<br />
Back in 2007, we launched the Birding Club, an<br />
initiative that aims to motivate people to connect<br />
with birds and advocate for their protection. At<br />
the same time, our conservation programmes<br />
“THERE WILL<br />
ALWAYS BE A BIRD<br />
FLYING ACROSS<br />
THE SKY AND<br />
AN ARGENTINIAN<br />
WATCHING IT”<br />
Tito Narosky<br />
Honorary President<br />
Lately we have been investing time and effort<br />
in creating new national parks, with encouraging<br />
results. For example, our involvement in partnership<br />
with other institutions to form the Patagonia<br />
National Park allowed us to safeguard this unique<br />
landscape. It is an international natural landmark<br />
where endangered wildlife, such as the Critically<br />
Endangered endemic Hooded Grebe Podiceps<br />
gallardoi, and breathtaking landscape coexist. We<br />
also work to promote birdwatching tourism, an<br />
activity that increasingly generates more resources<br />
in our country, taking advantage of the outstanding<br />
diversity of species and environments.<br />
To paraphrase the renowned naturalist Tito<br />
Narosky, Honorary President of our organisation,<br />
we want to continue flying high to ensure that<br />
“there will always be a bird flying across the sky<br />
and an Argentinian watching it.”<br />
50<br />
BIRDLIFE • JUNE <strong>2016</strong><br />
JUNE <strong>2016</strong> • BIRDLIFE<br />
51
MEET THE PARTNER<br />
1916 THE FOUNDATION<br />
28 July: With the Great War raging across<br />
continents, a group of 21 scientists and naturalists<br />
meet in the Montserrat neighbourhood<br />
of Buenos Aires. <strong>The</strong>y discuss a future<br />
where people are aware of the importance<br />
of conserving biodiversity. <strong>The</strong>y imagine a<br />
world where people, thanks to information,<br />
education and research, come to fully understand<br />
that birds are indicators of the health<br />
of our environment and that by conserving<br />
birds’habitats, we secure the planet for generations<br />
to come. On that day Aves Argentinas<br />
is founded: it will become a pioneer in bird<br />
conservation in the Americas.<br />
1917 HERE COMES EL HORNERO (OVENBIRD)<br />
One year after its foundation, Aves Argentinas<br />
chooses the Hornero as the ambassador for<br />
their mission, with the first issue of their scientific<br />
journal El Hornero. What started as a few<br />
articles defining the character and aims of the<br />
organisation is now considered a benchmark<br />
in the area of neotropical ornithology in Latin<br />
America.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Rufous Hornero Furnarius rufus is not<br />
your regular brown bird. Its seemingly dull<br />
plumage hides a fascinating behaviour. This<br />
tiny bird builds mud nests that resemble old<br />
wood-fired ovens (the Spanish word horno,<br />
means “oven”, giving rise to the English name<br />
Ovenbird). This unique chambered construction<br />
is built in many stages, allowing the materials<br />
to dry and form a highly weather-resistant<br />
home that will eventually survive storms and<br />
winds. Since their nests are so sturdy, horneros<br />
happily build them in the strangest of locations:<br />
rooftops, powerlines, street lamps or<br />
0 Argentina’s official stamps<br />
feature local birds<br />
statues. Inevitably, their omnipresent visibility<br />
has fuelled people’s imagination. Ovenbirds are<br />
the harbingers of good luck. <strong>The</strong>ir unique sound<br />
announces upcoming times of prosperity. As a<br />
South American proverb goes “No thunder ever<br />
fell where horneros have nested”.<br />
1917 ONWARDS AND UPWARDS<br />
<strong>The</strong> first issue of El Hornero opens with an article<br />
that might well be written today. Attributed to the<br />
founder and former president Roberto Dabbene,<br />
the following commentary is published:<br />
“Nobody can debate that the study of birds<br />
constitutes one of the most rich chapters in the<br />
history of the natural sciences. Once we know<br />
the name of the species, we must discover their<br />
behaviour, nesting habits, migrations, diet. Few<br />
animals provide, in this respect, so much charm to<br />
discover. <strong>The</strong> beauty of their forms and colourful<br />
exterior blends with their impressive instinct and<br />
intelligence. From their songs, expressions of<br />
love, to the artistic appearance of their nests,<br />
they are not only a study subject but also worthy<br />
of admiration.” “But the interest for birds does<br />
not end there. <strong>The</strong>re’s also the practical aspect.<br />
It’s proven that birds provide indirect services to<br />
humanity. Many feed themselves off insects and<br />
small mammals that could wreak havoc in our<br />
crops.” “Ornithological societies build a bridge<br />
between science and education. Aves Argentinas<br />
aims to gather support from all over the country<br />
and with the collaboration of members hopes to<br />
bring about, in time, a cause that is meaningful<br />
and useful for society.”<br />
1922 THE MIRACLE YEAR<br />
<strong>The</strong> year has been described as a mirabilis for<br />
many reasons: literary, political and technological.<br />
Perhaps most importantly, it was the year<br />
that public radio hit the global airwaves. Suddenly,<br />
it became possible to reach vast audiences with<br />
new ideas and information, and for people to<br />
take an active interest in the world beyond their<br />
provincial and national borders.<br />
However, sharing ideas on new global perspectives<br />
can change the world only if people act on<br />
them. That’s exactly what happened at midday<br />
on 20 <strong>June</strong>, 1922, when a group of people from<br />
different countries met at the London home<br />
of the then UK Minister of Finance to found<br />
the International Council for Bird Preservation<br />
(ICBP). This was the world’s first international<br />
conservation organisation, as renowned Swedish<br />
zoologist Professor Kai Curry-Lindahl described<br />
decades later. It’s where the <strong>BirdLife</strong> International<br />
Partnership has its roots. <strong>The</strong> group, united by<br />
their passion for birds, decided that co-ordinated<br />
international action was the answer to<br />
the various threats birds faced. In words very<br />
similar to those <strong>BirdLife</strong> still uses 90 years<br />
later, their declaration of principles stated: “…by<br />
united action, we should be able to accomplish<br />
more than organisations working individually in<br />
combating dangers to <strong>BirdLife</strong>.”<br />
1928 FROM PROVERBIAL BIRD TO NATIONAL EMBLEM<br />
In April national newspaper La Razón surveys<br />
primary schools, asking which could be the most<br />
representative bird of Argentina, to become the<br />
National Emblem.<br />
<strong>The</strong> hugely successful survey initially seems to<br />
show that the majestic Andean Condor Vultur<br />
gryphus will be the winner. At the last minute,<br />
however, it is the dull looking Hornero who<br />
becomes the National Emblem. This is thanks<br />
in great part to the efforts of Aves Argentinas:<br />
0 Narosky’s bird guide,<br />
the most popular bird guide<br />
of Argentina & Uruguay.<br />
Edited by Aves Argentinas<br />
0 <strong>The</strong> first issue<br />
of El Hornero<br />
taking interest in the survey, the then president<br />
Roberto Dabbene writes to the newspaper,<br />
explaining the reason why as the<br />
Horneros’ name had been chosen for their<br />
scientific journal. More letters follow. <strong>The</strong><br />
author Leopoldo Lugones writes a poem<br />
dedicated to this singular bird, declaring it<br />
to be the true symbol of the country. <strong>The</strong><br />
Rufous Hornero is chosen as the National<br />
Bird of Argentina.<br />
1936 AVES ARGENTINAS JOINS BIRDLIFE (TO BE)<br />
Former Audubon founder, Gilbert Pearson,<br />
finally invites Aves Argentinas to join the ICBP,<br />
which years later would become <strong>BirdLife</strong><br />
International. It takes them one year to<br />
become an official member of the <strong>BirdLife</strong><br />
family, expanding its impact beyond Argentinian<br />
borders.<br />
<strong>2016</strong> LOOKING FORWARD<br />
A century later, Aves Argentinas has grown<br />
from two dozen founders to a nationwide<br />
project, with citizens and scientists alike<br />
coming together to save biodiversity. It is<br />
important to look back to see what we have<br />
achieved, to inspire us to continue tackling the<br />
threats with renewed energy.<br />
www.avesargentinas.org.ar<br />
0 Birdwatching course. Photo Aves Argentinas 0 Field work in Patagonia National Park, 2015. Photo Aves Argentinas<br />
0 First ornithology meeting, 1976. Photo Aves Argentinas<br />
0 Aves Argentinas staff, <strong>2016</strong>. Photo Aves Argentinas<br />
52<br />
BIRDLIFE • JUNE <strong>2016</strong><br />
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YOU CANNOT MISS<br />
JULIUS ARINAITWE, Director of <strong>BirdLife</strong> Africa:<br />
“Our continent has fantastic biodiversity but is currently<br />
threatened by the plans of most African leaders to achieve<br />
double-digit GDP growth rates at all costs. Also, Africa is a very<br />
attractive investment hub for high-impact, natural resources<br />
based industries e.g. mining, energy production, agriculture.<br />
<strong>The</strong>se two factors, combined with weak political and financial<br />
support for environment management agencies, create<br />
the conditions for biodiversity to be trashed left, right and centre.<br />
Civil society is critical in safeguarding biodiversity in Africa.<br />
BirdFair’s support to Africa is very timely, appropriate<br />
and will make a critical difference in saving nature.”<br />
THE BRITISH BIRDWATCHING FAIR<br />
FROM RUTLAND<br />
TO THE WORLD<br />
Every year tens of thousands of people energise<br />
a nature reserve in central England to celebrate birds and have fun:<br />
it’s the world’s largest gathering of wildlife-lovers<br />
James Lowen<br />
4 Photo Hero Images<br />
THIS YEAR<br />
THE FAIR WILL<br />
RAISE FUNDS FOR<br />
AFRICAN FORESTS<br />
AND YOUNG<br />
CONSERVATIONISTS<br />
A<br />
s Britain’s summer tails off – our trees<br />
remaining vibrantly green yet hinting at<br />
end-of-season exhaustion – tens of thousands<br />
of people energise a nature reserve in central<br />
England to celebrate birds... and have fun. <strong>The</strong><br />
British Birdwatching Fair (or Birdfair, for short) is<br />
the world’s largest gathering of wildlife-lovers. If<br />
you have never been to Rutland Water on the<br />
third weekend of August, you must. If you have<br />
been, you know not to miss out.<br />
Dubbed by <strong>The</strong> Guardian newspaper “the Glastonbury<br />
of birdwatching”, the Birdfair is indeed a<br />
festival of wildlife – the event of the year. <strong>The</strong>re are<br />
talks by authors and tour leaders, interviews with<br />
TV celebrities. <strong>The</strong>re is pond-dipping and facepainting,<br />
performing arts and sumptuous local<br />
food. You can chat to experts about anything<br />
from butterflies to botany, from conservation<br />
strategies to coaxing kids into loving nature. And<br />
you can criss-cross the world without leaving<br />
England’s smallest county.<br />
This is the ultimate wildlife trade fair: 450 exhibitors<br />
representing every continent and populating<br />
the entire spectrum of the birdwatching industry.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re are travel companies and booksellers,<br />
optics manufacturers and photographic retailers,<br />
artists and magazine-publishers. Whether you<br />
wish to buy a scope or a sculpture, bird food or<br />
a bug-hunting kit, you will have no issue satiating<br />
any acquisitive urges. It wasn’t always thus. As is<br />
typical of great ventures, the Birdfair had humble<br />
beginnings. A local event in 1987 – about wildfowl,<br />
at a small nature reserve – led to a plot hatched by<br />
conservationists Tim Appleton and Martin Davies<br />
at a village pub. Although history doesn’t record<br />
the brand of ale they supped, the annals of 1989<br />
note that the inaugural British Birdwatching Fair<br />
hosted 3,000 visitors and raised £3,000 to help<br />
stop the massacre of birds in Malta.<br />
<strong>The</strong> latter statistic stresses the very point of the<br />
Birdfair. For sure, it’s a trade fair, a festival and<br />
a meeting-point for thousands of like-minded<br />
people. But, above all, the Birdfair is about raising<br />
money to save birds.<br />
Every penny of the entrance fee from 24,000<br />
visitors goes to <strong>BirdLife</strong> International projects.<br />
Factoring in sponsorship, exhibitors fees and<br />
merchandising, Birdfairs collectively have raised<br />
marginally shy of £3.4 million. Each successive<br />
year smashes the fundraising record set by its<br />
predecessor. In 2015, the donation of a mighty<br />
£320,000, says <strong>BirdLife</strong> International CEO<br />
Patricia Zurita, helped “<strong>BirdLife</strong>’s work on migratory<br />
birds, to prevent the illegal killing in the<br />
East Mediterranean”, a region where 25 million<br />
migrant birds are slaughtered annually in defiance<br />
of national laws.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Birdfair’s ever-widening reach is exemplified<br />
in the location of the initiatives it has supported.<br />
During its first six years, Birdfair funding only<br />
underpinned European projects. Since then, it<br />
has gone global. <strong>The</strong> event has helped conserve<br />
threatened habitats in tropical countries (Peruvian<br />
dry forests, Madagascan wetlands and Ecuadorian<br />
rainforests), helped prevent extinctions<br />
of Critically Endangered birds (such as Gurney’s<br />
Pitta), and funded programmes benefitting a<br />
suite of birds (protecting migratory flyways and<br />
ocean-wandering seabirds).<br />
“<strong>The</strong> Birdfair”, says co-founder Martin Davies,<br />
“goes to show that people really care about<br />
nature both here in the UK and abroad, and that<br />
by working together we can all make a difference<br />
for conservation.” Monies from this year’s<br />
Birdfair, plus those in the next two years, will help<br />
protect the world’s most endangered Important<br />
Bird and Biodiversity Areas (IBAs), starting with<br />
the unique lowland rainforest at Tsitongambarika<br />
in Madagascar.<br />
In addition to scores of lectures and hundreds<br />
of stands, this year’s enticing events include<br />
moth-trapping live on a big screen, debates<br />
about rewilding and grouse-shooting, and an<br />
evening of music headlined by world-renowned<br />
guitarist Craig Ogden. Helping conserve birds<br />
while enjoying yourself... what’s not to like about<br />
the British Birdwatching Fair?<br />
54<br />
BIRDLIFE • JUNE <strong>2016</strong><br />
JUNE <strong>2016</strong> • BIRDLIFE<br />
55
ACTION REPORT<br />
T H E K I L L I N G<br />
Unlawfully shot, trapped or glued.<br />
Every year around 25 million birds are slaughtered<br />
in the Mediterranean. Read our first review<br />
of illegal killing of birds in the region<br />
FIGHTING<br />
THE KILLING<br />
ONE YEAR LATER<br />
Reduce the killing of protected species, improve the<br />
protection of key sites for migratory birds and ensure<br />
adequate law enforcement: the three pillars of the<br />
strategy to end the slaughter of migratory birds in the Med<br />
Claire Thompson<br />
E<br />
xhausted migratory birds are trapped in<br />
glue, in agony from thirst and exhaustion.<br />
Squeezed to death, tangled in fine nets, millions<br />
are massacred this way every year before they<br />
can reach their breeding grounds. In an Egyptian<br />
market, ducks and orioles with broken wings<br />
are carried on a merchant’s back alive before<br />
being killed. Countless raptors and other migratory<br />
birds such as Turtle Doves await their fate in<br />
cages. Many of you will have seen our graphic<br />
video of illegal bird killing practices in the Mediterranean<br />
(it reached over 3 million people in<br />
three days), or you may have been shocked to<br />
learn this at last year’s Birdfair.<br />
<strong>The</strong> 2015 Birdfair coincided with the launch of<br />
our first ever assessment of the scope and scale<br />
of illegal killing of birds in the Mediterranean<br />
region. <strong>The</strong> report, entitled <strong>The</strong> Killing, estimated<br />
that approximately 25 million birds may be illegally<br />
killed in the region every year.<br />
Twice a year on migration through the Mediterranean,<br />
Sociable Lapwing, Red-footed Falcon,<br />
Eastern Imperial Eagle and 22 other globally<br />
threatened species are running the gauntlet.<br />
What has <strong>BirdLife</strong> International been doing to<br />
restore a safe flyway for these migratory birds?<br />
Our objective is to end illegal and indiscriminate<br />
killing of birds and ensure legal, responsible and<br />
sustainable hunting – in areas where hunting does<br />
take place. It is a long road ahead, but progress<br />
is being made. We’re making a three-pronged<br />
attack in the Eastern Mediterranean: reducing<br />
the killing of protected species, improving the<br />
protection of key sites for migratory birds, and<br />
ensuring adequate law enforcement.<br />
DEATH ON THE NILE<br />
With an estimated 6 million birds killed and<br />
trapped illegally every year, Egypt is one of the<br />
most dangerous places for migratory birds in the<br />
Mediterranean, alongside Italy and Lebanon. We<br />
launched a study to meet the hunters and trappers<br />
and find out why. Conservation requires,<br />
first and foremost, understanding since people’s<br />
livelihoods may depend on these illegal activities.<br />
<strong>The</strong> study estimates that over 75% of bird<br />
killing and trapping is illegal, but elucidated<br />
some more complex issues. For instance, only<br />
7% bird hunting is taking place for subsistence,<br />
whilst economic gain (through export of wild<br />
birds in some cases) is a prominent reason, plus<br />
for traditional recreation.<br />
Clearly, household size, occupation and income<br />
are significant influential factors, but surprisingly<br />
almost 20% of hunters are public-sector<br />
employees. Although some hunters are aware<br />
that they are hunting illegally, illegal activities are<br />
in part due to a lack of knowledge and understanding<br />
of the complex national laws.<br />
For this reason, an in-depth review of existing<br />
laws and enforcement mechanisms – followed<br />
by a set of recommendations for changes – has<br />
been completed by Nature Conservation Egypt<br />
(NCE, <strong>BirdLife</strong> Partner) and the Egyptian Environmental<br />
Affairs Agency (EEAA), which will lead to<br />
clearer communication of the legal framework to<br />
hunters and law enforcement authorities.<br />
In autumn 2015, as migratory birds started<br />
flying northwards towards illegal fine nets on<br />
the Egyptian Mediterranean coast, NCE took to<br />
the beaches and headlands with EEAA National<br />
Park rangers to conduct the first wide-scale field<br />
monitoring of bird hunting. <strong>The</strong> watch and data<br />
collection happened again this spring and will be<br />
repeated during every migration season.<br />
Thanks to the growing understanding of the issue,<br />
NCE and the EEAA will now be better able to plan<br />
how and where to target their law enforcement<br />
and public awareness-raising efforts to bring this<br />
gruesome illegal massacre under more effective<br />
control on the Egyptian coast. National<br />
Park rangers have received new equipment and<br />
training workshops were held to provide them<br />
with a greater understanding of regulations.<br />
LEBANON’S RESPONSIBLE HUNTERS<br />
AND CYPRUS’ IRRESPONSIBLE DELICATESSEN<br />
In Lebanon, the Society for the Protection of<br />
Nature in Lebanon (SPNL; <strong>BirdLife</strong> Partner)<br />
continues to work on the establishment of<br />
“Responsible Hunting Areas” to empower responsible<br />
shooters to become the guardians of birds<br />
and their habitats in 8 municipalities. In these<br />
areas, indiscriminate hunting methods will be<br />
prohibited, non-’game’ species will be protected,<br />
and hunting seasons respected. Regulation by<br />
municipal authorities will be vital to bring about a<br />
change from the current ‘free for all’ that is killing<br />
protected species with impunity.. SPNL have also<br />
0 Eurasian Scops-owl Otus<br />
scops trapped.<br />
Photo <strong>BirdLife</strong> Cyprus<br />
2 <strong>BirdLife</strong>’s report<br />
on the illegal killing of birds<br />
in the Mediterranean<br />
OUR NEW STUDY<br />
ESTIMATES THAT<br />
IN EGYPT OVER 75%<br />
OF BIRD KILLING<br />
AND TRAPPING<br />
IS ILLEGAL<br />
IN CYPRUS<br />
ACACIA BUSHES<br />
USED FOR<br />
LIMESTICKING ARE<br />
BEING CLEARED<br />
IN CROATIA<br />
AND MONTENEGRO<br />
WE FIGHT TO RAISE<br />
AWARENESS<br />
established a partnership with Sayd <strong>Magazine</strong><br />
(hunters’ magazine) which has helped promote<br />
responsible hunting practices.<br />
<strong>BirdLife</strong> Cyprus is fighting against illegal trapping<br />
of songbirds for ambelopoulia – a local<br />
controversial ‘delicacy’ of trapped Blackcap and<br />
other songbirds sold in law-breaking restaurants.<br />
With the majority of Cypriots not considering<br />
bird trapping to be a problem – <strong>BirdLife</strong> Cyprus<br />
continues to lead their zero-tolerance campaign<br />
to shift public opinion in schools and through<br />
engagement with new influential stakeholders<br />
such as tourist guides and members of the<br />
Orthodox Church.<br />
In the British Sovereign Base Areas of Cyprus, the<br />
authorities have continued to undertake invasive<br />
acacia clearance in the trapping hotspot of<br />
Cape Pyla, involving the removal of planted scrub<br />
which trappers use as cover and which attracts<br />
vast numbers of migrating songbirds.<br />
SHAKING POLITICIANS IN THE BALKANS<br />
In the Balkans, where the illegal killing of birds<br />
remains low on the public and political agenda,<br />
the focus has been on awareness-raising,<br />
reporting cases to ensure offenders are prosecuted,<br />
and ensuring national legislation is<br />
adequate. In particular, CZIP (<strong>BirdLife</strong> in Montenegro)<br />
has established an awareness-raising<br />
team through the development of a network<br />
of journalists. <strong>The</strong> organisation is also lobbying<br />
for the shortening of the legal hunting season.<br />
Association BIOM (<strong>BirdLife</strong> in Croatia) has been<br />
relentlessly raising public and political awareness<br />
on the illegal killing of birds in Croatia.<br />
<strong>The</strong> fight against illegal killing of birds is a tough<br />
one because of its complexity. Culture, society,<br />
economics, politics and human nature all come<br />
into the mix. But things can improve and we<br />
have evidence of this in the Messina Straight<br />
where LIPU (<strong>BirdLife</strong> in Italy) successfully got<br />
local enforcement authorities on board in the<br />
fight against illegal killing of Honey Buzzards<br />
and other species. <strong>The</strong> number of casualties<br />
for Honey Buzzards and other species in<br />
spring in Messina has been reduced from over<br />
2000 to approximately 200 per year since the<br />
1980s thanks to law enforcement and awareness-raising<br />
efforts to trigger cultural changes.<br />
From Egyptian shores to the Balkan media, the<br />
battle against illegal killing in the Eastern Mediterranean<br />
continues.<br />
<strong>BirdLife</strong> and Partners are leading the fight with national<br />
governments, in collaboration and with invaluable additional<br />
support from the MAVA Foundation for Nature,<br />
the Nando Peretti Foundation and the Africa-Eurasia<br />
Migratory Waterbird Agreement (AEWA).<br />
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57
YOUNG CONSERVATIONIST AWARDS<br />
PROTECTING<br />
THE FUTURE<br />
TOMORROW’S CONSERVATION HEROES<br />
Birdfair is kick-starting a new award scheme to train young conservationists,<br />
called the <strong>BirdLife</strong>-Birdfair Young Conservation Leader Awards. <strong>The</strong> three year programme<br />
will support teams to protect Important Bird & Biodiversity Areas (IBAs) in danger<br />
IBAs like Tsitongambarika are in danger. You’ve<br />
heard of critically endangered species – well,<br />
these are the world’s critically endangered sites,<br />
identified by <strong>BirdLife</strong> and are facing unprecedented<br />
and immediate threats.<br />
4 Julie Hanta Razafimanaha.<br />
Photo CLP<br />
7 David Kuria.<br />
Photo Adrian Long<br />
THE NEW BIRDLIFE-<br />
BIRDFAIR YOUNG<br />
CONSERVATION<br />
LEADER AWARDS<br />
AIM TO ENSURE<br />
THAT PEOPLE<br />
LIKE HAZELL<br />
ARE FAR FROM<br />
‘A RARE SPECIES’<br />
IN THE FUTURE<br />
Major progress has been made in advocating<br />
their conservation, with nearly half of all IBAs<br />
now having some form of formal legal protection.<br />
But in a changing world with damaging and<br />
escalating developments, land-use impacts and<br />
increasing human population pressures, who will<br />
ensure the protection of nature in the future?<br />
Young, local, conservation leaders – that’s who.<br />
Networks of highly-trained, internationally-aware<br />
conservation professionals to inspire action and<br />
fight for change from the local level.<br />
Conservation in the 21st century is a holistic discipline,<br />
requiring broad scientific expertise, policy<br />
and advocacy skills and the ability to raise public<br />
awareness and rally support.<br />
This is why the Young Conservation Leaders<br />
will be mentored and supported by their national<br />
<strong>BirdLife</strong> Partners and trained through the existing<br />
infrastructure of the CLP – a recipe for a lifechanging<br />
career to protect nature.<br />
<strong>The</strong> three-year scheme will leave a lasting legacy<br />
of the Birdfair, as well as strengthening the whole<br />
of the <strong>BirdLife</strong> Partnership’s ability to better<br />
protect IBAs. Next year, and beyond, the Young<br />
Conservation Leaders will present at Birdfair their<br />
progress and experiences.<br />
“Follow your passion and you really can’t go<br />
wrong”, says Hazell.<br />
s.h.<br />
T<br />
hrough his childhood passion for nature,<br />
Hazell Shokellu Thompson had developed<br />
a unique knowledge of local birds in the<br />
Gola Forest, Sierra Leone. In 1988, a Conservation<br />
Leadership Programme (CLP) expedition did not<br />
hesitate to choose him as the team’s local expert.<br />
“I was a rare species at that time,” said Hazell.<br />
Young Hazell gained a vital insight into conservation<br />
projects on that expedition that sparked<br />
an incredible career in conservation leadership<br />
with <strong>BirdLife</strong>. Hazell designed and introduced the<br />
first conservation biology course ever taught in<br />
his home country while he was a lecturer at the<br />
University of Sierra Leone, and describes the joint<br />
visit of the presidents of Sierra Leone and Liberia<br />
to the Gola Forest to declare their intention to<br />
create a Peace Park as “the pinnacle of my career”.<br />
Now Dr Thomson, Global Director of Partnership,<br />
Capacity and Communities for <strong>BirdLife</strong> International,<br />
Hazell’s key motivation is the opportunity<br />
to make a significant difference not only to the<br />
4 Conservation Leadership<br />
Programme training camp.<br />
Photo <strong>BirdLife</strong> International<br />
7 Hazell Shokellu<br />
Thompson (left).<br />
Photo CLP<br />
environment, but also to people’s lives: “One of<br />
the greatest joys of my job is being able to help<br />
national programmes and organisations – and<br />
young people – to become stronger”.<br />
<strong>The</strong> new <strong>BirdLife</strong>-Birdfair Young Conservation<br />
Leader Awards aim to ensure that people<br />
like Hazell are far from ‘a rare species’ in the<br />
future. Starting in Africa, every year three teams<br />
comprising at least three young conservationists<br />
(9 people per year) will be supported through<br />
grants, training and mentoring to build their<br />
conservation and leadership skills.<br />
Since the expedition in Sierra Leone, the CLP<br />
has evolved into an incredible mechanism for<br />
developing young conservation professionals<br />
from developing countries, now with alumni<br />
all over the world protecting nature from the<br />
grassroots up. <strong>The</strong> new <strong>BirdLife</strong>-Birdfair awards<br />
are now building on this success, with a focus<br />
on helping local conservation leaders to protect<br />
threatened IBAs.<br />
FROM BATS TO LEADING NGO<br />
Julie Hanta Razafimanahaka is a<br />
CLP-alumnus who is passionate<br />
about bats and lemurs. As a student in<br />
2004, Julie joined a CLP-funded team<br />
focusing on the interactions between<br />
people and bats in Madagascar.<br />
“Attending a conference in Cambridge<br />
was very exciting as it was the first time<br />
I had travelled out of Madagascar!”<br />
She remembers. Seven years later,<br />
she became Director at Madagasikara<br />
Voakajy (MV) - a leading national NGO<br />
in Madagascar that uses conservation<br />
science and community participation<br />
to protect endemic Malagasy species<br />
and their habitats. “My advice would<br />
be that conservationists should always<br />
try and link their work with people.”<br />
A LOCAL PERSPECTIVE<br />
“Let me say this,” said David Kuria, a<br />
CLP alumnus from Kenya. “<strong>The</strong> chance<br />
I was given to be an intern in <strong>BirdLife</strong><br />
International opened me and it created<br />
a different person. With the first CLP<br />
award, I felt I meant something. And I<br />
came to understand how people from<br />
different backgrounds look at things in<br />
different ways, how conservation works,<br />
and what you can do with your own<br />
potential. It gave me a global voice for<br />
my community.”<br />
As a result, David realised the Kikuyu<br />
Escarpment Forest would disappear in<br />
a generation (and with it his people’s<br />
livelihoods) if he did not take action to<br />
protect it.<br />
He started speaking out and hasn’t<br />
stopped since. Described as a ‘vision<br />
bearer’, the 42-year-old created<br />
and steered the Kijabe Environment<br />
Volunteers (KENVO) – a community-based<br />
forum and <strong>BirdLife</strong> Local<br />
Conservation Group which now<br />
works with over 10,000 members of<br />
the community – and has dedicated<br />
his life to nature conservation and<br />
social issues.<br />
“But what we do in Kikuyu is very<br />
possible to be replicated elsewhere.<br />
What you just need are champions,<br />
guys who are really are passionate.<br />
And then you also need to be<br />
supported in terms of training, recognising<br />
their views and also letting<br />
them present their issues the way<br />
they see them.”<br />
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59
IRREPLACEABLE<br />
CONSERVING MADAGASCAR’S<br />
FOREST<br />
OF HOPE<br />
Developing the confidence of local communities and a <strong>BirdLife</strong> Partner<br />
to work together to protect their environment has brought<br />
encouraging changes for nature and people<br />
Roger Safford<br />
S<br />
ome places are so rich in natural wonders,<br />
so extraordinary, so different from any<br />
other, so important for people, and yet so threatened,<br />
that we must pull out all the stops to save<br />
them. Madagascar is one such: an ‘island-continent’<br />
almost as big as France, with wildlife so<br />
unlike even nearby Africa’s that it can hardly be<br />
bracketed with it, or any other region of the world.<br />
Within this vast area are a multitude of astonishing<br />
sites, and right up among the most remarkable<br />
of these is Tsitongambarika Forest. Most of<br />
Madagascar’s forests have been destroyed over a<br />
long period, and in particular the lowlands have<br />
suffered, being the most accessible areas. <strong>The</strong><br />
rainforests of Madagascar form a chain extending<br />
down the east side of the great island, much of<br />
it on steep slopes and at high altitude. In a few<br />
places, mostly in the North, forest survives down<br />
on the hills, and very occasionally plains, by the<br />
coast; but in the South, forest in such places has<br />
virtually all gone.<br />
SOMETIMES<br />
IT SEEMS<br />
THAT ALMOST<br />
EVERYTHING<br />
IS ENDEMIC.<br />
MANY SPECIES<br />
ARE KNOWN FROM<br />
NO OTHER SITE<br />
IN MADAGASCAR<br />
ITSELF<br />
4 Collared Lemur<br />
Eulemur collaris.<br />
Photo nickgarbutt.com<br />
2 Scaly Ground-Roller<br />
Geobiastes squamiger.<br />
Photo Pete Morris<br />
It is no wonder, then, that Tsitongambarika, as<br />
the only remaining area in southern Madagascar<br />
that supports significant areas of lowland rainforest,<br />
is such a treasure. Scaly and Short-legged<br />
Ground Rollers (Geobiastes squamiger and<br />
Brachypteracias leptosomus), once impossible<br />
dreams for visitors and still highly prized finds,<br />
are common. Scaly Ground-roller is a particularly<br />
bizarre-looking creature, confined to Madagascar’s<br />
lowland rainforest, with markings unlike<br />
any other bird: subtle rufous, green and brown<br />
hues set off by black and white ‘scales’, and quite<br />
unexpectedly sky-blue patches revealed when<br />
the tail is spread. Like most other ground-rollers<br />
(an entire family restricted to Madagascar), they<br />
live on the ground, rummaging in the leaf litter or<br />
rotting wood, picking out animal prey. Its close<br />
relative, the Short-legged Ground-roller, looks<br />
somewhat similar, but is the exception, living<br />
mainly in the trees.<br />
More in the ‘small brown job’ category - but<br />
on closer inspection a pleasing mixture of pastel<br />
shades of grey, brown, pink and rufous - the<br />
Red-tailed Newtonia Newtonia fanovanae was lost<br />
to science from 1930 to 1989, when it was rediscovered<br />
very close to Tsitongambarika; we now<br />
know it to be common there but there are very few<br />
if any other places where this can be said. Another<br />
species once lost is the elusive Madagascar Red<br />
Owl Tyto soumagnei; this is also increasingly<br />
frequently observed at Tsitongambarika.<br />
However, it is arguably for the other fauna and<br />
flora that Tsitongambarika is most extraordinary.<br />
Being able to fly, birds tend to spread around<br />
the island’s forests (although not beyond them),<br />
whereas these other species have evolved and<br />
remain in situ as unique forms confined to tiny<br />
areas. Sometimes it seems that almost everything<br />
is endemic, not just to Madagascar, but to South-<br />
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61
IRREPLACEABLE<br />
East Madagascar, and many species are known<br />
from no other site. Nearly all the lemurs are represented<br />
by local species, like the beautiful Collared<br />
Lemur Eulemur collaris, along with Fleurette’s<br />
Sportive Lemur Lepilemur fleuretae (Critically<br />
Endangered, with a tiny range), Southern Woolly<br />
Lemur Avahi meridionalis, Southern Bamboo<br />
Lemur Hapalemur meridionalis and others.<br />
<strong>The</strong> reptile and amphibian fauna is almost unbelievably<br />
rich: among around 130 species in total,<br />
no fewer than 11 have been observed that simply<br />
are ‘not in the book’ and so appear, based on the<br />
views of highly experienced herpetologists, to<br />
be new to science, and recorded only at Tsitongambarika.<br />
Giant and dwarf chameleons abound,<br />
alongside cryptically coloured lizards (one gecko<br />
bearing a startling resemblance to Gollum from<br />
the Lord of the Rings stories), brilliantly coloured<br />
free-frogs and snakes. <strong>The</strong> flora is, of course, just<br />
as extraordinary, with new species being found at<br />
such a rate that botanists have, like the zoologists,<br />
been unable to keep pace in describing them.<br />
<strong>The</strong> bad news is that deforestation rates at<br />
Tsitongambarika have been among the highest in<br />
Madagascar. As in much of the country, deforestation<br />
is mainly a result of shifting cultivation by<br />
poor subsistence farmers lacking alternative land<br />
to grow food-crops and desperate to lay claim<br />
to land, which they can do by clearing forest.<br />
Further threats are from logging of precious hardwoods<br />
and hunting of wildlife in the forest.<br />
But there is hope. Since 2005 the national<br />
NGO Asity Madagascar (<strong>BirdLife</strong> Partner), has<br />
been working to save Tsitongambarika Forest,<br />
as part of the <strong>BirdLife</strong>’s global Forests of Hope<br />
programme. Local people, as aware as anyone<br />
of the forest’s value, are also keen to conserve<br />
it, but need help to maintain and improve their<br />
0 Red-tailed Newtonia<br />
Newtonia fanovanae.<br />
Photo Bruno Raveloson<br />
/Asity Madagascar<br />
3 Tsitongambarika Forest.<br />
Photo Ravoahangy<br />
/Asity Madagascar<br />
LOCAL PEOPLE<br />
CAN BE THE BEST<br />
CONSERVATIONISTS,<br />
SO LONG AS<br />
THEIR NEEDS<br />
ARE PROPERLY<br />
CONSIDERED<br />
AND BENEFIT FROM<br />
MANAGEMENT<br />
precarious livelihoods without clearing forest; any<br />
change to their circumstances and the resources<br />
they need can be disastrous for them. Too often<br />
portrayed as the villains of tropical deforestation,<br />
local people can be the best conservationists, so<br />
long as their needs are properly considered and<br />
they take part in and benefit from management.<br />
As one of the first steps in developing the forest<br />
conservation programme, Asity Madagascar<br />
carried out a comprehensvie social and environmental<br />
assessment for the whole forest, which<br />
identified people most affected by protected area<br />
establishment and specified actions to meet their<br />
needs. Asity Madagascar then helped to establish<br />
a local organisation, KOMFITA, as an ‘umbrella’<br />
body of community associations which, together<br />
with Asity Madagascar and supervised by the<br />
Government, manage the forest.<br />
KOMFITA ensures that the forest-edge community<br />
is consulted in all aspects of the project, the<br />
benefits are determined and shared fairly, and<br />
local people are properly involved (as ‘co-managers’)<br />
of the forest. <strong>The</strong> communities themselves<br />
define the Dina or resource management rules for<br />
the forest. <strong>The</strong>se can include some controlled and<br />
agreed use of forest products, limited to certain<br />
zones so that other areas are left completely<br />
intact; they may also benefit from income related<br />
to forest conservation such as tourist guiding, or<br />
be supported to take up new ways of making a<br />
living by growing food for sale or subsistence<br />
away from the forest. Remarkable improvements<br />
have been made, for example through supporting<br />
simple composting methods in the cultivation<br />
of cassava, the local staple, or improved water<br />
management to grow rice close to the villages.<br />
In April 2015, 600 square kilometres at Tsitongambarika,<br />
including the whole forest, was protected<br />
by the Government of Madagascar, in recognition<br />
of the progress made by Asity Madagascar working<br />
with local communities as well as of its overall<br />
importance. Problem solved? Sadly not, although<br />
a crucial step forward, which blocks many potentially<br />
damaging developments and helps to direct<br />
conservation support to the site. <strong>The</strong> Government<br />
of Madagascar, one of the world’s poorest countries,<br />
can neither fund nor manage and enforce<br />
conservation plans for its many extraordinary sites;<br />
it needs, and has asked for, help.<br />
This is where the project comes in. Asity Madagascar<br />
and local communities have jointly been<br />
made managers of the new Tsitongambarika<br />
Protected Area, supervised by the Government<br />
and supported by many other organisations.<br />
Support through Asity Madagascar, with<br />
support of the <strong>BirdLife</strong>, will allow Asity Madagascar<br />
and local communities to carry out longterm<br />
conservation plans for Tsitongambarika.<br />
It will strengthen their ability to conserve the<br />
forest while improving their livelihoods outside<br />
0 Chameleon<br />
Furcifer balteatus.<br />
Photo Mahaviasy Sando<br />
WITH BIRDLIFE’S<br />
HELP, ASITY<br />
MADAGASCAR<br />
HAS GROWN INTO<br />
A PROFICIENT<br />
PROTECTED AREA<br />
MANAGER AND<br />
ADVOCATE FOR<br />
CONSERVATION<br />
the forest, providing them with opportunities<br />
that, based on trials, they readily accept. But<br />
there must be rules, and the project will support<br />
enforcement, by local communities themselves<br />
but supported by Government authorities where<br />
necessary. Finally, the project will identify and<br />
secure long-term financing sources for conservation<br />
of Tsitongambarika.<br />
Thirteen years ago, <strong>BirdLife</strong> launched a wetland<br />
conservation programme in Madagascar with the<br />
team that is now Asity Madagascar. Back then, the<br />
capacity of national (Malagasy) organisations to<br />
conserve big sites was minimal, and the country’s<br />
wetlands were on hardly anyone’s agenda. With<br />
<strong>BirdLife</strong>’s help, Asity has grown into a proficient<br />
protected area manager and advocate for conservation,<br />
and have secured protection for both of<br />
the huge wetland sites; no wetland species has<br />
been lost from the sites. Conservation work there<br />
continues as it will always have to, but so much<br />
has been achieved that it is time to look again at<br />
the forests. Let us all rally round to save them.<br />
Since 2005, the work of <strong>BirdLife</strong> and Asity Madagascar at<br />
Tsitongambarika has been funded by Rio Tinto (currently<br />
through a pioneering ‘biodiversity offsets’ programme),<br />
<strong>The</strong> Waterloo Foundation, Wetland Trust, European<br />
Association of Zoos and Aquaria, MAVA Foundation, SVS/<br />
<strong>BirdLife</strong> Switzerland, Forestry Bureau of the Council of<br />
Agriculture of Taiwan, Conservation International Madagascar,<br />
Aage V Jensen Charity Foundation and Global<br />
Environment Facility through the United Nations Development<br />
Programme. In <strong>2016</strong>, the UK Birdfair will be<br />
allocating part of its support to the conservation of Tsitongambarika<br />
forest, alongside its support to African Important<br />
Bird Areas in Danger, and Young Conservationists.<br />
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63
AFRICAN IBAs IN DANGER IN NEED OF URGENT HELP<br />
1 3<br />
Cross River National Park<br />
Nigeria<br />
Arabuko-Sokoke Forest<br />
Kenya<br />
Cross River National Park is a large area of lowland and<br />
submontane rainforest situated in south-east Nigeria along<br />
the border with Cameroon. <strong>The</strong> park is divided into two<br />
sections. <strong>The</strong> smaller area to the north-east, Okwangwo Division,<br />
is separated by about 50 km of disturbed forest from<br />
the larger Oban Division. Which is contiguous with Korup<br />
National Park in Cameroon.<br />
This is one of the most diverse sites in Nigeria for birds: over<br />
350 bird species have been recorded in this still vastly underexplored<br />
park, including the Vulnerable Grey-necked Pitacarthes<br />
oreas and Yellow-casqued Hornbill Ceratogymna<br />
elata. <strong>The</strong> national park and its vast buffer zone holds no less<br />
than 18 species of primates, including Lowland Gorilla Gorilla<br />
gorilla, as well as other endemic and threatened mammals.<br />
<strong>The</strong> areas surrounding the national park are threatened by<br />
plans to construct the Cross River super-highway promoted<br />
by the State Governor. Some of the concerns surrounding<br />
the construction of this highway are that the road is likely to<br />
attract farming, logging and hunting on a massive scale which<br />
will destroy the area’s rich biodiversity vital for human life.<br />
<strong>The</strong> lives and livelihoods of the forest communities depend<br />
on this natural ecosystem; their food, water, shelter, medicine<br />
and culture is inextricably linked to the ecosystem services<br />
provided by the forests. Birds could suffer serious declines, a<br />
key indicator of the health of any ecosystem.<br />
<strong>BirdLife</strong>, in coalition with other international and national<br />
NGOs has sent a letter to the Government of Nigeria, asking<br />
for a comprehensive Environmental Impact Assessment to be<br />
carried out before constructions begin. <strong>The</strong> current EIA has<br />
many shortcomings as it doesn’t take into account the manifold<br />
and potentially grave impacts on the area’s exceptional<br />
wildlife. <strong>The</strong> State Government has agreed to the review of<br />
the EIA but is adamant that the road should be built, despite<br />
widespread opposition. <strong>BirdLife</strong> needs to continue putting<br />
pressure on both the state and federal governments to opt<br />
for a less damaging alternative route for this highway.<br />
<strong>The</strong> island nation of São Tomé and Príncipe is a hotspot of<br />
endemism. <strong>The</strong> archipelago has a tiny land area of 1,001 km 2 ,<br />
yet no fewer than 28 endemic bird species (and many endemic<br />
subspecies), over 100 endemic plant species, a whole family of<br />
endemic land snails, and several endemic species of mammal,<br />
amphibian and reptile call this IBA home. <strong>The</strong> lowland forests<br />
that comprise the IBA are recognised in the top three most<br />
important sites in the world for conserving forest birds,<br />
supporting three Critically Endangered (CR) species: the Dwarf<br />
Olive Ibis Bostrychia bocagei, the São Tomé Fiscal Lanius<br />
newtoni and the São Tomé Grosbeak Neospiza concolor.<br />
Forest loss and degradation is driven by industrial-scale<br />
plantation development, hydroelectric dam development,<br />
illegal logging, illegal hunting, and the as yet unknown<br />
2<br />
São Tomé Lowland Forests<br />
Gulf of Guinea<br />
AREAS THAT PARTICIPATED IN THE CENSUS<br />
IBAs<br />
IBAs IN DANGER<br />
impact of introduced non-native species. Work to date by<br />
the RSPB (<strong>BirdLife</strong> in the UK) and SPEA (<strong>BirdLife</strong> in Portugal)<br />
has focused on a significant four year research programme<br />
to increase understanding on the status, distributions,<br />
requirements and threat drivers for the three CR birds, as<br />
well as building relationships with key national partners and<br />
stakeholders and undertaking emergency advocacy work to<br />
protect species and habitat.<br />
Immediate action is now needed to protect the remaining<br />
forest habitat and restore degraded areas, to enable the<br />
recovery of globally threatened biodiversity. To do this, significant<br />
investment in building national capacity is required<br />
alongside engaging with key private sector stakeholders and<br />
government departments.<br />
2<br />
1<br />
4<br />
3<br />
As one of the largest remaining fragments of coastal forest in<br />
East Africa, Arabuko-Sokoke has been identified as the second<br />
most important forest for conservation in Africa due to the range<br />
and diversity of endemic species (24 species, including Sokoke<br />
Scops Owl Otus ireneae, Sokoke Pipit Anthus sokokensis and<br />
Clarke’s Weaver Ploceus golandi). Nature Kenya (<strong>BirdLife</strong><br />
Kenya) has a long history of working with communities in the<br />
area to ensure they benefit from conservation of the forest.<br />
For example, Nature Kenya helped to develop the successful<br />
community-based butterfly farming – the Kipepeo Project –<br />
as well as other livelihood projects such as honey production<br />
and ecotourism. At the end of October 2014, Nature Kenya<br />
received reports that Camac Energy Ltd. had announced that<br />
they would be conducting seismic surveys in Kilifi county<br />
for oil and gas, including transects through Arabuko-Sokoke<br />
Forest. When the Arabuko-Sokoke Forest Adjacent Dwellers<br />
Association (ASFADA) found that their lands and forest were<br />
threatened by the oil company, <strong>BirdLife</strong> International and RSPB<br />
supported them through a vigorous campaign, spearheaded<br />
by Nature Kenya, and working at all levels from communities<br />
and grass roots organisations to national and international<br />
levels. As a result, Camac responded by agreeing not to enter<br />
the forest nor other culturally or ecologically sensitive sites.<br />
However, the fact that the oil and gas concessions still cover<br />
the area means that the Arabuko-Sokoke Forest is still under<br />
threat. Nature Kenya will continue to maintain vigilance with<br />
local communities for protection of the forest.<br />
4<br />
Lake Natron<br />
Tanzania<br />
Lake Natron is world famous for its breeding Lesser Flamingos<br />
Phoeniconaias minor of which about half a million pairs regularly<br />
visit the lake for nesting and raising their young. <strong>The</strong>re are<br />
also large numbers of other waterbirds, both migratory and<br />
resident. Lake Natron is a shallow highly-saline lake in a closed<br />
basin on the floor of the Eastern Rift Valley. It is 1,540 km 2 , but<br />
only 50 cm deep. <strong>The</strong> IBA is also a Ramsar Site (wetland of<br />
international importance) but has no national protection status.<br />
<strong>The</strong> biggest threat to the lake comes from plans to open one<br />
or more mines to exploit the rich soda ash deposits of the lake.<br />
This would not only affect the water levels and quality, and<br />
hence the breeding flamingos and other waterbirds, but also<br />
nature tourism, which is an important income generator in the<br />
wider area. In 2007-09, <strong>BirdLife</strong> led a campaign with support<br />
from the the Lake Natron Consultative Group (a coalition of<br />
56 institutions), which successfully defeated a large-scale soda<br />
ash plant development at the site. Since then, <strong>BirdLife</strong> has<br />
implemented projects aimed at improving local communities’<br />
livelihoods and boosting tourism. Unfortunately, the lake is still<br />
not totally safe. Although the current government is in favour<br />
of conservation, the situation may change again in the future,<br />
so getting widespread support for conservation from local<br />
people is key to defending the lake from future attacks.<br />
64 BIRDLIFE • JUNE <strong>2016</strong><br />
JUNE <strong>2016</strong> • BIRDLIFE<br />
65
2017 Tour Programme<br />
• Finland & Norway • Lesvos • Canary Islands<br />
• Spain (Extremadura) • Spain (Birds & Bears)<br />
• Falklands • New Zealand • Tanzania • Morocco<br />
• Alaska • Arizona • Florida • New York • Texas<br />
• Costa Rica • Cuba • Brazil • Chile<br />
• Honduras • St Lucia<br />
birdwatching<br />
bird & wildlife cruises<br />
mammal watching<br />
0117 9658 333<br />
tours@wildwings.co.uk<br />
wildwings.co.uk<br />
You’ll want to return<br />
to Africa with us time<br />
and time again!<br />
*Set-departure Safaris<br />
*Custom-made Safaris<br />
*Day Trips<br />
*Excellent Guides<br />
*Based in Africa<br />
*26 years of Experience<br />
*Competitive Prices<br />
Birdfair <strong>2016</strong><br />
Marquee 6, Stands 44-45<br />
www.lawsons-africa.co.za<br />
info@lawsons-africa.co.za<br />
+27 (0)13 741-2458<br />
Skype: lawsons.safaris
FROM RUTLAND<br />
TO AFRICA<br />
Welcome to Birdfair. This year we will help Important Bird Areas<br />
in Africa and support the next generation of conservation heroes