At long last there is some better news on this front and more hope that CAR will have ‘fuel’ for the future.
The ADU is most grateful to the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) for funding through the Birds and Environmental Change Partnership. SANBI is active in highlighting the serious impacts of climate change on biodiversity. Together with Dr Res Altwegg of the ADU, SANBI's Global Change & Biodiversity Programme is identifying a series of long-term southern African bird databases which can be analysed to give us a better understanding of how climate change, land use change and other pressures may affect birds with different life history strategies, and what this means for their population trends and conservation status. The CAR database will contribute significantly to this Programme.
I am delighted that CAR has been awarded an African Bird Club Conservation Award. The African Bird Club (ABC) is a registered UK Charity that raises money to support small conservation projects in Africa that meet their criteria and runs an extensive web site www.africanbirdclub.org.
James Harrison and I are encouraged that a project proposal, Big Birds on Farms (BBOF), submitted to the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund has been accepted. We appreciate Cape Action for People and the Environment’s support in this application. CEPF is a joint initiative of Conservation International, the Global Environment Facility, the Government of Japan, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the World Bank. The Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF) enables conservation action and builds capacity for sustainability in biodiversity hotspots, the Earth’s biologically richest and most endangered regions. A fundamental CEPF goal is to ensure that civil society is engaged in conserving the hotspots. This funding will enable us to take the results of the CAR project in the Cape Floristic Region (CFR), a biodiversity hotspot, a significant step further. BBOF will promote private sector and community involvement in conservation in agricultural landscapes within and surrounding the CFR biodiversity corridors. We are still in need of funding to publish a booklet and poster to reach communities in the CFR.
The South African Crane Working Group, together with the Zoological Society of London, have been awarded a Darwin Initiative grant for three years for a project entitled ’Integrating Crane Conservation with Sustainable Habitat Utilisation’. CAR will receive some of this funding in return for access to the CAR crane data.
We are most grateful to the Strand Rotary Club, Howick Birding Group, the Newcastle Branch of WESSA, and Birdlife Border and the Somerset West Bird Club for their generous donations. The support by other CAR participants is also much appreciated. Some committed birders had the idea of sponsoring ‘a rand a bird’ for their count and made an appropriate, and very welcome, contribution to our CAR resources. Maybe some of you would like to ‘run with this idea’.
BirdLife South Africa and The Tony & Lisette Lewis Foundation South Africa have been consistent sponsors of the ADU.
The logos on the last line represent the organisations which have made a significant contribution by their participation in CAR. These are from left to right:
A huge thank you to all Precinct Organisers and participants for their time, birding skills and transport costs – without you this project would cease to exist!
