Bicknell’s Thrush Conservation
A Conservation Action Plan for Bicknell’s Thrush has just been published, setting a course of conservation and research for the next five years for the little brown songbird with the speckled breast and swirling song.
The plan is to increase the Thrush’s global population by 25% over the next 50 years. The current population is 126,000 or fewer birds, which seems like a large population for a threatened species but apparently a small one for songbirds, suggests the International Bicknell’s Thrush Conservation Group.
The bird’s population has decreased by 15% in its breeding grounds in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick in recent years. Atmospheric pollution, climate change and loss or degradation of its forest habitats threatens it along its route and in its winter home in the Caribbean Greater Antilles.
The Conservation Action Plan’s focus is on partnering with timber companies and managers of public lands to preserve the Bicknell Thrush’s habitat, and conducting scientific research to monitor and predict the impacts on climate change on that habitat. These actions will also benefit other migratory birds and animals living in the Bicknell’s Thrush’s range.
cc IBTCG
The Plan is on IBTCG’s website.
If you happen to see a Bicknell’s Thrush, add it to eBird, an online checklist program that is one of the largest and fastest growing biodiversity data resources around.
The IBTCG’s fourth annual meeting, together with the Black-capped Petrel Working Group, will be held in Santo Domingo, DR on November 2-4, 2010. The meeting will focus on increasing the participation in conservation planning of Caribbean and North American partners for these two species and for all birds that migrate between the Caribbean and North America.
Tags: Bicknell's Thrush, bird, Black-capped petrel, Climate Change, Conservation, deforestation, eBird, migratory, plan, research
Wilderness Safaris Responds
Chris Roche of Wilderness Safaris contacted me following our article “Assessing Puma’s Practices”. You can read their 5 page press release responding to a 3 page letter from Survival International, and some additional information, online at Wilderness Safaris website.
Wilderness Safaris won the right to operate their camp as part of a public tender process by the Botswana Government in 2008. Bushmen apparently won the right to live in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve in a 2006 high court ruling, which also suggested that the prior evictions of the Bushmen from their ancestral home (the Reserve) were wrong, reports Survival International. It would be nice if the new kids in town would play nicely with the ones already there!
Wilderness Safaris also explains that the nearest Bushman community to their camp is more than 50 km away at the village of Molapo. However, the camp is on the boundary of the core traditional area of the Kgei Bushmen.
The water borehole at Mothomelo was drilled in 1992 and used by the government to provide water to the Bushmen in the CKGR, more than 150 km away from the camp. So what’s the water issue, you may wonder?
Wilderness Safaris uses a nearby borehole plus a reverse osmosis process to produce around 400 litres per day for laundry, guest showers and the swimming pool. They also have the capacity to capture rainwater and make 150,000 litres of drinking water once it has been filtered and purified. This drinking water is supplemented by daily round trips of over 100 km to a public borehole north of the camp. This is for a low-impact, 10-tent camp.
Considering the quantities of water, I tend to agree with Survival International’s point that if some water was made available to the Bushmen community, it would transform their lives and might well even save several of them. Such a positive humanitarian action by Wilderness Safaris could generate some great publicity that ultimately would benefit their bottom line. Wilderness Safaris does a lot of things right, as in Namibia, and it would be great if this issue would be solved proactively and positively.
Alberta Parks Management
The Alberta government is reviewing and updating their parks system legislation. They intend to compile and streamline three Acts dealing with provincial parks, wilderness areas, and heritage lands. Highlights of the proposed legislation can be found on their website.
The Alberta Wilderness Association (AWA) wrote the Minister of Tourism, Parks, Recreation and Culture, and posted their letter on their website. The letter is especially interesting because its main points summarize proper protected area management, and are applicable worldwide.
AWA believes that the legislation should include emphasis on the role that a parks and protected areas network would play in protecting or improving ecological integrity in Alberta. Considering that under 2% of the land in three of Alberta’s six Natural Regions has protection, and some lack management plans, AWA is advocating committing resources to completing a protected area.
A park’s or protected area’s first priority should be to preserve the ecological integrity – human activities should be limited accordingly. In a 2008 survey, 72.7% of Albertans reported that they think there should be increased investment for more land to be set aside to protect natural areas in an undisturbed state. There should be no motorized or industrial access to existing Wildland Parks. Protection should also be prioritized over recreation.
Species at risk and their habitat must be viewed as important and their needs met. All concerned government departments should support wildlife and wildlands protection, and the public should be consulted rather than simply notified.
Protected area legislation must include specific measures to protect species at risk and their habitat. Legislation must be science-based, and governments must be committed to providing sufficient funding to support scientific research. Clear rules and regulations, adequate levels of enforcement staffing, and proper signage and related visitor education about the park’s purpose or allowed activities should exist.
In Alberta, the current system of naming areas “Recreation Area” or “Wilderness Area” suggests their intended use, whereas the legislation suggests using a similar name for all areas.
I was thinking that the letter has good conservation principles, then I noticed who wrote it – Conservation Specialist Nigel Douglas. Hopefully the Alberta government will listen to him.
Tags: Alberta, Alberta Wilderness Assoc, AWA, Conservation, ecological, parks, protection, species, Wildlife
Imagine Cup
Congratulations to the winners of the eighth annual Imagine Cup Worldwide Finals that were recently announced in Warsaw, Poland!
With society’s growing reliance on information technology, software has become a crucial ingredient in relief activities such as disaster response and problem solving, according to Scientific American. For instance, software programs help maneuver robotic subs, which have proved very useful in the attempts to control BP’s Gulf of Mexico oil disaster. To help make further technological advances that can help in emergency situations, the Imagine Cup Worldwide competition was created eight years ago.
Imagine Cup Worldwide is the leader among student technology competitions, reports Microsoft News Center. This year Microsoft Corp sponsored the competition involving more than 325,000 high school and university students from over 100 countries, showcasing their best. Throughout the week of competition and celebration, the students got together to illustrate their real-world solutions while competing across five categories (software design, embedded software development, game design, digital media and IT challenge) and six awards for a total of $240,000 (USD) in cash prizes.
Imagine Cup projects are associated with the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals which include eliminating poverty, improving healthcare, advancing education and providing clean drinking water by 2015. Consequently, this year’s projects place the spotlight on solving challenges relating to education, the environment and healthcare, enabling students to illustrate compassion and determination in creating projects that could have positive impacts. There was a keen focus on key global issues including the creation of several projects that used social networking to deal with carbon emissions, emergency services access, and visual/hearing impairment. With such a positive focus and theme, the students have been able to use the competition as a means of developing incredible technological innovations that have the potential to help others and truly impact our world for the better.
Recently, Microsoft announced that the 2011 Finals will be held in New York City, marking the first time the competition will occur in the United States. To check out how your nation did in the competition, please see the list of winners at Microsoft News Center and please note that students’ registration for the 2011 competition has already begun at www.imaginecup.com.
Tags: design, development, disaster response, Imagine Cup, Microsoft, Millennium Development, Scientific American, software, technology, UN
Assessing Puma’s Practices
Sustainability’s largest boost may happen as global companies sign on to environmentally friendly operations. The sportswear company Puma is establishing sustainable practices that include having their 20 key suppliers in South East Asia and other regions issue their own sustainability reports starting in 2011. Puma is also supporting conservation projects, albeit with some bumps along the way.
Puma’s supplier reporting guidelines align with the Global Reporting Initiative. According to Puma this means that twenty strategic suppliers in its supply chain from China to Cambodia will be trained to report on sustainability concepts such as social and working conditions. The project teaches participants how to measure sustainability by using key performance indicators, while becoming more transparent and learning how to report on energy consumption, waste production and other issues.
Puma, in partnership with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), has also announced three major conservation projects in Africa as part of its ‘Play For Life’ Campaign, a global initiative dedicated to raising awareness about the importance of species and habitat conservation. ‘Play for Life’ has been inspired by the 2010 Soccer World Cup, explains Afrique Avenir. The campaign promoted the international year of biodiversity through events, fundraising initiatives and public service announcements which culminated in the public choosing three beneficiaries for campaign donations through online voting. Proceeds will be donated to help save endangered African lions in Zambia, elephant populations in the Ivory Coast and Liberia, and gorillas in Nigeria.
However, Puma is not flawless in its conservation efforts, as evidenced by its 20% share holdings in Wilderness Safaris, a tourism company that has built a lodge on land belonging to the Bushmen of Botswana. Afrique Avenir reports that Survival International recently urged Puma to separate from the company, which supports luxury tourism in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve while ignoring the inhumane treatment of the Bushmen who are not even allowed to access their own water.
Becoming a sustainable and conservation friendly sports lifestyle company is clearly a process of trial and error for Puma. If at first they don’t succeed, let’s hope they learn from mistakes and try again!
Tags: companies, Conservation, endangered, global, Global Reporting Initiative, Play For Life, Puma, sportswear, Survival International, sustainability, UNEP, Wilderness Safaris
Moving Turtles to Safety
Among the videos on National Geographic’s website is a Gulf Turtle Eggs Relocated video about volunteers moving loggerhead turtle eggs to a new, safe location. I’m so glad that biologists have agreed to move the turtles rather than let them hatch and swim into the oil spill.
As well, the video shows 22 Kemp’s Ridley turtle babies that were released into a safe part of the Atlantic shore. As I wrote in this blog’s May 5th article Conserving Turtles, Kemp’s Ridley turtles are the world’s most endangered turtles/tortoises, and live only in the Gulf of Mexico.
Altogether, over 700 turtle nests are to be relocated. The turtle rescue group is represented on the video by volunteers and a couple of spokespeople from the US Fish & Wildlife Service and the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies. The video is an interesting inside look at a conservation operation, thanks to National Geographic and Videographer and Field Producer Fritz Faerber.
Tags: Conservation, eggs, endangered, Gulf of Mexico, Institute for Marine Mammal Studies, Kemp's Ridley, loggerhead, National Geographic, oil spill, turtle, US Fish and Wildlife, video
Agriculture and Biodiversity
It’s hard to ignore over 1 billion people. So although I like natural foods, I realize the importance of ethical agricultural research in helping to feed the over 1 billion people in our world who are hungry.
International agricultural research is designed to benefit the farmers, environment, and economies of developing countries, suggests the Crawford Fund. It’s an effective way to help people living in less developed countries, the majority of whom are living in rural areas and are dependent on the land for employment and their food security.
The Crawford Fund is an Australian NGO focused on raising awareness of the benefits of international agricultural research to developing countries. The Fund’s annual conference is billed as one of the very few international events that focuses on food security related to biodiversity, and sees value in both feeding and greening our world. The impact of climate change on both conservation and biodiversity will be addressed in the Fund’s 2010 event “Biodiversity and World Food Security: Nourishing the Planet and its People”, to be held in Canberra, August 30 to September 1.
The Crawford Fund conference’s definition of biodiversity includes “the plants that feed, clothe, house, and heal people; crops, aquatic and livestock species that feed us; insects that pollinate fields; the forests that are the lungs of the planet; and microorganisms that regenerate the soils that grow our food”. The concept includes finding solutions to climate change, species invasions, ignorance and neglect.
Conference speakers include the 14th Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (Professor Steve Hopper), and the Director of the National Museum of Natural History of the Smithsonian Institution (Dr. Cristian Samper).
Tags: agriculture, Australia, biodiversity, Crawford Fund, food security, hunger, research
Truth about Rhino Horn
My rhino article was a bit long, so rather than add this note to the article I’m creating a new article. An articlette, perhaps!
Rhino poaching is usually for the international trade in rhino horn, which is based on a belief that the horn contains medicinal powers. The horn is sawed off the still living rhino, which is then left to die. It’s a brutal poaching event. The reality is that the rhinos don’t need to be killed – they can be dehorned humanely. Conservationists sometimes dehorn rhinos to help save them. But poachers are only interested in the money.Saving the Last Rhinos
The last female rhino in South Africa’s Krugersdorp Game Reserve has been found dead, and she’s the 136 rhino there to be killed this year. Obviously, drastic measures are needed to preserve the remaining rhinos. The idea to call in police used to dealing with organized crime is excellent. As well, park managers should consider dehorning the remaining rhinos to try to thwart the poacher’s desire to sever horns and kill more rhinos.
Research has found that dehorning African Rhinos is worthwhile and can save them from poachers. At least, the study published in Pachyderm No. 18, 1994, found that when black rhinos in Zimbabwe were dehorned, only 14 or 15 out of 210 dehorned rhinos were poached.
The study of the loss of most of Hwange, Zimbabwe’s dehorned white rhinos found that the dehorning was not performed often enough and the anti-poaching protection activities were stopped. Thus, rhinos with enough regrown horn to be deemed profitable by poachers were killed, and no one was there to stop them. The study also found that rhinos need to be dehorned every 1.3 years to deter poachers.
Further, some poachers who spent time tracking a rhino might kill a dehorned rhino in order to not spend more time tracking it again. Considering that the South African poachers today use airplanes and visual location of the rhinos, hopefully they would see the rhino was dehorned and leave it alone.
Another explanation for killing a dehorned rhino involved speculators exterminating all rhinos in order to increase the value of illegally held stockpiles. This situation can likely only be solved through increasing policing.
Policing and other anti-poaching activities work together to conserve rhinos. Science Daily has reported that when Zimbabwe found that poachers were killing rhinos, after people were allowed to live in the conservancies and anti-poaching patrols had been relaxed, they responded with a multi-faceted approach. The Lowveld Rhino Project intensified monitoring of rhinos using skilled trackers and radiotelemetry. Rhinos were moved away from unsafe areas, and the most vulnerable rhinos were dehorned. Rapid reaction units, community awareness programmes, and technical support to develop options for wildlife-based land reform, were also undertaken. The program resulted in the achievement of some of the highest rhino population growth rates ever recorded, up to 10 per cent per year.
Sadly, the events of the last few years are tragic. Suspected corruption in Zimbabwe has resulted in 26% of the living rhino population being lost, and 89% of all black rhinos illegally killed in Africa, since 2006, according to Rhino Conservation. While this puts more pressure on South Africa to conserve the remaining rhinos, I also trust that South Africa will be different and could maintain a successful program. Perhaps the Zimbabwe rhinos should be moved?
When a Javan rhino was recently found poached, the Indonesian Rhino Foundation worked with a team that is creating a 7 mile (12 km.) long electric fence around a new 10,000 acre sanctuary and breeding ground beside the park. I wrote about this on June 24th in Javan Rhino Conservation. Perhaps South Africa, given that Krugersdorp Reserve is such a large area, could move the remaining rhinos into a narrower area to keep them safer?
Tags: anti-poaching, Conservation, crime, dehorning, Krugersdorp Park, monitoring, poach, policing, radiotelemetry, rhino, South Africa, track
Dangerous Migration
The BP oil spill is about to hit closer to home as millions of migratory birds from Canada will soon stop over in the Gulf Coast on their way South for the winter.
CTV reports that 40 to 60 species of birds across Canada and the US, including ducks, pelicans, gulls, herons and sandpipers, are beginning to head towards the Gulf area. Many are expected to never return from the immensely polluted waters. Some of these birds, such as the endangered piping plover, spend winters along the Gulf Coast while others use its shores to stock up on food before flying to Latin America, explains USA Today.
As oil continues to rise to the surface, countless birds have died and thousands more will be in danger due to migrations. Habitats are forever changed as oil has seeped into plants and marshes, destroying food sources. USA Today reports that although it is almost impossible to steer migrating birds away from instinctive destinations, conservationists such as the Natural Resources Conservation Service are taking action by paying landowners to let their farmland relax, provide food and restore wetlands to create habitats for migrating birds. The creation of barrier marshes/islands, along with beach cleaning projects and bird population monitoring, are also key protection strategies.
Migrations coupled with the possibility of an active hurricane season in the oil-slicked waters could threaten multiple bird species and cause unpredictable effects on ecosystems and natural resources. The loss of birds will throw ecosystems off-balance and negatively affect insect and fish populations, not to mention the livelihood of human beings. If we do not take swift decisive action against the black plague that is the BP oil spill, the health of our planet may indeed suffer.
Tags: birds, BP, endangered, migrations, migratory, oil spill
