J C Eames/www.rarebirdyearbook.com Photo of the month - Asian vultures require urgent conservation action Zoom In

BirdLife News Round-up: April 2008

09-05-2008

The BirdLife Partnership has conservation programmes working in every corner of the world. We operate within seven regions and over one hundred countries and territories. News in April certainly illustrated the global nature of our work…

April kicked-off with news from our coldest region – Antarctica. The first of April is traditionally a day of fun in many areas of the world, and ‘Global Swarming - Flight of the penguins’ certainly raised a few eyebrows. 30,626 eyebrows to be precise. Capitalising on a spoof BBC video, we used the unlikely penguin footage to convey serious messages about climate change and longline fishing.

Operating in warmer climes, the Wings Over Wetlands project fosters international collaboration within the African, Middle East and Central Asian, and European BirdLife regions. Their new website provides an insight into the international wetland and waterbird conservation initiative (WOW! New website helps flyway project).

The African region announced that avitourism is proving to be a powerful conservation tool. Birding routes provide tourists with trained guides in areas of spectacular diversity. This increases bird awareness and ensures sustainable employment for local guides (Avitourism 'takes off' in South Africa). Local people were also involved the discovery of two new White-necked Picathartes breeding colonies in Sierra Leone (Communities unite to protect White-necked Picathartes).

Community conservation also received a huge boost in the Americas region with Audubon's largest ever grant. The $20 million Toyota grant will help fund conservation projects, train environmental leaders, and encourage volunteers to take part in Audubon projects.

News from our Pacific region explained how critically low population levels of Magenta Petrel may be causing male birds difficulty in attracting a mate. Their calls are too spread out to tempt the infrequent females which pass by (Critically Endangered seabird losing its pulling power). Rescue plans are now afoot to save the petrel by focusing birds within a secure breeding site.

Direct conservation action to save Critically Endangered birds requires funding. It was great news when BirdLife received a cheque for £4,000 ($8,000) following sales of the Rare Birds Yearbook 2008 (Rare book delivers). We were also encouraged to read a BirdLife co-authored paper which found the slide of Red-listed species towards extinction has been slowed by conservationists actions (Biodiversity conservation works). April also saw the countdown start to the 2008 Red list update (The Red List 2008 is coming). Will it be good news for the world’s most threatened birds? Check out birdlife.org on 19 May to find out.

Sadly, the outlook for Red-listed Asian vultures is still bleak. Vultures in India will be extinct in the wild within a decade without urgent action to stop the sale of veterinary diclofenac (Vulture crisis deepens).

Finally, the European region also provided sobering reminders of the threats birds face. With World Migratory Bird Day just around the corner, it was saddening to report of the continued hunting of migratory birds in Greece (Lesser White-fronted Goose shot in Greece) and Cyprus (BirdLife condemns Cypriot government's spring hunting endorsement). Let’s hope these countries follow the Maltese government and bring an end to spring hunting (Maltese 2008 spring hunting season banned by European Court).

So that’s a whistle-stop tour of news from within the Partnership. Seven regions and seventeen stories. It just goes to show - BirdLife’s international.

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