Czech Republic

Threatened Species: 5 more info»
IBAs: 16 more info»
EBAs: 0

Czech Society for Ornithology (CSO)

Czech Society for Ornithology (CSO) is the BirdLife Partner

Founded in: 1926
Members: 2,100
Staff: 7
Address: Na Belidle 252/34, 150 00 Prague 5, Czech Republic
Email: cso@birdlife.cz
Web: http://www.birdlife.cz

Mission of the organisation

The CSO mission aims to promote research and conservation of wild living birds and their habitats, ecological and education of the public of the CSO.

Key Activities

Conservation

A national IBA programme, conservation of 39 Czech IBAs including maintaining caretaker groups, management, monitoring, education and public awareness (the full list of Czech IBAs can be found at www.birdlife.cz/index.php?a=cat.131
Agriculture and rural development programme in the Czech Republic aimed at lobbying for environment-friendly agricultural practices, including taking part in BirdLife's campaign for a reform of the EU Common Agricultural Policy
Taking part in the process of preparation of the agri-environmental programme on the Corncrake Crex crex and wet-meadow waders
Conservation and monitoring of White Stork Ciconia ciconia – monitoring and management of the breeding population in the Czech Republic and education
Conservation and monitoring of Peregrine and Saker Falcons in the Czech Republic, including enhancement of nesting opportunities
Programme "Free Wings" - a long-term programme focused on all aspects of bird crime, including collecting data on illegal bird persecution, expert assistance to the State authorities, education of policemen and the wider public, workshops, education, and lobbying for improvement of legislation

Research

CSO hosts the co-ordinator of Pan-European Common Birds Monitoring (PECBM) scheme. The PECBM is a partnership involving the European Bird Census Council, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, BirdLife International and Statistics Netherlands that aims to deliver policy relevant biodiversity indicators for Europe.The scheme collates data on changes in bird numbers across Europe and produces European indices and indicators annually. For more information please see www.ebcc.info
CSO is contracted as a national co-ordinator of the monitoring of Special Protection Areas (Natura 2000) and Annex I species
CSO is a partner of several other bird monitoring programmes in the Czech Republic: the Breeding Bird Monitoring Programme, 3rd Atlas of the breeding distribution of birds in the Czech Republic and the International Waterbird Census

Network development

Membership recruitment – the best recruiting tools are web page and various events such as Bird of the Year etc.
Regional branches - CSO has seven regional branches. The second largest organisation on protection of birds in the country – Moravian Ornithological Society – joined CSO in 2005 as its seventh branch. The branches work at regional and local level, publish their local publications, organise field camps etc.
Library - CSO has a central library containing hundreds of books and periodicals, which are available to CSO members
Field stations - the CSO has three field stations (simple buildings) in excellent ornithological localities which are available to members
Training course for CSO members – CSO runs one week training courses focused on ornithological methods to educate members so they are able to join CSO's scientific programmes

Publication activities

Regularly published ornithological peridiocals: Sylvia (1 issue per year), Buteo (1 issue per year), CSO News (2 issues per year)
Membership magazine The World of Birds (4 issues per year), brochure The Bird of the Year, brochure The IBA of the year, IBA News (for members of the caretaker groups, 1-2 issues per year)
Atlas of breeding bird distribution in Prague (2003)
Birds and Law (2004) – simple explanation of all the legislation related to dealing with birds in the wild and in captivity
Other occasional educational materials (leaflets, brochures) are published every year

Education and promotion

Exhibitions about birds and their conservation at national and local level (2002 – exhibition “The smuggled pleasure” aimed at CITES convention held in National Museum in Prague)
Touring exhibition on IBAs and their protection
Media releases - usually some 15 central media releases are realised every year, with several occasional media releases, and interviews for the media
Birdwatching events - two main central events are organised every year: Dawn Chorus Day and EuroBirdwatch/World Birdwatch, both at 40 to 70 sites in the Czech Republic with several hundreds of participants
Campaigns - the campaign "The Bird of the Year", Spring arrival of selected bird species (Swallow, Cuckoo, etc.)

All main CSO activities and media releases are presented on the web site www.birdlife.cz/

Recent Achievements

Since 2002, the CSO web site has been continuously listed among the 15 most visited environmental web sites in the Czech Republic
CSO has completely prepared a proposal of Special Protection Areas (SPAs) for Ministry of Environment of the Czech Republic. CSO has taken significant part in intensive negotiations and lobbying towards their designation. As a result 38 out of 41 proposed SPAs have been designated so far (2005). Two complaints to the European Commission for insufficient or lacking designation of SPAs have been already sent by CSO
CSO, together with another environmental NGO, has organised a public petition for the designation of the proposed SPA Boletice, threatened by developement of a giant ski resort. As a result of lobbying including this petition, SPA Boletice has been finaly designated
CSO has participated in preparation and negotiation of agri-environmental schemes for Corncrake and wet-meadow waders including raising awareness on agri-environmental schemes among farmers
Exhibition "The Smuggled Pleasure", aimed at CITES convention, held in 2002 in National Museum of Prague was visited by 60,000 people
The "Free wings" programme was recognised by the Ford Foundation as the best environmental project of 2002