In March 1991, Ducks Unlimited (DU) scientists had realized that the organization needed to expand its capability to study factors affecting waterfowl populations on a much broader scale, and IWWR was born.

“From the beginning, IWWR focused on engaging graduate students,” says Dave Howerter, IWWR national manager. “By partnering with universities to support graduate research, DU ensured that the next generation of conservation scientists would receive the training required to help fulfill DU’s mission, while focusing the intellectual resources housed at universities on topics important to our conservation companies.”

In its 20 years, IWWR has led or participated in nearly 300 studies throughout North America, while helping to train graduate students from over 40 universities, and collaborating with more than 45 external research agencies.

In addition, IWWR-sponsored research has resulted in more than 540 graduate theses, book chapters and peer-reviewed technical journal articles. Today, IWWR is comprised of a core team of 15 staff. It has come a long ways since 1991.

Researchers found that one-third of wild condors are suffering from chronic lead poisoning at levels that cause toxicological effects and sublethal impacts. The amount of lead in free-flying condors, which can scavenge on carcasses tainted with lead ammunition fragments, differs markedly from that in pre-release birds.

The research also demonstrates that lead exposure causes chronic, long-term health effects in condors as well as acute poisonings. Lead-poisoned condors must routinely be removed from the wild and subjected to stressful chelation treatment to save their lives.

The good news is that one study found that since lead ammunition was banned in condor habitat since 2008, lead has been effectively removed from the habitat. As a result, lead poisoning in condors, golden eagles and turkey vultures has been significantly reduced in those areas.

There are safe and available nontoxic alternatives for hunters and anglers that could be used in place of lead. Last November the Center, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, and the hunting group Project Gutpile, filed a lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency for failing to regulate the use of toxic lead from hunting ammo and fishing gear that frequently poisons and kills eagles, swans, cranes, loons, condors, and other wildlife. Sadly, the EPA denied a formal petition to ban the lead in the ammo and tackle, in spite of nearly 500 peer-reviewed scientific papers showing the ill effects of continuing to use lead.

So there’s a campaign on to end the use of toxic lead ammunition and fishing tackle. So far, 117 organizations in 30 states have joined the call for a federal ban on lead ammunition and fishing tackle to prevent wildlife poisoning and safeguard human health. Hopefully the government will listen to them and enforce a lead ban.

Abu Dhabi was chosen as the location for the conference partly because they have a high profile Departmental Research Centre that is becoming known as a reliable place for the conservation and breeding of endangered birds, writes Emirates 24/7.  Since 1989, the Abu Dhabi government has been a leader in trying to save and breed the Houbara Bustard, an important bird in UAE heritage and in falconry. As well, the UAE has founded several avian research centres that focus on endangered birds conservation.

As at most conferences, research and findings are being presented. One such research project is about breeding Houbaras. Apparently some researchers have used chickens, with their high reproductive rate and lack of seasonality, to support the breeding. It’s a radical idea, but when animals are endangered sometimes radical ideas are needed.

Among the other topics being discussed at the conference are the improvement rates of germline transmission, the potential for cloning birds, and the development of birds in surrogate cells such as the houbaras.

For 25 years, the Conservation Leadership Program has been sponsoring young conservationists to manage projects to help preserve some of the world’s most endangered species and habitats.

The video introduces people to some of the award-winning leaders of conservation projects in Brazil, Cambodia, and Kenya.  It shows some everyday conservation working activities that give people an idea of what it is really like to work in the field.

Have a happy and safe Labor Day weekend!

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.

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).