OCTOBER-DECEMBER 2018

THE BIODIVERSITY
ISSUE
C O M M U N I C AT I N G T H E C R I S I S O F O U R T I M E
T O A W O R L D T H AT D O E S N ’ T C A R E E N O U G H

PLUS: 10 YEARS OF
PREVENTING EXTINCTIONS
How YOUR support is reversing the fortunes of the world’s rarest birds
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EDITORIAL

P. 7
WHAT WAS
DECIDED IN A
MEETING OF
100+ BIRDLIFE
PARTNERS?

FAMILY REUNION
My chest puffed like a lekking grouse during the making of this issue – such was the pride it instilled in me for the BirdLife
family. Firstly, I had the chance to attend my first Global Partnership Meeting – the first of its kind since 2013, and a rare
chance for the entire Partnership to roost under one roof to discuss a strategy for the next half-decade of conservation.
Having the privilege to break bread with impassioned conservationists from across the globe – from Bolivia to Czechia,
Seychelles to Nepal – made it easier to appreciate the dizzying scale of the Partnership’s global efforts to safeguard nature.

Likewise, our Preventing Extinctions Programme’s 10th anniversary brings opportunity for reflection, and our stories of
success [page 24] hold a mirror to what The State of the World’s Birds’ indices suggest: that conservation efforts can and
do move the needle. But as we prepare to enter the 2020s, we find the stakes are rising. As the biodiversity crisis deepens,
it’s no longer enough for us to fight fires on the frontline; we need to be proactive in instilling meaningful societal change
to prevent the collapse of our planet’s vital ecosystems [page 48]. And this needs to begin by getting better at the way we
communicate the crisis – beginning with a review of what the word ‘biodiversity’ represents [page 12]. If together we fail to
get the severity of the message across to those outside the conservation bubble, pride will come before a fall.
Alex Dale, Editor

CONTRIBUTORS TO THIS ISSUE

NEHA SINHA LOLITA GIBBONS-DECHERONG DOMINIC COUZENS

Neha works in advocacy and policy for Bombay
Natural History Society (BirdLife in India), and is also a
wildlife writer for outlets such as The Hindu and The
Indian Express. You can now add us to that list – on
page 54 she reports on how India’s attitudes towards
the once-feared Greater Adjutant have changed.
Custodians of some of the world’s remotest
terrestrial habitats, our Pacific Partners are on the
frontline of the biodiversity crisis. On page 10,
Lolita, of the Palau Conservation Society (BirdLife
Partner), fights the corner for a shorebird paradise
threatened by damaging development.
Dominic is a British birder, journalist, speaker and
tour leader with over 30 published books under
his belt. On page 30 he opens his BirdLife account
with a recap on the peril faced by the heavily-
hunted Helmeted Hornbill – and the ten-year
action plan that will save it.

OCT-DEC 2018 • BIRDLIFE 3

CONTENTS

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CONTRIBUTORS Shannon Anstee, Tom Clynes, Dominic Couzens, Lolita Gibbons-Decherong, Jessica Law, James Lowen, Dima Obeidat,
Margaret Sessa-Hawkins, Neha Sinha, Hannah Wheatley, Gui-Xi Young

PRODUCTION Jennifer Meade

JUL-SEP 2018 SCIENCE EDITORS Tris Allinson, Ian Burfield, Stuart Butchart, Maria Dias, Melanie Heath, Claudia Hermes, Anuj Jain, Rob Martin, Noelle
NUMBER 3 Kumpel, Lizzie Pearmain, Ashley Simkins, Roger Safford, Cleo Small, Zoltan Waliczky, James Westrip, Stephanie Winnard
VOLUME 40
ISSN 2519-4658 FRONT COVER Shutterstock

OFFICERS OF BIRDLIFE INTERNATIONAL

EDITOR Alex Dale
DEPUTY EDITOR Shaun Hurrell
The views expressed are those of the contributors
and not necessarily those of BirdLife International.
ART EDITOR Richard Hood
Printed by On Demand Print Services Ltd
Printed on processed chlorine-free paper made from at least 80%
post-consumer waste recycled fibre.
President Emeritus Her Majesty Queen Noor of Jordan
Honorary President Her Imperial Highness Princess Takamado of Japan
Honorary Vice-Presidents Baroness Young of Old Scone (UK), Gerard A Bertrand (USA), A. P. Leventis (UK), Ben Olewine IV and Peter Johan Schei
Chief Executive Patricia Zurita, Chairman Braulio Ferreira de Souza Dias Treasurer Nick Prentice
COUNCIL OF BIRDLIFE INTERNATIONAL
Africa Achilles Byaruhanga (Uganda), Claudia Feltrup-Azafzaf (Tunisia) and Mark Anderson (South Africa), Asia Sarath Wimalabandara Kotagama
(Sri Lanka) and Shawn Lum (Singapore), Americas David O’Neill (USA), Rosabel Miró (Panama) and Alberto Yanosky (Paraguay), Europe Gergő
Halmos (Hungary), Vera Voronova (Kazakhstan) and Philippe Funcken (Belgium), Middle East Yehya Khaled (Jordan) and Assad Adel Serhal
(Lebanon), Pacific Kevin Hague (New Zealand) and Paul Sullivan (Australia)

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4 BIRDLIFE • JUL-SEP 2018

 REGULARS FEATURES

3 EDITORIAL 24 PREVENTING EXTINCTIONS

Family reunion 10 years of
Alex Dale Preventing Extinctions
James Lowen
8
6 AROUND THE PARTNERSHIP 12 30 PREVENTING EXTINCTIONS
The latest news from every region Saving the Helmeted Hornbill
Dominic Couzens

8 ONE TO WATCH 34 PREVENTING EXTINCTIONS

Gurney's Pitta BirdLife's Champions League
Jim Lawrence

10 IRREPLACEABLE
Peleliu Lkes, Palau 36 PREVENTING EXTINCTIONS
Lolita Gibbons-Decherong Saving the sentinels of the skies
Jessica Law

60 BCI 40 ECOTOURISM
New insights into raptor The race to save the Andes
conservation Tom Clynes
Hannah Wheatley
43 NATURE & CULTURE
The Middle East: sorting fact from
62 SCIENCE SPOTLIGHT 24 fiction
State of the World's Raptors 36 Dima Obeidat
Stuart Butchart
46 FLYWAYS
LIFE EuroSAP: the Sweet Sixteen
Gui-Xi Young

48 WHY BIRDS MATTER

Why we need birds (even more than
they need us)
COVER STORY Jessica Law

12 BIODIVERSITY 52 MARINE
The 'B' Word Want to save seabirds? Follow them.
Shaun Hurrell Margaret Sessa-Hawkins

18 THE INTERVIEW 54 NATURE'S HEROES

Thomas Lovejoy The Adjutant army
Shaun Hurrell and Alex Dale Neha Sinha

58 INTERVIEW
40
22 SPIX'S MACAW Around the world in 8,000 birds
54
Gone forever? Margaret Sessa-Hawkins
Alex Dale

JUL-SEP 2018 • BIRDLIFE 5

 NEWS ROUND-UP

A R O U N D T H E EUROPE

PA R T N E R S H I P The Saker Falcon Falco

cherrug has been discovered
to be breeding in Bulgaria for the first time
in ten years – two chicks have already

ALL THE LATEST NEWS, INSIGHT AND SUCCESS STORIES successfully fledged. Having been driven
from the country by hunting, habitat loss
and egg stealing, this Endangered species is
FROM 117 PARTNERS IN 115 COUNTRIES now returning across the Balkans thanks to a
captive breeding programme. BSPB (BirdLife
Partner) is working to preserve its habitat.

Saker Falcon / Ferenc Sarlos

KEY
BIRDLIFE PARTNER
BIRDLIFE COUNTRY
PROGRAMME

AMERICAS
In Chile, modifications to
purse seine fishing nets
have been proven to reduce accidental
seabird deaths by up to 98%, with far fewer
birds becoming tangled in equipment
when diving for fish. This project, led by
BirdLife’s Albatross Task Force, has been
listed as one of the best 500 environmental
initiatives in Latin America by Premios
Latinoamérica Verde (The Latin American
Green Awards) 2018.
AFRICA
Wandering albatross / JJ Harrison

A highly successful
campaign lead by BirdLife
Malawi helped fast-track a delayed court
Malawi plastic march / WESM

ruling on the national ban on thin plastic

bags and containers. The campaign united
universities, faith groups and community
organisations, raising awareness with wide
media coverage and a peaceful march. This
compelled the court to pass judgement,
allowing the ban to finally be implemented.

6 BIRDLIFE • OCT-DEC 2018

 MIDDLE EAST BIRD
BUL L ETIN
With wind technology
becoming a rapidly
emerging sector in the Middle East, RSCN in
Jordan has developed national guidelines
helping investors to plan wind farms through
an environmentally friendly framework – ASIA
the first of its kind in the region. In June,
RSCN hosted an awareness-raising event In China, birdwatchers
encouraging stakeholders to aspire to zero aren’t just spotting birds.
Volunteers trained by the Hong Kong Between 26th-28th
bird mortalities from collisions with turbines, September, over
as part of the Migratory Soaring Birds project. Birdwatching Society (BirdLife Partner)
have been patrolling coastal wetlands, 200 members of the
reporting illegal bird trapping nets and BirdLife family flocked
raising awareness among local people. In to Wallonia, Belgium
five years there has been a 90% reduction for the 2018 BirdLife
Global Partnership

Spoon-billed Sandpiper / Kajornyot Wildlife Photography

in nets, benefiting species like the Spoon-
billed Sandpiper. HKBWS says the key is Meeting. Held every
five years, these
Wind turbine / Shutterstock

understanding hunters, not vilifying them.

landmark meetings
offer a rare chance for
representatives of all
117 BirdLife Partners to
meet under one roof
and agree on a strategy
for the next half-
decade of conservation.
In addition to looking
at our common work,
our successes and
our future plans, the
Partnership elected our
governing body, both at
the regional and global
levels. Braulio Ferreira
de Souza Dias, former
Executive Secretary
of the Convention of
PACIFIC Biological Diversity, was
elected as the Chair of
The Australian Government
the Global Council.
has failed to reject the
“I look forward to
latest application to build a marina and
helping the BirdLife
residential complex on top of Moreton Bay,
Partners continue
Queensland: a crucial overwintering site
to grow, making the
for Endangered shorebirds such as the Far
Partnership as strong as
Eastern Curlew Numenius madagascariensis.
ever, particularly in light
Allowing the development to go ahead
of the changes that the
would set a worrying precedent, threatening
Global Conservation
other Ramsar-listed wetlands. BirdLife
Agenda will have with
Australia is campaigning against the decision.
the new deal for nature
to be approved in 2020
in Beijing,” said Dias
Moreton Bay / Photo Paintings/Shutterstock

following his election.

At a regional level,
the Partnership elected
Shawn Lum and Sarath
Kotagama (Asia), Paul
Sullivan and Kevin
Hague (Pacific), Achilles
Byaruhanga, Claudia
Feltrup-Azafzaf and
Mark Anderson (Africa),
Assad Serhal and Yehya
Khaled (Middle East),
Gergö Halmos, Vera
Voronova and Philippe
Funcken (Europe and
Central Asia), and
David O’Neill, Rosabel
Miró and Alberto
Yanosky (Americas).

OCT-DEC 2018 • BIRDLIFE 7

ONE TO WATCH

Gurney’s Pitta: lost and found –

and lost again?
Gurney’s Pitta Hydrornis gurneyi (Endangered) has declined by
a staggering 70% in just 13 years, its rapid population plummet a
result of habitat loss. Following its relatively recent extinction from
Thailand, the species now occupies a small range of flat, low-lying
forests in Myanmar. Unfortunately, these same forests are being
cleared to make way for oil palm and betel nut plantations.
This isn’t the first time this striking species has been in danger of
extinction. Widespread in Thailand before 1915, Gurney’s Pitta was
feared extinct after there were no confirmed sightings between
1952 and 1985. Rediscovery came with excitement in 1986, and
populations were then discovered in five separate locations.
However, by 1997 the species had again dwindled – occurring in
only one of its previous five Thai habitats. By this time, the global
population was estimated at a mere nine pairs and the pitta was
believed to be one of the rarest species on earth.
Luckily, a search for the species in Myanmar in 2003 found the
bird at several sites and estimated the population at between
5,000 and 8,500 pairs. Despite this encouraging discovery, since
then the decline has been precipitous. Whilst it is currently listed
as Endangered, civil unrest within the final stronghold of the
range could increase rates of habitat loss and push the species to
Critically Endangered. Without slowing this decline through habitat
protection, Gurney’s Pitta may disappear from Myanmar just as it
has from Thailand, except this time there will be no second chance.

GURNEY’S PITTA Hydrornis gurneyi

Photo Boonchuay Promjiam/Shutterstock

8 BIRDLIFE • OCT-DEC 2018

OCT-DEC 2018 • BIRDLIFE 9
 IRREPLACEABLE

Peleliu Lkes
Palau

estled inside the tropical island nation of Palau

N is Peleliu Lkes, an intertidal zone made up

of pristine sand flats and islets that have lain
unspoiled for hundreds of years. This area has
been a sanctuary for a multitude of shorebirds over the
years, with Peleliu Lkes serving as a stopover point as they
travel from breeding grounds in the arctic and subarctic
Photo Shutterstock

regions of East Asia, Siberia and Alaska down to coastal

habitats as far south as Australia and New Zealand.
Several globally Endangered species including the
Micronesian Scrubfowl Megapodius laperouse, Far Eastern
Curlew Numenius madagascariensis and Great Knot
Calidris tenuirostris rely on Peleliu Lkes. Its favourable tidal
conditions lead to abundant feeding opportunities, while
its islets provide a perfect place to rest. For this reason,
BirdLife has added the site to our inventory of global
Important Bird & Biodiversity Areas (IBAs).

Over the course of history, there has emerged a time-

honoured bond between shorebirds and Palauans. They
are seen in local values, beliefs, oral history, literature,
art, and chants. This bond is displayed in the relationship
between Palauans and the Far Eastern Curlew, the
Delerrok. An ancient icon of culture, pride, and prosperity,
the Delerrok as it is called in the Palauan language
is etched in the Bai, the chief’s meeting house. Oral
tradition states that the Far Eastern Curlew brought the
first monies into Palau, earning its locally common name,
the ‘money bird’. Unfortunately, these birds are in peril.
g
ia n

An islet adjacent to the Lkes has been leased to a foreign

iQ
gL

n
developer for $300,000 with the intention of developing it Wa
to
ho
into a resort. Resort operations on the islet will encroach P
into the reef flat and result in the degradation of this
habitat for endangered shorebirds and other wildlife.
F A R E A S T E R N C U R L E W
Numenius madagascariensis
Palau Conservation Society (BirdLife Partner) has been
working to preserve the area. Stressing the vital role Peleliu
Lkes plays for both the local community and birds, we are Classified as ‘Least Concern’ just a decade ago, the Far
Eastern Curlew is now Endangered, due in large part to the
lobbying to convince the public and politicians that the
loss of stopover habitats along the East Asian-Australasian
area vitally needs protection. Hopefully, both local and
Flyway. This makes Peleliu Lkes even more important as a
global pressure will lead to the site being included on the key site where the Far Eastern Curlew can rest and refuel.
national network of protected areas. n

10 BIRDLIFE • OCT-DEC 2018

 ck
ck

st o
st o

t
er

t ut
er

ut Sh
Sh to
oto ho
Ph P

B A I G R E E N T U R T L E
Chelonia mydas
Constructed using local materials such as wood and thatch
placed over a stone platform, the Bai was a traditional Green Turtles are found throughout the waters around
meeting house for council chiefs in a village. Palau. They inhabit shallow lagoons, and feed on
Pictures of the Delerrok appear on each corner-post seagrasses, such as those found around
of the Bai. Peleliu Lkes.

OCT-DEC 2018 • BIRDLIFE 11

12 BIRDLIFE • OCT-DEC 2018

Biodiversity. It’s the magnificent
infrastructure that supports all life
on earth, including ours. But we’re
losing it fast. With the biodiversity
crisis quite possibly surpassing
climate change as the greatest
threat to humanity, we explore why
many do not seem to realise the
urgency, and reveal why next year
is the crucial time for a plan ‘B’.
Shaun Hurrell
oth incredibly complex and simply
B vital, biodiversity is much more than
a contraction of ‘biological diversity’.
First coined by Thomas Lovejoy
in 1985 [p.18], the term actually describes the
variety of life on Earth, from the level of genes,
to different species, to entire ecosystems like
forests, wetlands, reefs and deserts. It also
represents the myriad of interactions between
all living things on the planet that provides
everything from fresh water, to clean air, to
medicine, even the joy we feel with the smell
of fresh rain, or the money we get from selling
building materials or food. If you want to put a
price on the ‘ecosystem services’ biodiversity
provides, it is in the trillions of dollars –
double the world’s GDP. Yet unfortunately its
importance is not understood or recognised
by many - which in itself could be the greatest
threat facing nature.
For nearly 100 years, BirdLife has been
documenting the decline of bird species. Our
2018 State of the World’s Birds report shows
that one in eight bird species are in peril. This is
a horrific statistic, but it’s also an indicator of a
wider problem. Today we’re already living in the
Anthropocene and the beginning of a Sixth Mass
Extinction event. The impact of humans is now
so huge that extinction levels are 100-10,000
times greater than the background (or in other
words, ‘natural’) rate.
This impact has spread to every corner of
the globe. More than 70 percent of coral reefs
are under threat or already destroyed. The
OCT-DEC 2018 • BIRDLIFE
THE ‘B’ WORD
numbers of individual animals on the planet has 0 Wonder and enjoyment?
halved since 1970; over 40% of amphibians are
threatened with extinction; as are a quarter of all
mammal species.
Food security? Greater
resilience when conditions
change? What does
And that’s only the threats we’ve measured biodiversity mean to you?
[p. 15]. Diversity is the key to our resilience, yet Photo Shutterstock
we’ve lost a huge amount of genetic variety in
domesticated commercial crops. Wild relatives
of modern rice and wheat, which contain
genes that could withstand disease and climate
change, are now on the verge of extinction.
Combine this with large-scale damage to
biodiversity from the conversion of habitat to
farmland, soil degradation, overconsumption,
and pollution, and we are rapidly hurtling
towards the point of no return when it comes to
biodiversity loss.
WE NEED A
There’s a scientific debate at the moment
PARADIGM SHIFT
whether the loss of biodiversity beyond a IN THE WAY THAT
‘planetary boundary’ will lead to a global tipping HUMANS INTERACT
point and the collapse of ecosystems (such WITH NATURE;
as ocean acidification bleaching entire coral TRANSFORMATIVE
reefs, or the removal of top predator fish from CHANGE AND
a freshwater lake that leads to the proliferation A SYSTEMIC
of algae and can irreversibly turn the lake to a APPROACH TO
toxic ‘pea soup’ green). Another theory holds ADDRESS THE
that rather than a sudden plunge of the system, ROOT CAUSES
the continued erosion of life will see the gradual OF BIOLOGICAL
loss of ecosystem function. But at this point it DESTRUCTION
all leads to the same conclusion: we’re soon to
be using more than four Planet Earth’s worth of CRISTIANA
resources, which is clearly not sustainable. We PAŞCA PALMER
EXECUTIVE SECRETARY,
have to change how we live, and we have to do UN CONVENTION ON
it now, together. BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY
13
THE ‘B’ WORD

2 Despite the species’

starring role in the 2011
film Rio, the announcement
of the extinction in
the wild of the iconic
Spix’s Macaw didn’t lead
everyone to mourn in the
streets like they would a
famous actor, or protest
against deforestation like
they would raised taxes:
people don’t realise how
biodiversity loss can affect
their daily lives.
Photo Blue Sky Studios

or at least parts of them - such as Target 11: 15%

In 2010, the UN declared the ‘decade on of the agreed 17% of land, and 4% of the 10%
TH E A I C HI biodiversity’ as signatory countries to the UN target for the marine realm, is now protected or
TA RG E TS Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) conserved, with a little over two years left before
THE 20 TARGETS agreed on a strategic plan for 2020, including the 2020 deadline. The overall picture, however,
FOR 2020 ARE 20 biodiversity goals, referred to as the Aichi is one of failure, inadequate commitment
GROUPED INTO Targets, at the CBD Conference of Parties and prioritisation in governments, and poor
FIVE STRATEGIC
(COP) in Nagoya, Japan. “Despite the usual investment. Post-2020, the planet literally can’t
GOALS
struggles with some governments putting afford to miss the mark again.
perceived short-term national economic
STRATEGIC GOAL A interests above the importance of biodiversity, By 2020, the end of the current UN Decade
Address the underlying
causes of biodiversity
there was a sense of true optimism”, says on Biodiversity, the world’s biodiversity is
loss by mainstreaming Melanie Heath, BirdLife’s Director of Science, set to have declined by two-thirds”, says Dr
biodiversity across Policy & Information. “The targets are clear, they Cristiana Paşca Palmer, Executive Secretary
government and
society.
corroborate the needs of people and sustainable of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity
development, but they need resources and (CBD), the woman with the onerous task of
STRATEGIC GOAL B commitment to implement them.” leading efforts to create a new global deal for
Reduce the direct
pressures on nature at the CBD COP in Beijing in 2020. “This
biodiversity and Whilst the CBD is non-binding for countries, unprecedented rate of destruction jeopardises
promote sustainable the Aichi Targets should have been a head- not only the amazing variety of life on Earth,
use.
start for conservation. BirdLife provided data but the prospects for human development and
STRATEGIC GOAL C that underpinned one-fifth of the indicators well-being. We need a paradigm shift in the
To improve the
status of biodiversity
used to judge progress towards the Aichi way that humans interact with nature; we need
by safeguarding Targets, and our policy team advocated heavily transformative change and a systemic approach
ecosystems, species at CBD conferences for greater investment to address the root causes of biological
and genetic diversity.
when countries looked like they were flailing destruction.”
STRATEGIC GOAL D at the midway point. We even provided figures
Enhance the benefits to estimating the investments needed to reduce Perhaps it’s not what we said, but how we said
all from biodiversity and
ecosystem services. the extinction risk for all known threatened it. A 2018 paper entitled Our House Is Burning:
species at $4 billion annually, with a further Discrepancy in Climate Change vs. Biodiversity
STRATEGIC GOAL E
Enhance
$76 billion needed each year to protect and Coverage in the Media as Compared to
implementation manage terrestrial sites of global conservation Scientific Literature found that media coverage
through participatory significance – totalling less than 20 percent the of climate change was up to eight times higher
planning, knowledge
management and
annual consumer spending on soft drinks. than that of biodiversity since 2002. The
capacity building. Today, progress is being made towards a few paper recommended that changing how we
(arguably insufficiently ambitious) Aichi Targets - communicate the biodiversity crisis could have a

14 BIRDLIFE • OCT-DEC 2018

 BI OD IV E R S I TY
CO NNEC TI ON

A great visual example of connections in

ecosystems is the classic big red ‘toadstool’ fungus
called fly agaric, which are the fruiting bodies of
mycorrhizae fungi – an entire network of fungal
threads in a woodland symbiotically associated
with plant roots, exchanging nutrients, minerals
and signals between neighbouring trees in what’s
nicknamed the ‘wood-wide web’. At the ecosystem
level, we’re only just beginning to understand the
plethora of intricate interactions that holds nature
together – for example fungi help over 90% of
plants thrive, yet of the three million species of
fungi, only 56 have had their conservation status
assessed; many are in decline from habitat loss,
nitrogen pollution, and climate change.

Photo Symonenko Viktoriia/Shutterstock

WE HAVE TO CHANGE HOW

WE LIVE. AND WE HAVE TO
DO IT NOW, TOGETHER

XXXXX 2018 • BIRDLIFE 15

THE ‘B’ WORD
0 We need to restore out big enough impact to drive the change we need,
connection with nature. such as using metaphors, culture, personal
Cartoon: Ralph Underhill experience, and relevance to daily life.
“The greatest problem in communicating
3 Looking on the bright the biodiversity crisis is the word ‘biodiversity’”,
side, we caused the said Richard Black, former BBC Environmental
biodiversity crisis, so we Correspondent, at a recent CBD and
can fix it. Cambridge Conservation Initiative (CCI)
Photo Shutterstock workshop co-convened by BirdLife, called
Many Voices, One Nature, which recently
gathered conservationists, communicators and
journalists at the start of a series of events in
the lead up to 2020. Whilst you’d probably hear
David Attenborough using ‘nature’ or ‘life’ over
‘biodiversity’, the latter is the word of choice
in international politics. Maybe the ‘B-word’ is
technocratic and alienating, and perhaps this
represents another problem.
“On their own, and when not provided in
the context of a story, facts and figures are
a surprisingly inefficient persuasion tool to
most audiences”, says Ralph Underhill, a
THE GREATEST communications consultant, and former
PROBLEM IN staff member at the RSPB (BirdLife in the UK).
COMMUNICATING “Humans aren’t objective, rational beings; what
THE BIODIVERSITY influences us all, even scientists, is an emotional
CRISIS IS connection; humour, stories.”
THE WORD Underhill is also the author of the Framing
‘BIODIVERSITY’ Nature Toolkit, an informative work that explains
how the words we use can have profound
RICHARD BLACK knock-on effects. “In one experiment, a crime
FORMER BBC
ENVIRONMENTAL issue was presented to participants using two
CORRESPONDENT different metaphors: when ‘beast’ was used
16
to describe crime, participants favoured more
punitive responses; while those who had crime
presented as a ‘virus’ favoured rehabilitation”,
hesays. “How problems are described will
change the solutions we come up with, because
all words trigger certain beliefs and associations
in our minds.” So it is for nature, also: too much
emphasis on the threats and people become
depressed and fatalistic. “We need to highlight
the problem, but also the successful work we’ve
done to address it, so change feels possible and
people are inspired to act.”
Perhaps the slogan of the CBD should be
reframed as the ‘Safeguarding Our Life on Earth
Convention’. The reality is that we shouldn’t
have to make it so (cumbersomely) obvious,
yet today there is a subliminal chasm between
nature and people that exists in the public
psyche, and the vast majority of people do
not realise how much they rely on the web
of life. For one we need to better emphasise
our connection to nature and how absolutely
amazing it is but, as we’ve seen, this problem
extends far beyond slogans.
We need a Plan ‘B’. Paşca Palmer, in her
keynote speech at the Many Voices, One Nature
workshop, proclaimed: “We need to move
beyond conservation, beyond protection.”
Nature conservation is no longer just a scientific
discipline, it needs to be a movement of social
scientists, psychologists, artists, economists,
journalists. What’s needed is a behaviour change
BIRDLIFE • OCT-DEC 2018
 TOP 10 RISKS
4.0 IN TERMS OF
Weapons of mass destruction LIKELIHOOD
Extreme weather events

 1 Extreme weather events

2 Natural disasters
Natural disasters
 3 Cyberattacks
 4 Data fraud or theft
Failure of climate-change
mitigation and adaption  5 Failure of climate-change
mitigation and adaption
Water crises
 6 Large-scale
Cyberattacks
involuntary migration
Biodiversity loss and  7 Man-made environmental
Food crises ecosystem collapse
Large-scale
disasters
involuntary migration  8 Terrorist attacks
3.5
Spread of
Interstate conflict  9 Illicit trade
infectious diseases Man-made environmental disasters
3.40 10 Asset bubbles in a
average Critical information Profound social
Failure of national major economy
infrastructure breakdown instability
governance
Fiscal crises Terrorist attacks

Failure of regional or Unemployment or underemployment

global governance Asset bubbles in a Data fraud or theft TOP 10 RISKS
Failure of critical
major economy IN TERMS OF
infrastructure
State collapse or crisis
IMPACT
Energy price shock Failure of financial
mechanism or institution  1 Weapons of mass
destruction
Adverse consequences of Failure of urban planning  2 Extreme
technological advances
weather events
3.0  3 Natural disasters
I M PACT

Illicit trade  4 Failure of

Deflation climate-change
Unmanaged inflation
mitigation and adaption
 5 Water crises
2.5 3.0 3.48 4.0 4.5  6 Cyberattacks
average
LIKELIHO O D plotted  7 Food crises
area
5.0  8 Biodiversity loss and
ecosystem collapse

GLOBA L RIS K S  9 Large-scale

involuntary migration
L ANDSCAPE 1.0 5.0
10 Spread of
infectious diseases

so massive it changes ‘the system’ itself. A biodiversity, and the public reaction needs to be 0 Compiled by 900
mega-campaign, surpassing the scale of that proportionate to the scale of the threat, such members of the World
which garnered support for the Paris Climate that it will influence elections. This means new Economic Forum, this chart
Accord needs two fronts – emotion for the narratives, new incentives, new policies, even measures 30 global risks
public, and evidence for policy. a new economic model, and, dare it be said, a facing the planet over the
replacement for the ‘B’ word. next ten years, both in
“Kicking off with the CBD Conference of terms of likelihood of them
Parties in Egypt this November, and over Because if the one thing we’re trying to happening, and the severity
the next two and a half years, the BirdLife save cannot be captured in just one term, of impact if they do. Risks
Partnership will be advocating strongly for rapid ‘biodiversity’ (and we’ve seen that, yes, that and crises relating to nature
progress by governments to reach the Aichi includes us humans), then we aren’t feeling it rank high on both scales,
Targets”, says Heath. “We are also working hard in our hearts. In the past, human cultures have yet are nowhere near high
to secure an ambitious and robust post-2020 often turned to art, creativity and emotion enough on government
biodiversity conservation agenda owned by us to make sense of the indescribable. Today, agendas...
all that, critically, must be more effective.” we know that the benefits and wonder of
Climate change has a very clear goal for biodiversity are literally beyond words. So too
governments to understand: no more than must be the renewed campaign to protect
1.5 degrees. We may need the equivalent for them. The deadline: 2020.

OCT-DEC 2018 • BIRDLIFE 17

 In 1980 a conservation
biologist by the name of
Thomas Lovejoy, then
of WWF in USA, coined
‘biological diversity’.
Nearly four decades
later, BirdLife sits down
with the ‘Godfather of
Biodiversity’ to discuss
what’s behind the term
and how we all need to

THE change...

GODFATHER
OF
BIODIVERSITY

wenty years ago,
T eminent conservation
biologist Thomas
Lovejoy came up with
a word that encapsulated not
only the variety of life on earth,
but the life-giving services that
delicately-balanced ecosystems
provide to us all. Since then,
his long and varied career has
always centred on conserving
them. At the age of 77, he is a
senior fellow at George Mason
University. Talking to BirdLife, he
shares his thoughts on dinosaur
calls, public awareness, and the
urgent need for humanity to start
seeing itself as part of nature.
You’ve been credited with
coining the term ‘biodiversity’.
Can you explain how you came
up with the word?
What’s interesting is that there
were three of us who came up
with the term ‘Biological Diversity’
in 1980. None of us were thinking
we’d invented something new,
none of us were thinking “oh,
maybe I was first” – it just flowed
naturally from the way we
were thinking scientifically and
environmentally at the time. And
it was only later that Elliott Norse,
who was one of the three, went
back and looked at it and said
that I was the first.
What was the purpose behind
the word?
Well, it was really intended to
address the complexity and
diversity in nature, and take
us beyond thinking about the
traditional forms of conservation,
which would be about a
particular species, to thinking
about conserving the variety of
life on earth. Today, we’re talking
about the biodiversity crisis and
Photo © Kristin Pintauro, Colorado State University
how pressing that is.
Do you have any thoughts on
how to get this issue into the
public consciousness?
I think we need to do two things
in particular. One is make people
realise that we’re not separate
from nature in the least, and
that what we really need to do is
embed ourselves in the natural
world and stop thinking about
it as something that can be
protected in a particular place
with a little fence around it.
But I also think people need to
understand how much biology
actually contributes to their daily
lives. Whether it’s the prescription
that you got at the drugstore, or
the water from the watershed,
or the composition of the
atmosphere, we’re benefiting
from the natural world every
second of our lives.
Do you enjoy going out and
experiencing nature yourself?
My favourite thing in the world
is to go to my favourite camp in
the Amazon, which is essentially
an unbroken forest all the way
to the Guianas. It’s like the
forest primeval – it’s like being
in the heart of the living planet.
I love to take people there, it’s
always transformative.
What do you think is the greatest
challenge in communicating the
biodiversity crisis today?
Yes, there’s a crisis – but
we should spend less time
elaborating on the details of the
crisis, and more time helping
people to understand that
they really are part of nature,
and it’s in everybody’s basic
interest to protect the variety of
life on earth.
We totally agree with you!
You know, it’s not only
that: nature is beautiful, it’s
THE INTERVIEW
wonderful, it’s fascinating. As
E. O. Wilson once said, every
child had a bug period, he just
never grew out of his! And we all
should be that way.
What’s your favourite bird
species – if you have a favourite?
That’s really hard! You know, for
David Attenborough, it would be
a bird of paradise – I think for me
it might be one of the manakins:
little fruit-eating birds of the
New World tropics which have
elaborate dances, and there’s one
of them that has a cap which is
like iridescent mother-of-pearl.
It’s spectacular.
We talk a lot about birds being
indicators of the health of the
planet. In our latest State of the
World’s Birds report we call it
‘taking the pulse of the planet’.
What are your thoughts on
this concept?
Basically, if you save the variety
of birds on this planet, you will
save the variety of life, at least on
land. So they’re great indicators
of the overall health of the
environment. And they’re very
accessible to people, because
birds are basically very visual
organisms, and we’re very visual,
so we respond to their elaborate
plumages and cues. And we’re
also reasonably auditory, and
they use all kinds of auditory
communication. Interestingly
enough, it’s recently been
determined that in any bird which
makes its song with a syrinx, the
syrinx actually goes back to the
dinosaurs that gave rise to birds.
So some of those dinosaurs were
making strange, bird-like noises.
Isn’t that amazing?
For 2018, BirdLife teamed up
with National Geographic to
Photo Red-capped Manakin / Ondrej Prosicky
declare the Year Of The Bird.
A key component of this is
encouraging members of
the public to make small but
meaningful steps to benefit
nature. In your opinion, what is
the one thing that every person
could do tomorrow that would
make the biggest impact in
preserving biodiversity?
19
THE INTERVIEW
Well, I would suggest two things.
The first step is just to go and
visit some local piece of nature,
and then the next thing would
be actually taking some kids to
see it, some friends to see it, and
help them to see the connection
between nature and the quality
of our life. You know, this is a
living planet, and most people are
under the illusion that it works as
a physical system – absolutely
not. It is a combined physical
and biological system. And it
controls the composition of the
atmosphere, controls the flow of
water, and all kinds of other things
that make it a habitable planet.
Do you have any examples of
how much an ecosystem can
survive when a certain number
of species have been removed
from it? When will it collapse?
Ecosystems will go through
small collapses, but they don’t
usually go through big collapses
– they just erode, and become
less capable of doing what they
were able to do before. So what
we’re going through as a planet
is the erosion of the biology
of the planet, and its ability to
support people – and it makes
no sense at all.
You attended our Flyway
Summit in Abu Dhabi, where
attendees from a whole variety
of different countries and
sectors came together to
discuss the future of
conservation: does that give
you hope for the future?
It’s incredibly encouraging to see
– I don’t even know how many
countries were represented –
probably a few dozen in the end,
from all over the world, caring
deeply about the future of birds.
The main focus of the meeting
“It’s a social primate problem –
we spend time grooming each
other without really considering
what’s going on in the habitat“
20
was on migratory birds – and
when you actually think about
what migratory birds do, it’s just
staggering. I once flew from
Washington to San Jose in Costa
Rica, and then spent another two
or three hours in the car, and
then I got where I was going at
one in the morning. And then I
had to be out the door at 6am to
go with a graduate student who
was mist-netting birds, and it was
the first day that I caught a full
migrant. It was a yellow warbler
which I got to take out of the
net, and that bird had just flown
a greater distance than I had
come – all the way, probably,
from Canada, all on its own. And
when you blew the feathers away
and looked at it, you could see
that it had burned every little bit
of fat, probably burning protein
at the end of the trip. And if that
isn’t something wondrous, I don’t
know what is.
What, in your opinion, is a
major threat to biodiversity that
doesn’t get enough airtime, and
needs to be discussed more?
One of the things I worry about
a lot is the soup of man-made
chemicals that we live in. And
the medicine taking out so many
vultures [diclofenac] is just one
example out of tens of thousands
of man-made chemicals. So I
worry about that a lot, and think
the more we can move back
towards using molecules from
nature, which degrade naturally,
the better off we’ll be.
Why do you think it is that
people won’t change their
attitudes? It’s something
that we all know, but it’s just
never entered into the public
consciousness – people don’t
take it seriously.
Blue-crowned Manakin
Lepidothrix coronata
Photo Geoff Gallice
Well, there are two parts to that
problem. One is, it’s very easy
for an individual to think, well,
it’s just me – how can that make
a difference? But it all adds
up. And the other is thinking
about ourselves as apart from
the environment. Probably,
the majority of people on this
planet suffer from that to one
degree or another. And when
you think that way, you don’t
even stop to think whether
something you’re doing might
pollute the planet. Personally,
I think it’s a social primate
problem – we like to spend time
grooming each other, without
really thinking about what’s going
on in the habitat.
That’s a very good way of
putting it!
I once read it was a little bit like a
troop of baboons grooming each
other while the environmental
lion sneaks up.
Yes, it’s way beyond just a
scientific problem.
That’s right – it’s a sort of human
behaviour/human attitude
problem. And yes, it’s great
that more and more people are
living in cities, in the sense that
that can take a lot of pressure
off the natural world, but it
also increases this sense of not Turquoise-fronted
needing nature. So you need
a lot of counter-effort to keep
Amazon
Amazona aestiva
people aware. Photo Deni Williams
 THE INTERVIEW

Juvenile Spectacled Owl

Pulsatrix perspicillata
Photo Rhian Springett

White-headed Vulture Crimson Topaz

Trigonoceps occipitalis Topaza pella
Photo Andre Botha Photo Aisse Gaertner

JUL-SEP 2018 • BIRDLIFE 21

FEATURE
LOST
FOREVER?
Eight bird species, including two species of macaw, look set to have their extinctions
confirmed following a robust new review of Critically Endangered species
n the 2011 animated film Rio, Blu, a
I captive-raised Spix’s Macaw, arrives
in Brazil to mate with the last-known
wild member of his species, a female
named Jewel. But according to our latest paper,
Blu was already 11 years too late – Jewel, the last
of her kind, likely perished in or around 2000.
Spix’s Macaw Cyanopsitta spixii is one of eight
species primed to have their extinctions either
confirmed or deemed highly likely, following a
new study by BirdLife International. The eight-
year study used a new statistical approach
to analyse 51 Critically Endangered species,
quantifying, for the first time, three factors at
once: intensity of threats, timing and reliability
xxxxx xx
of records, and the timing and quality of search
xxxxxxx
efforts for the species. With eight proposed
xxxxx
uplistings, the study reveals a worrying new
22
Alex Dale
0 Clockwise from top
left: Spix’s Macaw (Photo
via Al Wabra Wildlife
Preservation), Alagoas
Foliage-gleaner (Ciro
Albano), Poo-uli (US Fish &
Wildlife Service).
trend: for the first time, mainland extinctions are
outpacing island extinctions.
“Ninety per cent of bird extinctions in recent
centuries have been of species on islands,” says
Dr Stuart Butchart, BirdLife’s Chief Scientist
and lead author on the paper. “However, our
results confirm that there is a growing wave
of extinctions sweeping across the continents,
driven mainly by habitat loss and degradation
from unsustainable agriculture and logging.”
Five of the eight confirmed or suspected
extinctions took place on the South American
continent, with four in Brazil alone, reflecting
the devastating effects of the high rate of
deforestation in this part of the world. SAVE
Brasil (BirdLife Partner) is already escalating
its ongoing efforts to conserve the country’s
unique habitats. “These recently confirmed
BIRDLIFE • OCT - DEC 2018
 COMMON 2017 RED LIST NEW DATE OF LAST T HE EX
NAME CATEGORY RECOMMENDATION RECORD F IL ES
Spix’s Macaw Critically Endangered Extinct in the Wild 2000
(Possibly Extinct in Wild)

Cryptic Treehunter Critically Endangered Extinct 2007

(Possibly Extinct)

Alagoas Critically Endangered Extinct 2011

CRYPTIC
Foliage-gleaner TREEHUNTER
Inhabiting the humid
forests of Northeast
Poo-uli Critically Endangered Extinct 2004
Brazil, this small
(Possibly Extinct) perching bird, named
after its elusive nature,
was only found in two
Glaucous Macaw Critically Endangered Critically Endangered 2001 sites: Murici in the state
(Possibly Extinct) of Alagoas, and Frei
Caneca in Pernambuco.
However, these tiny
Pernambuco Critically Endangered Critically Endangered 2001 patches of forest
Pygmy-owl (Possibly Extinct) were rapidly felled for
logging, and to make
way for sugar cane
Javan Lapwing Critically Endangered Critically Endangered 1944 plantations or pasture.
(Possibly Extinct)

New Caledonian Critically Endangered Critically Endangered 1987

Lorikeet (Possibly Extinct)

extinctions are a consequence of the intense While the announcement of extinctions

ALAGOAS FOLIAGE-
habitat loss we have been facing in Brazil, makes for glum reading, identifying which GLEANER
especially in the Northeast Atlantic Forest,” says species are gone for good is an important Like Cryptic Treehunter,
Pedro Develey, Executive Director, SAVE Brasil. part of conservation; with limited funds the Alagoas Foliage-
gleaner was a member
“Other Critically Endangered species still living available globally, it’s important that we don’t of a family known as
in this region are on the brink of extinction; waste money chasing ghosts. But equally, ovenbirds, named after
however, our current conservation efforts are announcing extinctions prematurely can be the round, sun-dried
mud nests that some
preserving the forest remains, restoring habitats costly. “While we need an accurate measure species in the family
and engaging the local communities. It is very of extinction rates, giving up on a species construct, and again it
sad to know that we have lost these species, but prematurely risks committing the so-called was only ever found in
two sites in Northeast
it is not too late to save many others.” Romeo Error where conservation efforts are Brazil. It was already
abandoned prematurely on the presumption designated Extinct at a
Of the eight species, it was recommended that the species has disappeared,” says national level following
extensive searches.
that three species should be re-classified as Butchart. While it’s highly unlikely we’ll
Extinct: the Cryptic Treehunter Cichlocolaptes ever encounter a Javan Lapwing again,
mazarbarnetti and Alagoas Foliage-gleaner precedents have been set before, such as
Philydor novaesi, two ovenbirds from Northeast the Blue-eyed Ground-dove Columbina
Brazil; and Poo-uli Melamprosops phaeosoma, cyanopis, a Brazilian endemic that was
formerly of Hawaii, which has not been seen dramatically rediscovered this century, having
in the wild since 2004 (the same year the last not been seen with certainty since 1941.
captive individual died). POO-ULI
The data also suggests another four species Hope still persists for the Spix’s, too, despite This Hawaiian
should be reclassified as Critically Endangered it apparently being wiped out in the wild as a honeycreeper, endemic
to the island of Maui,
(Possibly Extinct), a category that indicates result of deforestation and other factors such was already rare when
the species is highly likely to be extinct, but as the creation of a dam, invasive bees and it was discovered in
further search efforts are required before we trapping for wild trade. An estimated 1973 (an estimated
200 individuals). Rapid
can definitively rule it so. These species are population of fewer than 90 persists in captivity, deforestation in the
New Caledonian Lorikeet Charmosyna diadema hence the suggested classification change following years meant
(last sighted in 1976), Javan Lapwing Vanellus to Extinct in the Wild. A lone sighting in 2016 that number dwindled
to just 5-7 by 1995.
macropterus (last sighted in 1939), Pernambuco sparked hope the species may persist in the Despite the almost
Pygmy-owl Glaucidium mooreorum (2001) wild, but it is now suspected to be an escapee constant presence of
and another Brazilian macaw, Glaucous Macaw from captivity. If so, it is sadly highly unlikely this researchers, no trace
of the bird remains.
Anodorhynchus glaucus (2001). Blu ever found his Jewel.

OCT - DEC 2018 • BIRDLIFE 23



TEN
YEARS
OF

PREVENTING
EXTINCTIONS
Photo aDam Wildlife/Shutterstock

A decade on from the launch of our Preventing Extinctions Programme, we

revisit just ten of the BirdLife Partnership’s inspiring success stories in that time
 PREVENTING EXTINCTIONS

t its 2008 World stand by while bird extinctions by ‘Species Champions’ who provide

A
Congress, BirdLife
launched the Preventing
Extinctions Programme,
bringing together
the whole Partnership’s species
conservation efforts. The underlying
principle was simple: “BirdLife
couldn’t, with a clear conscience,
continue as a result of human activity,”
says Jim Lawrence, BirdLife Global
Marketing Manager. “While extinctions
will sadly happen, we can’t and won’t
accept that they are inevitable, and
will strive to take action, either directly
or through advocacy.” Underpinned
by BirdLife’s science, often supported
funding, and working through local
‘Species Guardians’ (frequently
BirdLife Partners), the Programme has
helped at least 483 threatened species,
many Critically Endangered. That’s a
mighty list to choose from – but what
are the Programme’s greatest success
stories to date?

1
CHERRY-THROATED
TANAGER
Sometimes, Roger Safford
(BirdLife Senior Programme
Manager, Preventing Extinctions)
suggests, successful conservation
can involve a simple concept: “If
a forest occupied by a Critically
Endangered species is large
enough, properly protected and
well-managed, the bird involved
should survive.” The Cherry-
Photo Ciro Albano
its 1998 rediscovery. There may
be as few as 50 birds left, all in
Espírito Santo’s remnant Atlantic
Forest. In 2017, thanks to support
from BirdLife Species Champion
Urs-Peter Stäuble, SAVE Brasil
(BirdLife Partner) helped
Grupo Águia Branca (a major
Brazilian company) to create a
1,688-hectare private reserve.

throated Tanager Nemosia rourei Work now continues to secure

illustrates Safford’s point. This protection for another patch of
striking Brazilian endemic was habitat known to harbour the
an enigma for 120 years until species.

NORTHERN BALD IBIS

2
It seems apt that a spectacular bird once mummified to
accompany ancient Egyptian royalty into the afterlife should
count European royalty amongst its present-day supporters.
Alongside ZEISS, HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco is a Species
Champion for the Northern Bald Ibis Geronticus eremita.
Once widespread through the Mediterranean, this species
now breeds in the wild only in Morocco, and is considered
Critically Endangered. However, following two decades of
Photo dfaulder/Flickr

colony protection, with support from GREPOM (BirdLife in

Morocco), Morocco’s population has soared from 59 pairs
in 1997 to 600 birds in 2016. Even better, pairs bred at two
new sites last year.

OCT - DEC 2018 • BIRDLIFE 25

PREVENTING EXTINCTIONS

3 SEYCHELLES
AND MAURITIUS Photo via Wikicommons

Two Indian Ocean island states famously illustrate

how dedicated action can reverse the fortunes of the
world’s rarest birds. Thanks to the Mauritian Wildlife
Foundation (BirdLife Partner), the legendary salvation of
the Mauritius Kestrel Falco punctatus has been used as a
model to save other species, including ongoing population
increases since 2008 for Echo Parakeet Psittacula eques,
Rodrigues Warbler Acrocephalus rodericanus, Mauritius
Fody Foudia rubra (pictured) and Rodrigues Fody Foudia
flavicans. In Seychelles, several species have seen
similar recoveries through innovative conservation
action by Nature Seychelles (BirdLife Partner). Most
remarkably, in 2015, Seychelles Warbler Acrocephalus
sechellensis was re-categorised as Near Threatened –
an astonishing turnaround from the nadir of 30 birds
precisely 50 years ago.

26 BIRDLIFE • OCT - DEC 2018


4 AMUR FALCON
Photo Thangam Velusamy/Shutterstock
CHINESE CRESTED TERN
As the Millennium dawned, the Chinese
Crested Tern Thalasseus bernsteini was
presumed long extinct. Fifteen years
later, 16 chicks fledged at a colony in
eastern China, after conservationists
including BirdLife attracted birds to
Tiedun Dao island through decoy
models and audio systems playing
tern calls. In 2016, Burung Indonesia
(BirdLife Partner) confirmed a new
6 TAHITI MONARCH
Photo Caroline Blanvillain
OCT - DEC 2018 • BIRDLIFE
PREVENTING EXTINCTIONS
In 2012, some 100,000 migrating Amur Falcons Falco
amurensis were trapped in Nagaland, India – then
slaughtered for food. Alerted by a video of the massacre that
subsequently went viral, Bombay Natural History Society
(BNHS, BirdLife in India) marshalled an emergency response
that saw trappers swiftly arrested and their nets destroyed.
BNHS then engineered an engagement programme that
has transformed local attitudes: Nagaland’s Chief Minister
calls the falcons “esteemed guests”. After five years of
conservation action, the safe passage of a million Amur
Falcons is again assured: not a single falcon is known to have
been killed for the plate since 2012. Instead, the migrating
birds now provide a feast for the eyes.
5
wintering site in eastern Indonesia. In
2017, things improved further when
birds were discovered breeding in South
Korea, where BirdLife is now supporting
the Government to safeguard the new
Photo Oregon State University
nesting site. The Chinese Crested Tern
may remain Critically Endangered – the
highest possible threat category – but
at least it has been spared an entry in
the log of extinct species.
In relation to land area, nowhere has more threatened
birds than the Pacific. Many evolved on tiny islands, thriving
without predators or competitors. Then Man arrived,
introducing non-native plants and animals, with devastating
consequences. Twenty years ago, just 19 Tahiti Monarchs
Pomarea nigra could be located on Tahiti. These final
survivors had to contend with not one, but nine invasive
species. SOP Manu (BirdLife in French Polynesia) has
literally rescued the Monarchs from the jaws of defeat,
controlling predators as diverse as cats, mynas, rats and
ants, and in 2017, 70 monarchs were counted. The next
stage will be to translocate birds to a location where
these predators are absent.
27
 PREVENTING EXTINCTIONS
7 HOODED GREBE
Photo Juan María Raggio
SOCIABLE LAPWING
“One reason for the Programme’s
success,” says Lawrence, “is the ‘Power
of Many’ afforded by the BirdLife
Partnership.” This is particularly
apparent in wide-ranging migratory
species such as the Sociable
Lapwing Vanellus gregarius (Critically
Endangered), which breeds in Russia
and Kazakhstan, then migrates through
14 countries to winter in north-east
9 SPOON-BILLED SANDPIPER
Photo Pavel Tomkovich
28
At the 2008 BirdLife World Congress in Argentina, corridors
hummed with concerns about the perilous status of a
remarkable local waterbird. Hooded Grebe Podiceps
gallardoi numbers had slumped by 80% in 25 years. In
response, BirdLife upped its threat status to Critically
Endangered and Aves Argentinas (BirdLife Partner) initiated a
conservation programme that has catapulted this stunning
creature to international stardom (via an internet video
reaching 20 million viewers). Aves Argentinas has identified
and combatted numerous threats to the grebe’s existence,
including securing the designation of a new National Park.
Although populations have now stabilised, concerns now
surround a new threat from a hydroelectric dam.
8
Africa, the Middle East and South
Asia. Supported by Species Champion
Swarovski Optik, BirdLife Partners
collaborated on a satellite-tagging
project, revealing unknown wintering
grounds and pinpointing key staging
posts along the wader’s route. “At one
Photo Oleg Kashkarov
location we discovered a flock of 3,200
lapwings – more than we thought
existed worldwide!” says Lawrence.
In the 1970s, 2,000 Spoon-billed Sandpiper Calidris pygmaea
pairs bred in north-east Russia. Thirty years on, there were
90% fewer. Extinction seemed imminent. BirdLife is part
of the Spoon-billed Sandpiper Task Force, an international
partnership addressing threats across the wader’s range,
which extends south to wintering grounds in Thailand and
Myanmar. One Species Champion, Heritage Expeditions, is
supporting action by transporting conservationists and their
equipment, helping them discover new breeding sites and
release locally captive-raised birds into the wild. The Chinese
Government, meanwhile, halted coastal land reclamation in
2018, a boost to ‘Spoonies’ and millions of other migratory
shorebirds using the East Asian-Australasian Flyway.
BIRDLIFE • OCT - DEC 2018

10 SOUTH ASIAN VULTURES
South Asia’s formerly super-abundant
vultures were brought to near-
extinction by a drug administered to a
ubiquitous domestic animal. Treating
cattle with diclofenac killed many
millions of White-rumped Vultures
Gyps bengalensis (whose numbers
plummeted by 99.9% in a frighteningly
OCT - DEC 2018 • BIRDLIFE
short time) and fellow carcass-
feeders. BNHS (BirdLife in India),
Bird Conservation Nepal (BirdLife
Partner) and authorities in Pakistan
and Bangladesh (with support from UK
BirdLife Partner the RSPB, who also
contributed significantly to several of
the other successes described here)
PREVENTING EXTINCTIONS
BirdLife International
thanks the many donors
who support their
Preventing Extinctions
Programme. These
include multiple Species
Champions who have
also raised the profile of
individual birds and the
actions being taken by
Species Guardians and
others to save them.
blew the whistle on diclofenac, and the
painkiller was banned for veterinary
use in all four countries. But our work
Photo Jyotendra Thakuri.
is not yet done. “BNHS later discovered
a loophole – the use of large vials of
human formulations of diclofenac –
and persuaded the Indian Government
to ban these in 2015,” says Lawrence.
29
 PREVENTING EXTINCTIONS

SAV I N G T H E

HELMETED
HORNBILL
The Helmeted Hornbill is under threat from a resurgence in demand for carvings
made from its solid red casque. The trade is so intense that the bird is now Critically
Photo Thipwan/Shutterstock

Endangered. Can it be saved?

Dominic Couzens

30 BIRDLIFE • OCT-DEC 2018

 elmeted Hornbills Rhinoplax vigil are
B I R D
F A C T F I L E
H used to clashes. When a tall forest
tree is in fruit, rival individuals launch
into one of the most remarkable
skirmishes seen among birds anywhere. The
mighty hornbills, up to 1.5 m in length, take
off from their high perches with deep beats of
their enormous wings. Just above the canopy,
they take aim from up to 50 m away, accelerate
towards each other in a glide and then launch
HELMETED straight into a ferocious head-butt. The clash
HORNBILL they make is loud enough to be heard 100 m
Rhinoplax vigil away on the forest floor, and the combatants are
thrown backwards by the force of the collision,
RED LIST STATUS:
Critically Endangered whereupon each makes an impressive aerial flip
to regain its balance. If matters aren’t settled, the
RANGE: Southern
Thailand and Myanmar, birds will make repeated jousts, sometimes for
Malaysia, Sumatra and an hour, with up to 12 ‘hits’ being recorded.
Borneo.
THREATS: Habitat loss, These extraordinary duels are made possible
heavily targeted by only by the Helmeted Hornbill’s specially adapted
hunters.
casque, sitting atop its bill. A captivating orange-
FAST FACT: While red colour, it is made up mainly from keratin,
it feasts on fruit, the
Helmeted Hornbill is and in contrast to that of all other hornbill
also known to hunt species, which have open casques, it is both solid
squirrels, snakes and and heavy. Amazingly, the casque accounts for
even other hornbills.
more than ten percent of the bird’s body weight.
Most of the research points to the possibility
that Helmeted Hornbills fight over resources,
particularly food. These are large birds with a
broad diet that includes fruit, berries and animal
matter, including small reptiles, mammals
and birds (apparently, sometimes smaller
hornbills). However, life is easiest when large
trees, especially figs, come into fruit, offering
a temporary bonanza to all manner of forest
wildlife. It has even been suggested that the
1 The Helmeted Hornbill action of fermenting figs might intoxicate the
prefers to nest in the birds, ushering them more readily into combat.
largest, oldest trees Few have ever seen Helmeted Hornbills
Photo Bjorn Olesen performing their aerial jousts. Indeed, few have
OCT-DEC 2018 • BIRDLIFE
ever seen this magnificent species at all. Despite
its size, they are elusive birds, living in the
canopy of the tall dipterocarp forests of Brunei,
Indonesia (Kalimantan and Sumatra), Malaysia,
Myanmar and Thailand. Just recently a new,
unknown population was discovered, proving
how poorly known the bird is.
The Helmeted Hornbill was once widespread
and reasonably common. However, its
preference for undisturbed, usually primary
forest means that, over many years, its
population has dwindled. The problem is
compounded by the bird’s fussy habits: it is
thought to have a narrower diet than most other
hornbills, more dependent on figs. It also makes
its nest site in the tallest, oldest trees, which have
developed cavities high above the forest floor,
and are the most valuable to the logging industry.
Its breeding biology, typical of a large, forest bird,
compounds its vulnerability. Helmeted Hornbills
breed very slowly, laying a small number of eggs
and devoting enormous time and effort to their
single young, meaning the reproductive rate is
very slow. As a long-lived bird, this is sustainable,
but in a dwindling habitat, it is the sort of species
that disappears quickly once a forest is subject
to disturbance. Small amounts of poaching
disproportionally reduce their numbers.
In recent years, however, a new threat has
clouded the Helmeted Hornbill’s horizon, so
much so that the bird has found itself recently
classified as Critically Endangered – unusual
for such a relatively widely distributed species.
In fact, it isn’t an entirely new threat – more a
recurrence of an old one. For millennia, forest
peoples noticed that the casques of Helmeted
Hornbills were ideal for carving. From at least
the year 1371 there was a small and sustainable
trade between the Greater Sundas and China
for these works, and Chinese craftsmen
UNUSUAL BR EEDING
The Helmeted Hornbill’s nesting
habits make it vulnerable to poachers
The Helmeted Hornbill has a very peculiar quirk to its
breeding behaviour. The nest site, a hollow outcropping
in a tree, is chosen by both members of the pair. Then
the female selects mud from the outside, and piles it
in front of the opening. Reducing the window little by
little until it is too small for her to come and go, she
then completes the job by adding her own excrement
and food remains, leaving just a slit. The male then
visits to bring food, which it regurgitates to its mate.
The female never leaves the nest, relying entirely on the
male for food provision. She takes the opportunity to
moult her feathers and becomes temporarily flightless.
If something were to happen to the male during this
period – if it was killed by poachers, for example – the
female would be exceptionally vulnerable and both she
and the chick would probably die.
31
 PREVENTING EXTINCTIONS
0 Illegal poaching of
Helmeted Hornbill casques
has soared in recent years.
Photo Dewantara/WCS
S U P P ORT NE TWORK
Photo Thipwan/Shutterstock
32
and women themselves also learnt to carve
remarkably intricate scenes for belt buckles,
buttons, bracelets and other accessories,
sometimes leaving the rest of the skull intact.
Occasionally these carvings were brought
to Western Europe and elsewhere to satisfy
fashionable demand for curios. However, the
trade was never large, and it is thought to have
died out completely during the chaos of the
Second World War.
In a highly unfortunate development, however,
a revived interest in carved hornbill casques has
reared its ugly head. Among a set of nouveau
riche Chinese, the casques of Helmeted
Much of BirdLife’s work
protecting the Helmeted
Hornbill has been
made possible through
grants from National
Geographic, the Ernest
Kleinwort Foundation
and BirdLife’s Species
Champions such as
Peter Smith. Thanks
to these resources,
BirdLife is leading a large
collaborative project
across the five countries
in which the Helmeted
Hornbill is known, to
map out its distribution
and secure protection
for its key habitats.
Hornbills have become the latest must-have
possession, along with other inexplicable
delights such as Pangolin scales. These
are apparently status symbols. This bizarre
market is fed by organised criminal gangs that
already target illegal trade in the body parts of
endangered animals.
Poaching for Helmeted Hornbill casques is
now at unprecedented levels, particularly in
Indonesia. There have been shocking estimates
of the slaughter of birds – for example, 6,000
birds a year in 2012/13. For a large bird that
breeds slowly, these levels are unsustainable.
To make matters worse, the local poachers
enlisted by the gangs tend to kill all the large
hornbills in an affected area, of which there may
be several other species, so that they don’t miss
the valuable Helmeted. These other species are
collateral damage. This new threat means that,
if things carry on as they are, this will be the
Helmeted Hornbill’s last clash. The big fighting
bird of the giant forests will be reduced to a few
carved skulls lurking in a study.
But conservationists do not intend to allow
this species to fade away. This August, following
a huge collaborative effort which involved
more than 30 organisations including BirdLife,
the IUCN SSC Hornbill Specialist Group, Asian
Species Action Partnership (ASAP), Hornbill
Research Foundation, Rangkong Indonesia,
TRAFFIC, Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS)
and Wildlife Reserves Singapore, a ten-year
Conservation Strategy and Action Plan for the
Helmeted Hornbill’s survival was launched. The
BIRDLIFE • OCT-DEC 2018

plan represents a multi-pronged, multi-national
assault on the bird’s difficulties, and saw input
from six national BirdLife Partners: Biodiversity
And Nature Conservation Association Myanmar
(BANCA), Bird Conservation Society of Thailand
(BCST), Malaysian Nature Society (MNS), Burung
Indonesia, Nature Society (Singapore) and the
Hong Kong Birdwatching Society.
There are three main aspects to the plan.
The first is to eliminate the trade in Helmeted
Hornbills. In order to do this, NGOs will map
current and potential trade routes, make sure
that local laws penalising hornbill trade are
strengthened, and work to improve cross-
border law enforcement. This, together with
effective enforcement of laws that are already in
place, should slow, if not halt, the trafficking.
Secondly, the plan commits to long-term
monitoring of the remaining Helmeted Hornbill
populations, and protection of their habitats
throughout their natural range. This will
include implementing anti-poaching measures
such as on-ground patrolling in areas that
are not already protected, putting into place
reforestation efforts in critical forests, and
cutting down on illegal forestry and agricultural
encroachment. The plan will also work on trying
to safeguard hornbill habitats outside protected
areas by advocating for increased government
patrolling and protection of those areas.
Thirdly, the plan states that organisations will
collect and share information so that current
population levels of Helmeted Hornbills can be
maintained, and hornbill populations that have
OCT-DEC 2018 • BIRDLIFE
4 The Helmeted Hornbill is
a rarely-seen bird that lives
in the forest canopy
Photo Bjorn Olesen
7 Recently, demand for
carved Helmeted Hornbill
casques has resurfaced
Photo Kanitha
Krishnasamy/TRAFFIC
3 Rhinoceros Hornbill
Buceros rhinoceros is often
mistaken for the Helmeted
Hornbill
Photo Bjorn Olesen
HOW CAN
YO U HEL P ?
You can help BirdLife
and collaborators
identify the Helmeted
Hornbill’s safe
havens by sharing
confirmed sighting
records across Brunei,
Indonesia, Malaysia,
Myanmar and Thailand.
Records should have
the location (GPS
coordinates if available)
and the month and
year of sighting. Please
reach out to anuj.jain@
birdlife.org for details.
PREVENTING EXTINCTIONS
been damaged can be allowed to recover. This
can only be achieved by identifying Helmeted
Hornbill population strongholds (‘safe havens’)
and devising standardised monitoring plans to
ensure we have reliable estimates of baseline
populations which can be evaluated over time.
Conservation action can then be triggered if
populations fall below agreed thresholds.
BirdLife especially has previous experience in
this area and has been working on the ground
through its partners to enact local conservation
measures. In May-June 2018, BirdLife and
MNS gathered Helmeted Hornbill experts
in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia to collaboratively
identify knowledge gaps in Helmeted Hornbill
distribution and agree upon population
thresholds. At the Harapan rainforest in
Indonesia, Lenya National Park in Myanmar,
and Khlong Saeng-Khao Sok Forest Complex in
Thailand, population surveys and engagement
with local forest departments have enabled
BirdLife, Burung Indonesia, BCST and BANCA
to develop population monitoring plans. At the
Belum-Temengor forest in Malaysia, for the past
14 years communities have been monitoring
Helmeted Hornbills with help from MNS. The
project has also empowered local communities
by providing them with education (hornbill
camps), training and toolkits to report illegal
hunting, logging or encroachment activities.
All of these efforts are meant to combat
poaching, and secure safe havens for the
species. After all, the Helmeted Hornbill is a bird
that’s worth fighting for.
33
 PREVENTING EXTINCTIONS
Araripe Manakin Antilophia bokermanni – Species Champion: Sir David Attenborough / Photo Rick Elis-Simpson

CHAMPIONS
LEAGUE
Behind the scenes of our Preventing Extinctions Programme are some surprising sponsors
and advocates. Famous authors, renowned wildlife presenters and royalty all feature
among the Species Champions making our work possible…

34 BIRDLIFE • OCT-DEC 2018

 e’ve all heard of sponsoring an animal
W at a wildlife park or animal sanctuary.
But have you ever imagined what it
would be like to sponsor an entire
species? Since August 2007, a remarkable 95
Species Champions have stepped forward
to provide vital support to our Preventing
Extinctions Programme, acting as a lifeline for
species on the brink.
This ever-expanding community is an
eclectic mix of philanthropic individuals and
environmentally-sensitive companies from all
over the world. While each approaches BirdLife
with slightly different thoughts and ideas, they
are bonded by one worthy and practical intent:
the desire to provide – or raise – funds and
awareness that will help preserve the world’s
most threatened birds and biodiversity.
Species Champions are a constant source of
inspiration. And it’s not just their great generosity:
enthusiasm and ingenuity are also in plentiful
supply. Take 32 year old Arjan Dwarshuis –
world record holder of the largest number of
species seen in a calendar year (6,852). While
this stellar feat marks his incredible ambition, the
personal challenge to raise funds and awareness
to prevent extinctions has been his driving
motivation.
Some Species Champions really think outside
the box. In 2014, Daniel Mirecki, founder of
stamp-collecting company ‘Cover Story’, offered
his expertise for free. “Let me help. I can turn all
those old stamp albums, coins and ephemera
gathering dust in people’s cupboards into cash -
to help fund your work.” And so Collectibles for
Conservation was born, and more funds flowed…
And then there is writer, film-maker and art
impresario Ceri Levy, who came to us with the
idea to stage an art exhibition in a trendy East
End gallery. With the inspiring brief “breathe
life back into an extinct species”, he cajoled
friends and colleagues until eventually more
than 150 artists of renown were on board.
OCT-DEC 2018 • BIRDLIFE
Soon an incredible cast of sculptors, poets, 2 Indian Skimmer
musicians and dancers set to work under the
banner Ghosts of Gone Birds. Contributors
ranged from contemporary musicians such
Rynchops albicollis
Species Champion: Uttar
Pradesh Bird Festival
as Daman Albarn (of Blur and Gorillaz fame), Photo Koshy Koshy/Flickr
to legendary pop artist Sir Peter Blake. Ralph
Steadman became so deeply engaged with the 4 Margaret Atwood's
subject he filled an entire hall with original art woollen Great Auk
and, with characteristic wit, renowned writer Pinguinus impennis
Margaret Atwood (author of The Handmaid’s
Tale) swapped pen for knitting needle and crafted 0 Secretarybird
a woollen Great Auk Pinguinus impennis. The Sagittarius serpentarius
public gathered, art was sold and substantive Species Champion: Petra
funds and awareness were raised. Diamonds
Photo Frans Van Heerden/
Many corporate sponsors have become Pexels
invaluable long-term Species Champions too.
Swarovski Optik has provided vital support
for Sociable Lapwing Vanellus gregarius since
2008, and became champion for a second
migratory species, the Canada Warbler Cardellina
canadensis, in 2013. Their funding helped to
create an action plan across the Americas, and BECOME
A SPECIES
allowed our scientists to pin down the source CHAMPION
of the bird’s decline to wintering grounds in the
Andes. Now the Colombian government has also BirdLife Species
become a champion for the warbler, funding Champions help fund
and promote action
conservation action in the country’s coffee- for specific Globally
growing region. Threatened Birds as
well as the international
conservation, science,
Then there’s royalty. HSH Prince Albert II policy, advocacy and
of Monaco’s support for Northern Bald Ibis communications that
Geronticus eremita has been fundamental to the underpin our local
actions to ensure no
species’ recovery over the past nine years. Now more bird extinctions
optics company Zeiss has joined forces to keep ever occur. You can
the species’ trajectory swooping upwards. As for become a BirdLife
Species Champion
the “royalty” of the conservation world, Sir David by writing to species.
Attenborough’s support for the Araripe Manakin champions@birdlife.org
Antilophia bokermanni has elevated our work
in the Atlantic rainforest to a new level. Every
BirdLife Species Champion deserves high praise
for their support. While we haven’t space to list
all of them here, a roll of honour can be found
on our website: www.birdlife.org/worldwide/
support-us/species-champions
35
PREVENTING EXTINCTIONS
Photo Lukas Gojda/Shutterstock

For millennia, vultures have

aided humans in their role
as nature’s rapid-response
clean-up crew. Now, Kenya
is repaying the favour with
a new rapid-response
unit to combat vulture
poisoning: part of an
ambitious project to save
Africa’s vultures

By Jessica Law

SAVING THE
SENTINELS
36
SKIES OF
THE
BIRDLIFE • OCT-DEC 2018
 vulture rides the thermals a
A thousand metres above the Masai
Mara, the savannah laid out before
it in a vast, emerald patchwork.
Its soaring may look serene, but its eyes are
trained on the vista below it, scanning the
plains and thickets for one thing: food. A
vulture’s eyesight is needle-sharp: it can locate
a recently deceased animal carcass from as
much as a mile away. Vultures typically arrive
on the scene within an hour of death, having
roved as much as 200km that day in search of
a meal. Then they get to work, picking the
bones clean before disease has time to spread,
far faster than scavengers such as feral dogs
or rats can achieve. If you think about it, they
are performing a huge humanitarian service.
But for how long?
Nowadays, what looks like an inviting
meal could turn out to be poison. Human
encroachment upon wild spaces has lead to an
increase in human-wildilfe conflict, and people
have started lacing animal carcasses with toxic
agricultural pesticides such as carbofuran.
In many cases, vultures are not the intended
victims – farmers may put out poisoned bait
in order to kill off predators such as lions that
would otherwise take their livestock, unaware
of the accidental avian casualties.
Another more pernicious practice comes
from ivory poachers not wanting to draw
attention to their illegal activities. Vultures, in
their capacity as the ‘sentinels of the sky’, can
detect a dead elephant far faster than any park
ranger would, and flocks of circling birds could
alert law enforcement before the poachers had
time to flee the scene. To prevent this, poachers
often douse the carcass in poison. The results
can be utterly devastating. If nothing is done,
OCT-DEC 2018 • BIRDLIFE
4 White-headed Vulture a laced elephant carcass can kill 500 vultures,
Trigonoceps occipitalis
Photo Andre Botha
and even a poisoned cattle carcass can claim
150 lives. Cumulatively, this has dealt an
enormous blow to vulture populations across
7 The Lion Guardians Africa, causing 60% of deaths. Now, seven of
engage with herders across Africa’s 11 species find themselves threatened
Kenya to reduce human- with extinction, and their decline has been
wildlife conflict alarmingly rapid: a plummet of 80-97% over
Photo Nature Kenya just three generations. Four species are now
listed as Critically Endangered: teetering on the
very brink of disappearance.
And the effect of their absence is already being
felt. A recent study in Laikipia County, Kenya
demonstrated that in the absence of vultures,
animal carcasses are taking longer to be
consumed or decompose, increasing the risk of
B I R D disease transmission. Conservationists in Africa
F A C T F I L E were eager to avoid a repetition of the huge
humanitarian and financial cost incurred by
the Asian vulture crisis (see page 29). And so, in
2016, Nature Kenya (BirdLife Partner) received
much-valued support to launch a visionary
programme: ‘Preventing Poisoning to Save
Africa’s Vultures’, which, if successful, could be
rolled out across the whole continent.
A priority of this programme was to introduce
RÜPPELL’S a rapid response protocol, whereby a poisoned
VULTURE carcass could be spotted and disposed of
Gyps rueppelli
before it could cause any more deaths. And
RED LIST STATUS: so, in spring of this year, 89 rangers across the
Critically Endangered Mara were trained and equipped in readiness.
RANGE: The Sahel Training included how to identify and dispose
region and East Africa of the source of poisoning, getting veterinary
THREATS: Many, help for sick animals, and even gathering
including poisoning, evidence so that the perpetrators might be
habitat loss and trade found and prosecuted. These rangers then
FAST FACT: The highest went on to train 117 more of their colleagues,
flying bird, recorded at spreading their knowledge to create a network
over 11,000m
across the Masai Mara Ecosystem.
37
PREVENTING EXTINCTIONS
I B A F A C T F I L
MASA I MA RA
LOCATION: South-western Kenya
TYPE: Savannah, scrubland
SIZE: 530,000 hectares
VULTURE SPECIES: Includes Hooded
Vulture, White-headed Vulture,
Rüppell’s Vulture
Photo Pixabay
However, rangers can’t be everywhere at
once. Another important link in the chain is to
educate the community about the importance
of vultures in their everyday lives. Because as
much as we love vultures, it’s understandable
why people may have negative associations
with them: famine, pestilence, death, the
enormous shadow looming overhead wherever
anyone is butchering meat. It’s not obvious that
these are actually shy, harmless creatures.
To clear the vulture’s name, Nature Kenya
embarked on a large-scale publicity campaign.
In villages across the Mara, rangers attended
regular bazaras (village meetings) to talk
to local people. Drama groups such as the
Buffalo Dancers performed at markets to
raise awareness, and a ‘Vanishing Vultures’
documentary was aired on national television.
Residents were told who to contact and what
to do if they witnessed a poisoning.
“Attitudes have changed very positively,”
says Samuel Bakari, Vulture Conservation
Officer for BirdLife International. “While a dead
vulture would have not attracted any attention
before, now people are on the lookout, and this
means poisoning cases that would have gone
unnoticed are now likely to be noticed quickly.”
On Friday 9th February 2018, this was put
into practice when rangers barely out of
training were called out to their first rapid
response. A researcher with the Mara Martial
Eagle Project had spotted a poisoned vulture
on Paradise Plains, and the bird was rushed
into veterinary care. Rangers patrolled the area,
uncovering further vulture casualties, but on
this occasion were unable to find the source
of poisoning. “The case elicited a high level of
response from individuals and institutions, but
38
E
WHAT MAKES IT A HOME? The Mara
and Talek rivers flow through rolling
grassland and acacia thickets, feeding
swamps and riverine forests. High
densities of herbivores and predators
maintain unique habitats.
ANY THREATS? Very little revenue
from tourism trickles down to local
communities. Instead, they earn a living
from agriculture, which encroaches
upon the reserve. Crop fields create
monocultures, and some livestock
owners poison predators threatening
their herd.
WHAT IS BEING DONE? The area is a
National Reserve and a World Heritage
Site nominee. Conservation is carried
out throughout, but is constrained
by limited resources. Nature Kenya is
active in preventing vulture poisoning.
7 Lappet-faced Vulture
Torgos tracheliotos
Photo Andre Botha
7 Buffalo Dancers
spreading awareness being the first, it also provided a good learning
of the plight facing opportunity on how we can improve and what
Africa’s vultures are the likely challenges,” says Bakari. One
Photo Rebecca Ikachoi improvement to hasten communication was
the creation of a dedicated WhatsApp group.
Fast forward to 2nd August, and a huge
triumph showed just how effective the rapid
response unit can be. A local community
member came across a poisoned hyena at the
border of Olare Motorogi Conservancy, and
reported it instantly. The carcass was disposed
of so quickly there were no vulture casualties
whatsoever – hundreds of potential deaths
were prevented.
RÜPPELL’S VULTURE The work is still ongoing. In the courtrooms,
POPULATIONS steps are being taken to ensure anti-poisoning
HAVE FALLEN BY laws are enforced at a local level. And vultures
97 %
are being satellite-tagged to understand their
movements further. But with enough support,
we hope that the sentinels of the sky will soon
be able feast in safety once again. After all
they’ve done for us, it’s the least we can do.
‘Preventing Poisoning to Save Africa’s Vultures’ is
financed by BAND Foundation and jointly implemented
by Nature Kenya, The Peregrine Fund and BirdLife
Photo Ian Dyball/Shutterstock
International. This work in Kenya is also supported
as part of a programme to tackle vulture poisoning
running jointly across Kenya, Botswana and Zimbabwe,
funded by Fondation Segré.
The programme feeds into the ambitious Multi-
species Action Plan to save all threatened vulture
species over 128 countries in Africa and Eurasia.
BIRDLIFE • OCT-DEC 2018
 HELP
THREATENED
BIRDS BUILD
A BETTER
FUTURE.
While extinctions such as those on page 22 will sadly happen, we at BirdLife do not accept they are
inevitable. Whether it’s tackling vulture poisoning in Kenya, or rallying against the construction of a dam
in Argentina, the BirdLife Partnership is commited to halting preventable bird extinctions. Your donation
will help our science team to continue to uncover global conservation priorities, allowing us to take
action to save the world’s at-risk birds before it is too late.
Website: tiny.cc/preventing-extinction Email: fundraising@birdlife.org
Telephone: +44 (0)1223 747553

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ECOTOURISM
THE RACE TO SAVE
THE ANDES
Peace in Colombia is attracting tourists – but also logging. Can a new generation of birding
guides protect its spectacularly species-rich habitats?
s the first rays of sunlight
A penetrate the forests of
Otún Quimbaya Fauna
and Flora Sanctuary,
Catalina Casas, of Audubon Colombia,
leads a group of a dozen guide trainees
along a bird-noisy trail. “Is that a
Pale-footed Swallow?” Casas asks,
pointing to a bird on a sunlit branch.
“Or is it a Southern Rough-winged
Swallow?” The students’ eyes dart
between the bird and the pages of
guidebooks. “What colour is the flank?”
the questions continue. “Is it blue, or
more coffee-coloured?”
The students are among 60 bird
guides-in-training who have come to
Otún Quimbaya from cities and towns
throughout Colombia’s picturesque
coffee-growing region in the central
Andes. And there’s no shortage
of facts to learn about Colombia’s
birds. The country has more than
Canada Warbler
Cardellina canadensis
Photo Jayne Gulbrand
40
Tom Clynes
any other country, with in excess of
1,950 confirmed species.
Throughout Latin America and the
Caribbean, the National Audubon
Society (BirdLife in the US) is working
with local partners to develop birding
ecotourism. Audubon’s Colombia
office is collaborating with Asociación
Calidris (BirdLife in Colombia) to
support conservation and local
livelihoods by developing a national
network of birding trails. Each
‘trail’ consists of Audubon-trained
professional birding guides, sites such
as national parks and private reserves,
and small businesses and support
services.
“We’re already the top country
for birds,” says Audubon Colombia’s
Gloria Lentijo, who coordinates the
Central Andes Birding Trail. “Now we’re
preparing to become the world’s top
destination for birdwatchers.”
The need to develop sustainable
sources of income in Colombia has
taken on a new urgency since the
government’s 2016 peace accord
with the guerrilla movement known
as the Revolutionary Armed Forces
of Colombia, or FARC. If peace has
made the country more attractive
to international visitors, it has also
complicated the chances of survival
for some of Colombia’s rarest
birds. A half-century of violence
uprooted millions of rural
Colombians and converted
BIRDLIFE • OCT-DEC 2018
large swathes of the country’s interior into
no-go zones. Now, the end of fighting has
set off a race to recolonise and exploit rural
districts, including protected areas.
“The rebels were de facto rangers, and now
there’s no one to fill that role,” says 26-year-
old Kristian Daza, who began working at Otún
Quimbaya’s lodge at the age of 21. “In many
of the places they’ve left there’s little control.
People are coming in to log and mine, and to
burn the forest to create ranches and farms.”
Satellite monitoring confirms Daza’s
observations: in 2017 Colombia lost more than
1.04 million acres of tree cover, according to
the World Resources Institute – a 46% rise in
deforestation from 2016. Some of the most
significant degradation is occurring in the
country’s most ecologically important – and in
some cases, still unexplored – areas.
A few minutes before the guides head
toward Otún Quimbaya’s dining room for
breakfast, Hernán Arias, leading another group
of students, spots a Cauca Guan Penelope
OCT-DEC 2018 • BIRDLIFE
4 Gold-ringed Tanager perspicax. The species is now locally extinct
Bangsia aureocincta in its namesake region Cauca, and fewer than
Photo Franscesco Veronesi 1,000 individuals are thought to exist in the
wild. But in Otún Quimbaya at least, its habitat
7 Audubon and Calidris is well-protected. “We are getting more birders,
are working together who are contributing resources that allow us
to develop a national to protect the forest and its species,” says the
network of birding trails reserve’s director, Gloria Teresita Serna.
in Colombia Just a few years ago, only the most hard-
Photo Tom Clynes core birders would have ventured into this
forest. “The high valley of Otún was under the
influence of armed groups,” says Serna. “As a
consequence we have some places far up in
the valley that have never been visited. Who
knows what kinds of species we might find up
there?” Indeed, Colombia’s bird list continues
to grow, and some species that were described
1 With more bird in 1980s guidebooks as ‘near mythical’ or
species than any other presumed extinct – such as Yellow-eared
country, Colombia is well- Parrot Ognorhynchus icterotis and Indigo-
equipped to become winged Parrot Hapalopsittaca fuertesi – are
a birder’s paradise now a regular part of birders’ itineraries.
Photo Tom Clynes
Guide Arnulfo Sanchez has been at the
forefront of determining the status of birds in
el Sutú. Among the region’s avian standouts
are little-known members of the tanager
genus Bangsia, named for the 19th-century
ornithologist Outram Bangs.
“During the conflict there was only one hotel
in [my hometown] Mistrató, and it was always
empty,” says Sanchez. “When peace finally
came, word began to spread that the place I live
is a birders’ paradise. Soon people were asking
if I could help them see a Gold-ringed Tanager,
or other birds that are hard to find elsewhere.”
Over the past six years the inventory of birds
around Mistrató has risen from 237 to 445,
including at least 28 tanagers. The town now
has four hotels, and several residents who work
in tourism. But for Sanchez, the value of bird-
guiding is that it allows him to discover birds
and improve his family’s farm.
41
ECOTOURISM

“I’ve planted 55 species of trees, which help to

shade the coffee and attract birds. Now our
neighbours are getting involved in conservation.
Once they see what we are doing and
understand what they have, they will protect it.”

Colombia’s Ministry of Commerce, Industry

and Tourism has declared the ambitious goal
of becoming the world’s number-one birding
destination. The number of foreign visitors is
growing at nearly 40% per year, and birders
have taken notice – as have tour operators
like Rockjumper Birding Tours, which offers
birders the chance to see a whopping 1,000
species of bird in 30 days.
But the challenges are formidable. Even
though Colombia has more than doubled its
national conserved area since 2010 — from
13 million hectares to 28.4 million hectares
— many reserves remain unprotected. A
new government, under intense pressure to
boost economic development, may be more
welcoming to extractive industries. 0 Cauca Guan regulations, most graduates of the Audubon
Many, if not most, of Colombia’s new Penelope perspicax program will need to present themselves as
birding hotspots currently lack basic tourist Photo Martin Mecnarowski ‘interpreters’ or ‘informants’.
infrastructure and trained guides. Though Whatever they are called, the graduates
the government requires that tourist guides of this innovative program will be among
be certified through a two-year program, it Colombia’s biggest assets as the country
lacks the capacity to train and certify enough rebuilds itself into a thriving — and hopefully
guides to meet demand. To stay within sustainable — 21st-century economy.
Birding in Colombia is new and hip, and
birders tend to be younger than those in
North America and Europe. That represents
a source of optimism for older trainees,
such as Javier Salazar, 48.
“Not long ago, it would have been risky
to stand in this forest as we are, watching a
Red-ruffed Fruitcrow tend to its chicks,” says
Salazar. “Now the danger isn’t armed conflict,
but the race to exploit our natural resources.
4 Birding is increasingly But this experience makes me optimistic. I love
popular among younger watching these young people as they grow and
generations of Colombians learn. Their passion and their knowledge will
Photo Tom Clynes help this country to recuperate.”

42 BIRDLIFE • OCT-DEC 2018


THE
MIDDLE
EAST
SORTING FACT FROM FICTION
Shattering common myths about the Middle East with the power of nature conservation
any misconceptions have
M crept into international media
representations of the Middle East,
making this region one of the most
by Dima Obeidat
misunderstood in the world. Here we bust six
myths with examples from our conservation
work in the region.
First things first, what exactly is the Middle
East? The term has been applied to a mix of
countries and regions and, like shifting sand
dunes, it does not have clear-cut political
boundaries [see fact-box for a current list of
states]. Sharif Jbour, from BirdLife's Middle
East office based in Amman, Jordan, says:
“The Middle East is perceived by many nations
as countries of the Arabian Peninsula along
with Iran, Afghanistan and Egypt. To some,
it’s known as the cradle of civilisation and the
Photo Saida Shigapova/Shutterstock
origin of Abrahamic religions; to others a region
of ever-lasting conflict; and to many a land of
desert and oil. The term itself and its origination
OCT-DEC 2018 • BIRDLIFE
43
NATURE & CULTURE
is controversial, and is criticised for being
‘Eurocentric’. Economically, it contains some
of the world’s richest countries as well as
among the poorest.”
1
The Middle East is one big stretch
of desert
Contrary to popular belief, the Middle
East is made up of many different ‘ecoregions’
that offer a vast array of fascinating species
and breathtaking topography. “These include
misty Eastern Mediterranean conifer-broadleaf
forests,” says Jbour, “where conservationists
are conserving giant Lebanese cedar trees;
dry Syrian xeric grasslands and shrublands;
and high-altitude montane woodlands and
grasslands – where the majority of the Middle
East’s endemic flora and fauna occur, including
a subspecies of Arabian Leopard.”
Yes, there’s plenty of desert, but it is
equally diverse in its biological classification:
Mesopotamian shrub desert, East Arabian fog
shrublands and sand desert, and four types of
Arabian desert. But you can also venture into the
Wadis of Jordan where canyoning, ecotourism
and wildlife depend on the crystal-clear waters;
or to the coral reefs off the Arabian Peninsula
that shelter sharks, turtles and cuttlefish.
BIRDLIFE • OCT-DEC 2018
43
 BIRDS & PEOPLE
0 Wadi Mujib, Jordan
Photo RSCN
7 Professor Magda Bou
Dagher Kharrat at Ehmej
Plant Micro-reserve,
Lebanon
Photo Olivier Langrand
F A C T F I L E
Photo Capitanoproductions/Shutterstock
TH E M I D D LE E AS T
44
2
The region is too full of conflict to be
concerned with conservation
With the civil war in Syria, the growing
refugee crisis, and the unstable situation in
Iraq and Yemen, it can be easy to see only the
negatives in the region. But nature – be it its
variety and beauty, or the services it provides –
has a way of bringing people together in hope.
Take a project recently launched in the West
Bekaa region of Lebanon, which is rekindling a
traditional Islamic method of land management
called Hima to empower young people to
become leaders of change in the protection of
their water resources, whilst conserving local
natural habitats. Or a project in Faqou**, a very
poor and arid area in Jordan, where hydroponic
technology is being used collectively to secure
food for the local people’s livestock. By relieving
pressure on the land, wildlife like the Nubian
STATES INCLUDED: Bahrain*,
Cyprus*¹, Egypt*², Iran, Iraq*, Israel*¹,
Jordan*, Kuwait*, Lebanon*, Oman,
Palestine*, Qatar*, Saudi Arabia*, Syria*,
Turkey*¹, United Arab Emirates (UAE),
Yemen
HUMAN POPULATION: 371 million
NUMBER OF NATIVE BIRD
SPECIES: 621 (BirdLife-defined Middle
East region)
RARE NATIVE BIRDS: Abd al Kuri
Sparrow (VU), Basra Reed-warbler (EN),
Asir Magpie (EN)
TOP 3 LANGUAGES: Arabic, Persian,
Turkish; English and French are
common second languages
* = BirdLife Partner
¹= included in BirdLife region Europe & Central Asia
²= included in BirdLife region Africa
Ibex Capra nubiana is thriving as a result. Just
this year, BirdLife brought scientists, politicians
and donors to Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
for the first ever international Flyways Summit,
which was based on a collaborative approach
that promotes the conservation of migratory
birds across borders.
3
Middle Eastern women are oppressed
and passive
Of course, this is far from the truth; many
women in the Middle East are well-educated,
ambitious and influential members of society
with key jobs at conservation organisations in
the region. Full of ambition and spirit, Professor
Magda Bou Dagher Kharrat perfectly embodies
the role of a female leader in the Middle East.
As the Chair of the Life and Earth Science
department in Saint Joseph University, Kharrat
is a woman of many roles, including lecturer,
plant geneticist and co-founder of Jouzour
Loubnan, an NGO that reforests degraded land
in Lebanon. Her work has also helped to create
unique Plant Micro-reserves in Lebanon** to
protect endangered plants such as the Sofar
Iris: “As scientists, we have a role to spread
awareness about the unique richness of the area
and to build the skills of local people to manage
and protect their biodiversity,” she says.
BIRDLIFE • OCT-DEC 2018

4
The Dead Sea area is devoid of life
Although its name implies otherwise,
the Dead Sea isn’t lifeless at all; birds like
Arabian Babbler Argya squamiceps and Dead
Sea Sparrow Passer moabiticus, both threatened
by habitat loss, are adapted to life in the dry
lowlands and shrubs around its waters.
Here, despite harsh, dry conditions, a society
of Jordanian farmers has joined efforts with the
Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature
(RSCN, BirdLife in Jordan) to replant native
trees, making a safe haven for these birds, whilst
helping to ensure a sustainable water supply.
Now called Sweimeh Eco-Park, the people of
Sweimeh view this project** as a representation
of their “confiscated” heritage. “For decades, we
have been forced to retreat from areas we used
to cultivate and farm, while powerful companies
replaced our farms with luxury hotels and
resorts. That’s why Sweimeh Eco-Park is so
important to us; its birds and trees represent
our heritage and culture,” says Khalid Al-Ja’arat,
President of Sweimeh Association Charity.
5
The Middle East is all about oil
Even though the region is considered the
largest producer of oil, there has been
a noticeable growth in the renewable energy
sector. Governments across the Middle East
have committed to renewable energy targets
OCT-DEC 2018 • BIRDLIFE
NATURE & CULTURE
as part of their energy mix. This will result 4 The Migratory Soaring
in the construction of more wind farms and Birds Project aims to
powerlines across the landscape, which may integrate conservation
harm soaring birds that pass through the region. management objectives
The BirdLife Migratory Soaring Birds Project was into targeted public and
created to support the region’s transition to private sectors in countries
renewable energy whilst also considering bird along the Rift Valley
and other biodiversity concerns. (find out more at http://
migratorysoaringbirds.
6
The Middle East is not a priority when it undp.birdlife.org)
comes to biodiversity conservation Photo Dominic Dudley
The Middle East is a major bridge
connecting three continents, so is an incredibly 0 West Bekka Hima
important flyway for migratory birds. No less Photo Fouad Itani
than 400 Key Biodiversity Areas in the Middle
East are identified specifically to inform the **denotes projects funded
conservation of priority species and their habitat, by CEPF (the Critical
including rare species like Sociable Lapwing Ecosystem Partnership
Vanellus gregarius (Critically Endangered). Fund). In the CEPF
BirdLife in the Middle East is also growing Mediterranean Biodiversity
as conservation priorities emerge, with nine Hotspot, BirdLife
Partners and affiliates, and over 14 projects International, its Middle East
granted by CEPF** in the region, some of which Office and Partners DOPPS
reach remote communities that have not had and LPO are the Regional
the capacity to defend their causes before. Implementation Team. Find
There is a growing movement of civil society out more at www.birdlife.
here to make a difference, as well as shattering a org/cepf-med
few misconceptions along the way.
45
 European Turtle-dove Streptopelia turtur
FLYWAYS
Photo Richard Bennett

SWEET SIXTEEN
With the conclusion of one of BirdLife’s most ambitious projects to date, we reflect on a
mammoth three-year collaboration involving no less than nine BirdLife Partners, 65 countries
and more than 500 individuals. The goal? To change the fate of 16 imperilled bird species

he 16 bird species targeted by LIFE (or Near Threatened) at global or European level.

T
EuroSAP are some of the most
charismatic to grace Europe’s skies,
seas and shores. The Bearded
Gui-Xi Young All desperately require concerted conservation
action to reverse their fortunes.

Vulture Gypaetus barbatus, the fabled ‘breaker
of bones’, has been shrouded in mystique since
the ancient Greeks. A pair of gentle turtle-doves
has come to symbolise love and friendship. We
marvel at the graceful synchronicity of a flock
of Dalmatian Pelican Pelecanus crispus soaring
over the waves. And what is the sound of rural
idyll in the spring if not the distinctive notes
of redshank, oystercatcher and curlew ringing
through the dawn chorus?
Yet our admiration has not spared them from
the biodiversity crisis at hand. All are threatened
8 S P EC IE S ACTI ON PLA NS ( SAP S)
Photo White-Headed Duck / Nature Bird Photography
EuroSAP is a LIFE preparatory
project, co-financed by the
European Commission Directorate
General for the Environment,
the African-Eurasian Migratory
Waterbird Agreement (AEWA), and
by each of the project partners.
The overarching goal of LIFE EuroSAP was to
determine science-based conservation solutions
for these 16 species through the development
of eight targeted Species Action Plans (SAPs)
and one Multi-species Action Plan (MsAP),
the latter combining the common needs of
eight wet grassland-breeding waders. Though
legally non-binding, SAPs are vital conservation
tools that can help governments comply with
environmental legislation and meet international
biodiversity targets. In the past, SAPs were
quite often poorly implemented or had become
woefully outdated. This is where LIFE EuroSAP
comes into play, by creating mechanisms to

ensure they are implemented and up-to-date.

The project has also promoted more effective
n Monteiro’s Storm-petrel international co-ordination, through which the
n Yelkouan Shearwater conservation work done by individual countries
n Velvet Scoter can be enhanced.
n White-headed Duck
Birds know no borders, and neither should
n Dalmatian Pelican
our conservation strategies. LIFE EuroSAP has
n Bearded Vulture sought to take bird conservation into a new,
n Cinereous Vulture more collaborative era. The project, co-funded
n European Turtle-dove by the European Union’s LIFE Programme,
AEWA (African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbird

46 BIRDLIFE • OCT-DEC 2018

 Photo Ruff Calidris pugnax / M Palenek
MULT I- SPECIES ACT IO N PL AN (MSAP)

n ‘Baltic’ Dunlin
n Black-tailed Godwit
n Common Redshank
n Common Snipe
n Eurasian Curlew
n Eurasian Oystercatcher
n Northern Lapwing
n Ruff

Agreement) and the MAVA Foundation, was

co-ordinated by BirdLife together with nine
European BirdLife Partners, VCF (Vulture
Conservation Foundation) and FACE
(Federation of Associations for Hunting and
Conservation of the EU). On this already broad
base, an even wider network of over 500
individuals ranging the length and breadth
of the African-Eurasian flyway was built –
involving NGOs, researchers, local authorities,
international institutions and other diverse
interest groups, from farmers, fishermen and
hunters to schools and businesses. 0 Dalmatian Pelican threats facing Europe’s birds: unsustainable
Species working groups analysed the birds’ Pelecanus crispus farming, fishing and hunting, invasions of
entire life-cycles along their flyways and Photo Veselin Gramatikov harmful alien species, persistent gaps in
gathered the most up-to-date information scientific knowledge, and weak implementation
about their ecology and the threats confronting of existing nature laws, leading to illegal killing
them. After three years of study, these groups 5 Bearded Vulture of birds and habitat destruction.
have now identified definitive actions that Gypaetus barbatus
must happen within the next ten years (or Photo Francois Loubser LIFE EuroSAP set out to leave a long-
sooner) to save these species. term legacy and, in this respect, it has truly
Despite significant differences in their 1 Black-tailed Godwit succeeded. The project has set a new gold
ecologies and habitats, the findings pointed Limosa limosa standard for the creation of single-species SAPs
time and time again to the same set of Photo Gerrit Gerritsen at an international scale and has piloted
a promising new Multi-species Action Plan
(MsAP) methodology for the protection of
multiple species sharing common threats. It
has also created a new online tool to
streamline SAP administration, monitoring and
communication – the SAP Tracking Tool. Via
this collaborative platform, users can easily track
conservation progress country-by-country or
get involved themselves by providing relevant
data on any of the species.
The LIFE EuroSAP project ends on a high
note with the news that all nine SAPs have
been approved by the European Commission.
Only with proper, internationally coordinated
implementation can the spiralling decline of
these iconic birds be reversed on a continental
scale. We cannot afford to think of this as the
end, but as the beginning.

OCT-DEC 2018 • BIRDLIFE 47

 WHY WE
NEED BIRDS
(EVEN MORE THAN THEY NEED US)
Photo noicherrybeans/Shutterstock

Can you imagine a world without birds? The benefits birds bring us aren’t
just cultural. Birds play an essential role in the functioning of the world’s
ecosystems, in a way that directly impacts human health, economy and food
production – as well as millions of other species. Here’s how...

48 BIRDLIFE • OCT-DEC 2018


Photo Bildagentur Zoonar GmbH
1 2
BIRDS CONTROL
PESTS
It might be a little extreme to say that we’d
be wading knee-deep in invertebrates if birds
disappeared – but maybe not that extreme. A recent study
has shown that birds eat 400-500 million tons of insects a
year. In China, two-thirds of the diet of House Swift Apus
nipalensis consists of agricultural pests, and in forests across
the Americas, Evening Grosbeak Hesperiphona vespertina
becomes a superhero during outbreaks of Spruce Budworm,
providing biological control worth $1,820 per square
kilometre. Birds are so efficient that nest boxes have become a
pest control practice throughout Europe.
Photo Ian Dybal/Shutterstock
3 4
BIRDS ARE NATURE’S
CLEAN-UP CREW
The sight of vultures circling overhead
may look foreboding, but it is both their
speed of arrival (typically within an hour of death), and their
thoroughness which makes them so valuable. It could be days
before other less efficient scavengers, such as feral dogs or
rats, arrive to pick at the remains, allowing deadly diseases
such as rabies and tuberculosis to develop and spread. Over its
lifetime, a single vulture provides waste disposal services worth
around US$11,600. Following the collapse of Asia’s vultures,
India’s feral dog population surged by 5.5 million, spreading
rabies and leading to an estimated 47,300 human deaths.
OCT-DEC 2018 • BIRDLIFE
WHY BIRDS MATTER
Photo © Ondrej Prosicky/Shutterstock
BIRDS POLLINATE
PLANTS
When we think pollinators, bees and butterflies
flutter to mind – but bird pollinators such as
hummingbirds and honeyeaters also make a big contribution,
especially in high altitudes or hot climates. In South Africa, for
instance, nearly a quarter of Salvia species are bird-pollinated.
Such flowers are lacking in scent, since birds favour sight over
smell. Their role as pollinators benefits us directly – around 5%
of the plants humans use for food or medicine are pollinated
by birds. And when they disappear, the results can be drastic:
31 species of Hawaiian bellflowers appear to have gone extinct
along with the birds that pollinated them.
Photo Chris Moody/Shutterstock
BIRDS SPREAD
SEEDS
When birds travel, they take the seeds they
have eaten with them and disperse them
through their droppings. They bring plants back to ecosystems
that have been destroyed, and even carry plants across the sea
to new land masses. Birds have helped to shape the plant life
we see around us – and around the world. In New Zealand’s
forests, 70% of the plants have seeds dispersed by birds such
as Tui Prosthemadera novaeseelandiae. An even greater duty
is borne by Micronesian Imperial-pigeon Ducula oceanica; as
one of the largest birds in the Palau archipelago: it is one of
the main seed dispersers across the entire island chain.
49
 WHY BIRDS MATTER

5
BIRDS TRANSFORM ENTIRE LANDSCAPES
Habitats like forests, pollutants into nutrients. But without protecting the coast from sea erosion.
marshes and grasslands birds, many of these ecosystems may not The Salt Marsh Periwinkle Littoraria
affect people across exist. Birds maintain the delicate balance irrorata grazes upon cordgrass with gusto,

the whole planet, even
those living hundreds of miles away
– they store carbon, keep the climate
stable, oxygenate the air and transform
Photo Robert Koss/Shutterstock
between plant and herbivore, predator
and prey. A perfect example is the salt
marshes of south-eastern USA, where
cordgrass thrives, filtering local water and
Photo Shutterstock
and were it not for predators such as
oystercatchers, curlews and plovers, these
tiny snails would devour the entire marsh
leaving only mudflats.

Photo Jody O’Connor

6 7
BIRDS KEEP CORAL
REEFS ALIVE
Birds, especially seabirds, play a key role in
cycling nutrients and helping to fertilise marine
ecosystems such as coral reefs. Seabirds travel hundreds
of kilometres to feed out in the ocean – and when they
return, they deposit layers of highly pungent guano (seabird
droppings) at their colonies. This guano leaches into the ocean
and fertilises nearby communities such as coral reefs. A study
on the Chagos Islands shows what happens when this process
is disrupted. On islands free of invasive seabird predators, coral
reefs thrived, with fish growing larger and faster for their age,
compared to rat-infested islands.
BIRDS INSPIRE
SCIENCE
From the technology of flight, to the invention
of zippers modelled on the barbules of feathers,
humans have drawn inspiration from birds for centuries.
Some of these advances have been huge: Darwin’s studies of
finches in the Galápagos proved instrumental in shaping his
thoughts on evolution through natural selection. But birds
play a more important role than just giving us ideas. Birds are
the messengers that tell us about the health of the planet.
Birds are widespread and respond quickly to changes in the
environment. Because of this, they are our early-warning
system for pressing concerns such as climate change.

50 BIRDLIFE • OCT-DEC 2018

MARINE
WANT TO
SAVE SEABIRDS?
FOLLOW THEM
A new study used tracking data from 52 seabirds over 20 years to help scientists
understand how to best protect them
lowly, gliding easily along, the
S Wandering Albatross heads home.
She has spent three days over the
ocean, trying to find food. Having
travelled up to 1,000 kilometres away from
her nest to fill up on squid and small fish, she’s
now flying back to the roost on South Georgia,
where her mate sits, incubating their egg. Later
in the year and on the other side of the world, an
Atlantic Puffin flies back to his burrow on the UK’s
Shetland Islands, sand eels for his newly hatched
chick clutched in his mouth. He, however, hasn’t
had to go as far to find his food – travelling
within just 37 kilometres from the nest.
While Wandering Albatross Diomedea exulans
and Atlantic Puffin Fratercula arctica look
and behave very differently, they have a lot in
common. They both breed in coastal areas.
They both spend a significant period of their
lives on the open ocean looking for food. And
they are both globally threatened – assessed by
BirdLife as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List.
This is a common theme for seabirds, the
most threatened of all the bird groups. Of the
360 different species, nearly half – 47% – are
experiencing population declines. Thirty one
percent are globally threatened. Yet, because
52
they spend such long stretches at sea, and
Magaret Sessa-
Hawkins
because different species go to different areas,
it’s hard to know exactly what pressures they
face, or how best to protect them.
“Seabirds face many threats,” says Maria
Dias, Senior Marine Science Officer, BirdLife
Internationa and an author on the paper. “They
are vulnerable to pollution, overfishing, and
bycatch [when seabirds are accidentally caught
in fishing equipment]. It’s important to know
where they go, so we can preserve these sites.”
Now, a new paper will ensure this vital
information isn’t lost at sea. The study followed
52 species of seabirds between 1998 and 2017
to see how far from their nests they go when
THIS PAPER IS feeding during their breeding period. The study
THE FIRST STEP IN looked at which areas the birds visited, whether
UNDERSTANDING they spent time in groups or were mostly
solitary, and how long they stayed out at sea.
THE MARINE
The study was made possible through
MANAGEMENT
recent advances in technology. Trackers –
NEEDS FOR small devices that relay a bird’s location at any
DIFFERENT SEABIRD given time – can provide scientists with all
SPECIES the information they need about the seabirds’
movements. It’s only recently, however, that
MARIA DIAS
SENIOR MARINE we’ve been able to gather this data for smaller
SCIENCE OFFICER species.
BIRDLIFE • OCT-DEC 2018
 MARINE

Source: Spatial scales of marine conservation management for breeding seabirds (Oppel et al., 2018)

250 500 750

FORAGING DISTANCE FROM NEST (KM)
Cormorants and shags

Auks and guillemots

Gulls and terns

Penguins

Gannets and boobies

Tropicbirds

Frigatebirds

Petrels and shearwaters

Wandering Albatross
Diomedea exulans Storm Petrels
Dmytro Pylypenko Albatrosses

“You can really only put a tag on a bird if it is With the new tags, researchers track birds of a
less than three percent of its body weight,” says variety of sizes, from the tiny European Storm-
Stephanie Winnard, International Marine Project petrel Hydrobates pelagicus
Manager. “When you’re tagging a bird, you have (26 g) to the imposing Wandering Albatross
to consider how much weight you’re putting (7 kg), enabling us to compare foraging
on it, and what impact that might have on that practices on a wide scale. “What this study
1 Small trackers like the bird’s behaviour and wellbeing. In the beginning, showed is that what we consider the ‘area
IGotU allow for the there was just no way you could make a tag around their colony’ really depends on the
tracking of a broader small enough to track tiny birds. Over the years seabird,” says Dias. “For example, a penguin
range of seabirds though, as technology improved, tags got may explore just a few kilometres around
Photo Sam Weber smaller and smaller.” the colony – maybe 30 to 50, while an
albatross can easily travel a few thousand
kilometres when searching for food during
the breeding season.”

This knowledge enables us to tailor

conservation efforts to better meet the
needs of different groups of seabirds. For
example, the results showed that for families
like cormorants or auks, which forage within a
relatively small radius, Marine Protected Areas,
which safeguard specific ocean spaces, would
be an excellent tool for protecting their food
sources. However, for wide-roaming birds like
albatrosses, measures that can be applied at a
broader scale — for example, by working with
the fishing industry to mitigate bycatch —
would be more effective.

OCT-DEC 2018 • BIRDLIFE 53

NATURE’S HEROES
ADJUTANT
ARMY
A gangly, bald, leathery bird with a penchant for eating garbage, the Greater Adjutant’s
unconventional appearance has brought it to the edge of extinction. But in India, an all-
female group of conservationists is fighting to clear its name
he village hall is a riot of colour.
T Women in vivid clothing give
speeches, sing and shake percussion,
and a large, ornately decorated
cake is placed at the centre of the throng,
complete with candles. But whose birthday are
they celebrating? The words iced on the cake
offer a clue: “Happy Hatching Hargilla”. This is a
hatching ceremony, celebrating the successful
breeding of a bird once hated and feared.
Previously widespread across the wetlands
of South Asia, the towering Greater Adjutant
Leptoptilos dubius (Endangered) suffered
dramatic declines during the 20th Century.
Some of the causes are familiar – habitat
destruction, pollution – but others less so. Their
Assamese name, Hargilla – derived from the
Sanskrit for “bone-swallower” – gives a clue as
to this scavenger’s public image. Because it has
a habit of leaving a trail of bones and debris in
54
THE
its wake, the stork was seen as a harbinger of
Neha Sinha
bad luck, to the extent that some villagers even
poisoned them or destroyed their nests.
But not anymore. In India today, the stork has
found refuge in two locations – the Eastern
state of Bihar, and the North Eastern state of
Assam, both of which now have substantial
nesting sites. Their security hasn’t come easily,
though. In both districts, it took eight years of
grassroots, intelligent community intervention
to secure habitat for these birds.
As team leader of three Conservation
Leadership Programme award-winning
projects*, Purnima Devi Barman’s work is
founded on the fact that the Greater Adjutant is
very particular about the kind of tree it nests in.
1 A “baby shower” -style It requires large, broad-limbed trees with sparse
Hargilla hatching ceremony foliage, which often occur on privately-owned
Photo Aaranyak land such as gardens. Accordingly, her approach
was to inspire a sense of community pride and
ownership towards the bird, making it part of
the local identity.
In Assam, she engaged with the women of
Dadara village, mobilising them into the ‘Hargilla
Army’: an all-female team of conservationists
dedicated to protecting the world’s most
endangered stork. As well as using traditional
songs and rituals to raise awareness in events
such as the hatching ceremony, the women
take part in training and are provided with
sustainable livelihood opportunities. One of
these is creating beautiful, traditional scarves
with a new motif – the Greater Adjutant.
Purnima also focuses on the ecology of the
stork itself. This year, a storm felled six valuable
nesting trees, and she decided to construct
artificial nesting platforms. “It happened while
the bird was in its breeding season,” says
BIRDLIFE • OCT-DEC 2018
 2 Greater Adjutant
Leptoptilos dubius
Photo Bibekananda Kakoti

0 Attitudes toward the

Adjutant have changed in
recent years
Photo Aaranyak

Barman. “I saw the pairs flying here and there

when their tree fell down. In three locations, I
experimented with making nesting platforms.
Two were accepted.”
This venture offered important lessons for the
coming year: “We will erect artificial platforms in
a more systematic way. We were late last time
and did not have many resources. It was just an
experiment that by some miracle succeeded.”
It was relief at this success that sparked the
hatching ceremony – a far cry from the unease
and suspicion the birds used to elicit.
Purnima’s work has given marginalised
women a voice, while helping stork
numbers rise from 30 to over 150 in just
seven years. And she has achieved prestigious
recognition: in 2017 she received the Nari
Shakti Puraskar Women’s Empowerment
Award from the Ministry of Women
and Child Development.

On the other side of the

Brahmaputra River,

OCT-DEC 2018 • BIRDLIFE 55

NATURE’S HEROES
THE COMMUNITY several years of community outreach are also
HAS GROWN bearing fruit in Bihar. Arvind Mishra, Bihar state
coordinator of the Indian Bird Conservation
TO ADMIRE THE
Network, has been campaigning for acceptance
STORKS
of the Adjutant. In 2017-18, a survey found
130 nests in Khairpur Kadwa. Here, too, a few
ARVIND MISHRA
INDIAN BIRD chosen trees are of great significance to the
CONSERVATION stork: the nests were crammed onto just 59
NETWORK
trees. But their future looks bright. Thanks to
Arvind’s advocacy, the government is now
invested in Greater Adjutant conservation. In
2016, it even opened a rescue centre for the
B I R D stork chicks, who often jump out of their nests
F A C T F I L E before properly fledged. The centre rescues and
releases them when they are able to fly.
“The community has grown to admire the
storks,” says Arvind. “Part of our outreach
focused around the fact that the Greater
Adjutant eats rats and snakes, whose
populations can get out of control. At the
same time, I have been campaigning to save
wetlands and wetland basins, which is a very
GREATER difficult, long-term activity.”
ADJUTANT
Leptoptilos dubius
In Bihar, the storks forage in fields and
RED LIST STATUS: wetlands for food, but back in Assam,
Endangered they have replaced a taste for carrion with
RANGE: Assam and something equally unsavoury. Deepor Beel
Bihar, Northeast India IBA in Guwahati adjoins a huge garbage
THREATS: Hunting, dump, where storks are regularly seen
habitat destruction, feeding. And perhaps storks have always
disease from garbage been found near municipal waste, as Greater
FAST FACT: Can grow Adjutant storks were part of Kolkata city’s
as tall as an adult human municipal symbol (though the bird is no longer
(1.5 metres)
seen in West Bengal).
56
2 The Adjutant is named
after a military rank,
in honour of its stiff
movements
Photo Bibekananda Kakoti
1 Nests were often
destroyed by fearful locals
Photo Bibekananda Kakoti
The health impact of eating garbage needs
further study; a literal ‘junk food’ diet is unlikely
to benefit the animals. Last year, 26 storks died
in a mass mortality event in Deepor Beel. The
cause is still unknown.
“The Guwahati garbage dump does provide
a continuous food supply to the Greater
Adjutant, but it’s likely they are continuously
getting exposed to pathogens,” says Narayan
Sharma, Assistant Professor, Department of
Environmental Biology and Wildlife Sciences,
Cotton University. “We urgently need to initiate
a study to check levels of toxicity in storks so
that timely interventions can be made.”
The threats aren’t going away any time soon,
but as the initiatives at these two sites show, we
have cause for hope. And at least you can’t say
their mascot is boring.
*Purnima and her team received Conservation
Leadership Programme (CLP) grants in
2009, 2012 and 2015. CLP is a partnership
between BirdLife International, Fauna & Flora
International and the Wildlife Conservation
Society (WCS), which provides funding,
training and a professional network for early-
career conservationists.
BIRDLIFE • OCT-DEC 2018
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INTERVIEW
AROUND THE WORLD IN
8,000 SPECIES
Birding was an early passion for Bernard Master; he’s kept a life list since he was four. Now, he’s
become just one of a few dozen people to have spotted more than 8,000 species. Bernie speaks
to us about his favourite birding spots and the importance of conservation
ell us how you got into
T birdwatching…
I was four years old when I first
began birding. My father was a
birder, and he took me out to Morris Park in
Philadelphia. I recorded my first list of nine
birds there, and I still have that list. I was really
taken with birding from the beginning. There
was a bit of a hiatus when I went to college and
med school because I didn’t have that much
time, but when I was setting up my [medical]
practice, I started birding again more seriously in
Columbus [Ohio] in the Green Lawn Cemetery.
In 1989 I went to Costa Rica for my first
international birding trip, and I just thought this
is great, this is my hobby for life. 8,034 species
and 114 countries later, it’s still my passion.
You’ve seen over 8,000 species and all the bird
families. Were these specific goals you made,
or do you just bird and then realise you’ve hit
these milestones?
With seeing all the families it was sort of an
58
Margaret Sessa- accidental goal. I was in Rwanda and I saw the
Hawkins Shoebill Balaeniceps rex. They’re a monotypic
family, so when I was looking at how many
families I had seen after that, I noticed that I
only needed to see five more families to see all
the bird families. So that became a goal, and
it took two more years to achieve that. And
I have to say I had fun doing it. Birding is so
fantastic because you learn all these ancillary
facts and sciences. You learn geology, botany,
meteorology. Most importantly, you learn the
truth. When you’re going around and looking
at birds you’re also meeting people from all
different countries and you see we all have the
same thing in common. We all want the best for
our children and birding really opens one’s eyes.
What do you find rewarding about
birdwatching?
I think there’s a connection to my father with
1 Styan’s Bulbul it, since he was instrumental in curating my
Pycnonotus taivanus birding love and buying me bird books and
Photo Perry Chang teaching me bird sounds. Birding also gives
me the stress release to have the energy to go
farther in my business.
You’ve been to 114 countries. What’s your
favourite place to go birding?
I have a five acre patch around my house that I
keep wild and that’s my favourite place to bird. I
bird it almost every morning. I have 185 species
I’ve seen here, but I love seeing them again and
again. I love seeing the spring warblers. They’re
like little pieces of art flitting through my patch.
Ohio’s total bird list, back to recorded history, is
only 435 birds, and I’ve seen close to half right
here in central Ohio. When I bird here there’s a
connection to home, to family.
You have a bird named after you. Can you tell
us a little bit about how that happened and
what it’s like?
BIRDLIFE • OCT-DEC 2018
 INTERVIEW

It’s quite a remarkable honour. I’m only one 0 Choco Vireo

of two or maybe three people that have Vireo masteri
living species named after them. This all Photo Paul Salaman
came about because Paul Salaman, who was
working in Colombia, discovered a bird he was 7 Shoebill
unfamiliar with. He was mist netting and found Balaeniceps rex
this small bird that turned out to be a vireo Photo Hanjo Hellmann
and no one had ever seen it or recorded it. So
there was a call to name the bird and protect
its habitat; I stepped forward with the funds
and the bird was named after me — the Choco
Vireo Vireo masteri.

In your birding career, what are some of the

memorable species you’ve seen?
Well the top one was seeing a Vireo masteri. I
saw that in Colombia on New Year’s Day 2011.
My friend Forest Rolland called me and said that
he had found my bird and that it was in a safe
place. I had tried three times before to see it
but had to turn back because of rebel activity.
So I hopped on a plane and the next day I was
watching Vireo masteri.
Then there was my 8,000th bird. That was a
Styan’s Bulbul Pycnonotus taivanus in Chinese
Taiwan. When that happened, the moment
that I saw it and I knew what it was, that was a
moment of thrill and elation and satisfaction,
mixed with a little let down that I finally reached
8,000. It was a peculiar mix of emotion.

In addition to birdwatching, you’re also

interested in conservation. What sparked
that interest?
My family spent summers in Cape May County
New Jersey, which is a big hotspot for birding
and conservation, so I was around a lot of
people who were passionate about wildlife
and nature and preserving natural habitats. So
I became interested in it too. Of everything I’ve
done with birding, being able to give back to
conservation is what I’m proudest of.

OCT-DEC 2018 • BIRDLIFE 59

BCI

FROM
THE
FIELD
The latest scientific
breakthroughs from
BirdLife’s quarterly
peer-reviewed journal

ON THE COVER

NEW INSIGHTS INTO

RAPTOR CONSERVATION
A series of articles in the
latest issue of BCI provide
new information to help
conserve raptors
n the first national census of

I Montagu’s Harrier Circus pygargus

in Poland, data collected by
volunteers across the country
were combined with the results of surveys by
expert ornithologists to produce an estimate
of 3,400 breeding pairs. Also using data from
volunteers, an analysis of population trends
of Martial Eagle Polemaetus bellicosus across
South Africa indicated a decline of around
60% in 20 years. This alarming result provides
further evidence of the decline of this large
eagle, which is threatened across Africa
by poisoning, habitat loss, lack of prey and
collisions with power lines, and was recently
listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. On
the other side of the Atlantic in Argentina, a
survey of electrocuted birds beneath powerlines
found that the Endangered Crowned Solitary
Eagle Buteogallus coronatus is particularly at Crowned Solitary Eagle
risk from powerline collisions. The authors Buteogallus coronatus
explain how electricity pylons can be modified Photo Pablo Rodriguez
to help protect raptors and other birds from Merkel
collisions. n

60 BIRDLIFE • OCT-DEC 2018

HUMAN ACTIVITIES CAUSE COMPETITION
BETWEEN AMERICAN BLACK VULTURES AND
ANDEAN CONDORS
he American Black Vulture
T Coragyps atratus is thriving,
benefitting when people dump
livestock carcasses and fish at landfill
sites, fish docks and abattoirs. Recently,
it has expanded its range into northern
Argentine Patagonia – stronghold of
the persecuted and declining Andean
Condor Vultur gryphus, which is listed

American Black Vultures Coragyps Atratus / Shutterstock

as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red
List. A team of researchers in Argentina
examined the pellets of American Black
Vultures and Andean Condors in rural
areas of Northern Patagonia. They
found a large overlap in the diets of the
two species, indicating that the vultures
may compete with the condors for
food. This means that the expansion of
the American Black Vulture range as a
result of human activities may result in
a new threat to the Andean Condor. n

Rota Island
CRITICALLY
Photo Shutterstock ENDANGERED
MARIANA CROW
CONTINUES TO
DECLINE
he Mariana Crow Corvus
T kubaryi is native to the Pacific
islands of Rota and Guam
in the Mariana Islands. On Guam its
population has been decimated since
the 1960s following the introduction
of the predatory Brown Tree Snake
Boiga irregularis, and it is now extinct
on the island. Although the remaining
population on Rota clings on,
it is declining because of forest
clearance, persecution, predation and
competition with invasive species. A
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE: study of breeding pairs from 2013-2014
The emergence of birdwatching in China: history, demographics, activities, motivations, and environmental has led to a new population estimate
concerns of Chinese birdwatchers / Quantifying the decline of the Martial Eagle Polemaetus bellicosus in
of 178 individuals, which indicates that
South Africa / Assessing the temporal transferability of raptor distribution models: implications for conservation
/ Electrocution risk for the endangered Crowned Solitary Eagle and other birds in semiarid landscapes of the population has declined by around
central Argentina / Status and range decline of two galliform species in South-East Asia / Conservation status half since the late nineties and may
of threatened and endemic birds of New Britain, Papua New Guinea / Reassessment of the distribution and now be too small to be self-sustaining
population size of Worthen’s Sparrow Spizella wortheni / Range compression of migratory passerines in without considerable conservation
wintering grounds of the Western Mediterranean: conservation prospects / Effectiveness of the system of
efforts. It is therefore crucial that
protected areas of Lombardy (Northern Italy) in preserving breeding birds / Could introducing confiscated
parrots to zoological collections jeopardise conservation breeding programmes? conservation programmes on Rota
are continued. n

OCT-DEC 2018 • BIRDLIFE 61

Q&A

SCIENCE
SPOTLIGHT

State of the
World’s Raptors
Every issue, we talk to a BirdLife scientist about a recent paper they have been working on
which has contributed to our knowledge of birds and conservation. This time, our Chief
Scientist Stuart Butchart discusses our newly published report, “State of the World’s Raptors”

Why is it important to focus on the

status of raptors in particular?
Raptors are among the most iconic
birds, but they are also highly
threatened, with many of the larger
species requiring large tracts of
intact forest, and others persecuted
because of their supposed impacts on
livestock or game. We teamed up with
researchers at The Peregrine Fund to
undertake the first assessment focused
specifically on the status of this group.

How threatened are they?

We found that 18% of raptors are
threatened with extinction and 52%
of species have declining global
populations: far higher proportions
than for birds in general. In particular,
raptor species that require forest are
more likely to be threatened and
declining than those that do not, and
migratory raptors were significantly
more threatened than resident species.
The greatest concentrations of
threatened species are found in South
and South-East Asia.
What threats do raptors face that may
be different to other bird groups?
Vultures in South Asia have suffered
catastrophic population declines owing
to the toxic effects of the veterinary
drug diclofenac, which remains present
in cattle carcasses (see page 29 for
more). In Africa, vultures and owls
are killed for their body parts to be
Bald Eagle Haliaeetus
leucocephalus
Photo Rokopix
used for supposed medicinal benefits.
Many other raptors are vulnerable
to electrocution or collision with
powerlines. But as with most bird
species, unsustainable agriculture and
logging are the primary threats.
What is the role of Important Bird
and Biodiversity Areas in raptor
conservation?
Given that raptors comprise only 5% of
the world’s bird species, a remarkable
32% of Important Bird and Biodiversity
Areas (IBAs) worldwide are key sites for
raptor populations. Safeguarding and
conserving these vital sites is critical for
the conservation of raptors globally.
What are the main recommendations
the report makes for protecting the
world’s raptors?
As well as site protection, we
need to strengthen and enforce
laws preventing illegal killing and
unsustainable hunting. Other priorities
include education and awareness-
raising, policy changes such as
improved regulation on the use of
poisons, and safety measures for
dangerous powerlines. For migratory
species, international cooperation is
of particular importance, including
Species Action Plans such as those
made under the Convention of
Migratory Species.

62 BIRDLIFE • OCT-DEC 2018

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