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.

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.

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!

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.

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?

In a nutshell, men’s tendency to improve their economic well being by destroying the forest and land makes life harder for women fulfilling their traditional role.  As natural sources become depleted, women will use resources such as cow manure for kitchen fuel rather than putting it into the fields.  As Sudesca explains, this weakens the soil and makes women’s lives even harder.

This is one reason development needs to include women, who are often the most conscious of environmental issues.  Women tend to recognize that environmental degradation is closely related to human actions and the social sphere.

India is striving to create a mutually beneficial relationship between women, their communities and natural resources, that allows conservation to become a primary goal.  Sudesca reports that in communities that rely heavily on farms, the women can be trained in on-farm conservation techniques including biodiversity inventories.  In order to complete their work, women must become an essential part of the fight against environmental degradation.

Women, whose traditional seed selection and farming duties include maintaining a diverse selection of food crops, have begun to take on a vital role in conserving the environment and working towards sustainability.  The female population is quickly entering the public sphere with a stronger voice, and taking up careers in the sciences.  Among others, India’s Department of Biotechnology began creating programmes in 1998 that further arm women in the battle against environmental degradation.

The Sudesca article is a fascinating article – if you have any interest in sustainability, conservation, developing countries, or women’s issues, you will probably enjoy reading the Role Of Women In Conservation Of Environment.

BirdLife presented their list of Important Bird Areas to the Pacific Islands Roundtable for Nature Conservation  last week.  The List took over 4 years to complete.  Ground based research tends to be time consuming.  It’s not like the birds could perch and answer the researcher’s questions in an afternoon tea-seed meeting!

The Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) will now help try to conserve the remaining birds.  The List is step one – the next stage is to start conservation action on the ground.  In the South Pacific, where land is communally owned, conservation usually starts with gaining the support of the local community towards protecting areas.

For those of you who like online maps, BirdLife has a News Map of the world’s activities around conserving birds.  The map changes size, and allows access to informative snippets of bird conservation related news.

BirdLife is our world’s largest global alliance of conservation organisations that work together to conserve wild birds, their habitats and global biodiversity.  The alliance has Partners in over 100 countries, and has 2.5 million members and 8 million supporters.

BCGI concentrates on educating teachers about how to use botanic gardens as outdoor classrooms, and hosting public exhibitions that help people learn about the importance of plants conservation.

From June 13th to 18th this year, the BGCI hosted the 4th Global Botanic Gardens Congress in Dublin, Ireland.  Over 370 delegates representing 53 countries attended the Congress, and discussed conservation and other botanic garden issues.

The full proceedings of the Congress will be posted online when they’re ready.  For now, a PowerPoint slide presentation is available for download.  It shows the Congress highlights included discussion about having multiple botanic gardens working together on a selected conservation issue, the importance of education and outreach, and the need to connect science with practice.  For more information, check out the “conclusions presentation”.

As well, the Lesser Flamingos bred and produced about 9,000 chicks in 2007-2008, on a purpose-built island on Kamfers Dam that was constructed by an award-winning mining company.

The Lesser Flamingos found in Kamfers Dam have both ecotourism and economic value for the surrounding area.  According to Save the Flamingo, the flamingo has become a symbol used by many businesses in their logos, including real estate companies.  People all over the country make the trip to see these spectacular pink birds.

However, the Lesser Flamingo is currently listed as “near-threatened” in national and international red data books.  This is due to them having few breeding sites, a declining population, infrequent breeding and human induced threats to breeding sites, as reported by Save the Flamingo.  Human induced threats include toxic materials, disturbance by low flying aircraft and collisions with the overheard powerlines.  An oversized housing development is to be built nearby Kamfers Dam.  Untreated sewage is flooding into the area, making both flamingos and people living nearby ill.

In order to help save this species, and the people in nearby suburbs, Save the Flamingo has come up with some solutions for the challenges facing Kamfers Dam.  However, in order to achieve success, the NGO must reach out and find support from all over the world.  Together, supporters can help persuade local South African authorities to take the threats against the species seriously and take immediate action to prevent the dam from being further polluted.

Save the Flamingo is a South African NGO trying to make a difference.  To show your support for the Save the Flamingo Association, please feel free to visit the website and sign the petition or kindly make a monetary donation.