BirdLife Pacific Funding Needs
 Mere Valu
Some of the youth of Natewa Tunuloa are already highly committed to the protection of their forests.
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The BirdLife International Pacific Partnership Secretariat has developed a ‘project catalogue’ for 2009 with projects in the Pacific region that urgently need funding. Some of the projects that are included in the catalogue are described below. For more information about the catalogue, about the projects mentioned here, and/or about how you can support BirdLife's work in the Pacific, please contact maaike@birdlifepacific.org.fj
Selected projects that urgently need funding (more are available on request) are:
The Birds Australia Discovery Center
The Birds Australia Discovery Centre, established in 2008, aims to (re)connect Australians with their birds. Run by Birds Australia, BirdLife in Australia, the Centre requires funding for the employment of Environmental Education Professionals, the development of interpretive displays and education course materials. Funding is also required to maintain and support the network of volunteers who will deliver the education courses. Everybody who makes a major donation will be acknowledged in a variety of ways through the Centre itself and more broadly through Birds Australia’s national communications network. For more information about the Centre, click here. Please contact g.hamilton@birdsaustralia.com.au if you wish to support the Centre.
Supporting the 'Sisi Initiative Youth Programme' in Fiji
The BirdLife Fiji Programme was established in 2002 to contribute to the conservation of Fiji’s terrestrial avifauna and biodiversity. Since 2005, the Fiji Programme has been working with the communities of Natewa Tunuloa peninsula, when it became known that the last remaining forests on this peninsula are critical for the survival of one of Fiji’s unique, endemic bird species, the Silktail ('Sisi'). A number of forest-owning mataqalis (clans) in Natewa Tunuloa have declined offers by timber companies to sell their forests and are seeking ways to generate other more sustainable means of income than logging (click here for recent news story). However, it is of critical importance to also include the local youth in this process, and the ‘Sisi Initiative Youth Programme’ aims to do so by organising awareness and income-generating activities that are specifically aimed at young people. Please contact maaike@birdlifepacific.org.fj for more information about this locally driven project that urgently needs funding!
Invasive Vine control in Vanuatu
Forest & Bird, BirdLife in New Zealand, seeks funding to work with a Vanuatu partner to scope the feasibility of an extensive vine control operation in Vatthe, the only extensive alluvial and limestone forest left in Vanuatu that contains habitat for a diversity of wildlife, including one globally endangered and two vulnerable bird species. This project (read more about it here) will be undertaken in conjunction with the local owners and managers of the Vatthe Conservation Area. For more details, please contact s.maturin@forestandbird.org.nz
 Conservation Research New Caledonia
Kagu are highly vulnerable to predators.
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Help the Kagu in New Caledonia
The national bird of New Caledonia is the Kagu Rhynochetos jubatus: a flightless endemic bird that depends on forests for food and shelter. However, despite being a national ‘celebrity’, Kagu numbers are steadily decreasing because of deforestation, predation by introduced mammals (particularly dogs) and bird collecting. As a result, the Kagu is now listed as Endangered. These very ‘naive’ ground birds show no fear of humans; they may even jump on cars to admire their reflection in the windscreen and challenge this strange bird they see opposite themselves. Charming as this may be, this fearless behaviour has greatly contributed to their downfall as they do not have the 'instinct' to flee from introduced predators. The Société Calédonienne d'Ornithologie (SCO), the BirdLife Affiliate in New Caledonia, has initiated a conservation programme to conserve these birds and is desperately seeking funds to publish and disseminate their Kagu Recovery Plan. Please contact Vivien Chartendrault on iba@sco.asso.nc if you can help the Kagu!
The BirdLife Preventing Extinctions Programme
The BirdLife International Partnership is renowned for saving bird species from extinction, but until now, limited resources have forced us to concentrate on just a handful of the world’s most threatened birds. While we have been saving these birds one species at a time, the pressures that lead to extinction have been building relentlessly. In an attempt to save all 190 Critically Endangered bird species from extinction, BirdLife International has launched the Preventing Extinctions Programme. Click here to find out more. The programme has launched two new communities:
BirdLife Species Guardians – these are the people and organisations that are best placed to carry out the conservation work necessary to prevent the extinction of Critically Endangered species.
BirdLife Species Champions – these are individuals, institutions and companies who are financially supporting the conservation action of the Species Guardians.
The Pacific Region, including Hawaii, Australia and New Zealand, holds 42 Critically Endangered bird species. Three of these already have a Species Guardian: in French Polynesia SOP-MANU (BirdLife in French Polynesia) has become the Species Guardian for Polynesian Ground-dove and Tahiti Monarch and in Fiji, NatureFiji-MareqetiViti is the Species Guardian for Fiji Petrel. However, none of them have, as yet, a Species Champion.
If you would like to know more about how you, your company or institution, could become a Species Guardian for one (or more) of these wonderful birds, please email species.champions@birdlife.org or click here.
In addition to the three priority bird species already mentioned, top priorities for the region are to establish Species Guardians and Species Champions for species that require support to run or initiate species recovery programmes. These include:
- In French Polynesia: Fatuhiva Monarch Pomarea whitneyi and Tuamotu Kingfisher Todiramphus gambieri
- In New Caledonia: Kagu Rhynochetos jubatus (see also above)
- In the Federated States of Micronesia: Faichuk White-eye Rukia ruki
Funds are also urgently needed to look for some of the Pacific's "lost species" (species with no known population):
- In Fiji: Red-throated Lorikeet Charmosyna amabilis
- In New Caledonia: New Caledonian Owlet-nightjar Aegotheles savesi
- In the Federated States of Micronesia: Pohnpei Starling Aplonis pelzelni
Please contact james@birdlifepacific.org.fj for more details.
Institutional Fundraising for Conservation Projects
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Institutional fundraising for conservation projects - resource book
This step-by-step guide is designed to improve your success rate at institutional fundraising, by showing how to plan high-quality projects, how to translate them into excellent funding proposals, how to develop constructive, enduring donor relationships, and how to draft short and long-term fundraising plans and strategies. Based on two fundraising workshops in Fiji, facilitated by the two authors, this book provides a mixture of theoretical tools, practical examples and insightful tips based on years of fundraising experience. Please order your copy from Caroline Pridham (in the UK) or Maaike Manten (in Fiji)!