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SpeciesNewsletter of the Species Survival Commission

Number 46, July – December 2006

Rue Mauverny 281196 GlandSwitzerland

Tel: +44 22 999 0000Fax: + 44 22 999 0002

[email protected]

ww.iucn.org The World Conservation Union

Contents3 One Programme, One Voice

A joint message from the SSC Chair and Head ofthe Species Programme

6 Specialist Group Chair Profiles Part IIIFinal focus on SSC’s Unsung Heroes

6 Chiroptera (bats)7 Cuban Plant7 Mollusc8 Otter9 Primate9 Seaduck

10 FeatureWind energy and wildlife: the effects of windfarms on birdsCase Study: the effects of wind turbines onwhite-tailed eagles on SmØla, Norway

14 From the Specialist Groups14 African rhino14 Amphibian15 Bison (N. America)15 Conifer16 Conservation Breeding17 Crane17 Crocodile18 Deer19 Flamingo19 Grouse19 Iguana20 Invasive Species20 Marine Turtles22 Medicinal Plants22 Molluscs23 Sustainable Use23 Syngnathid (seahorses) RLA24 Tapir

25 From the SSC Steering CommitteeSub-groups

25 Invertebrate Conservation sub-committee25 Marine Conservation sub-committee

26 News Features26 Review of the definition and selection of protected

areas for species conservation28 Ramsar adopts a new site selection criterion29 Tributes to two of SSC’s champions – Ralph Daly and

Bertrand des Clers

31 News Round-Up31 West African black rhino feared Extinct31 Amphibian Global Action Team needed to avoid an

extinction catastrophe31 Conservation of a coral reef giant – the humphead

wrasse31 Fencing spells disaster for the last of China’s

Przewalski’s gazelles31 SSC crane expert receives Indianapolis Zoo

Conservation Award32 The Behler Award for freshwater turtle conservation32 The World Conservation Union mourns Nepalese

helicopter crash victims32 CITES puts ivory sales on hold32 Landmark achievement in whooping crane

conservation32 Rich marine life in the heart of South-east Asia’s coral

triangle protected

33 IUCN Species Programme Update33 Biodiversity Assessments33 Communications34 Freshwater35 Red List36 Species Information Service36 Species Trade and Use (Wildlife Trade)

37 End Notes37 Publications38 Species staff changes

Species 46

SpeciesSpeciesSpeciesSpeciesSpecies is the newsletter of the Species Survival Commission of IUCN—The World Conservation Union.Commission members, in addition to providing leadership for conservation efforts for specific plant andanimal groups, contribute to technical and scientific counsel to biodiversity conservation projects throughoutthe world. They provide advice to governments, international conventions, and conservation organizations.

TTTTTeam Specieseam Specieseam Specieseam Specieseam Species – Andrew McMullin with assistance from Sarah Webborn

LaLaLaLaLayyyyyoutoutoutoutout – NatureBureau

CoCoCoCoCovvvvver Photoer Photoer Photoer Photoer Photo – Chris Gomersall/rspb-images.com

Opinions expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect official views of IUCN/SSC

ISSN 1016-927x

Species is printed on recycled paper

©2006 IUCN—The World Conservation Union

Photo CreditsCover White-tailed or sea eagle (Haliaeetus

albicilla) has been adversely affected by theconstruction of a wind farm on the Smølaislands in Norway, with increased adultmortality and reduced breeding success.By Chris Gomersall/rspb-images

Page 10 Wind turbinesCourtesy of rspb-images

Page 12 Wind farm on the Smøla islands, NorwayBy Rowena Langston

Page 13 White-tailed or sea eagle (Haliaeetusalbicilla)By Chris Gomersall/rspb-images

Page 14 Wood bison (Bison bison athabascae) andPlains bison (B.b. bison)By C. Cormack Gates

Page 17 Whooping cranes (Grus americana)following ultralight aircraftBy International Crane Foundation

Page 19 Cantabrian capercaillie (Tetrao urogalluscantabricus)By Isolino Pérez Tuya

Page 20 Anegada iguana (Cyclura pinguis) releaseBy Lee Pagni

Page 24 Seahorse (Hippocampus abdominalis)By Jonathan Clark-Jones/Project Seahorse

Page 24 Radio-collaring a mountain tapir (Tapirusindicus) By Diego Lizcano

Page 25 Ochre Presba dragonflyBy Michael Samways

Page 26 Wilderness in NamibiaBy Thomasina Oldfield

Page 28 Wetlands in LatviaBy Tobias Salathé, Ramsar

Page 29 Humphead wrasse (Cheilinus undulatus)By Valerie Ho

Page 35 Indri (Indri indri)By Jean-Christophe Vié

Contributions to Species 47 should be sent to Team Speciesby 17 April 2007.Email: [email protected]

For address changes, notify:Nathalie VelascoSpecies Program, IUCNRue Mauverney 28CH-1196 Gland, Switzerland

Phone: +44 22 999 0268Fax: +44 22 999 0015Email: [email protected]

Hard copies of Species are available only upon request.SSC members are encouraged to receive the SSC monthlyelectronic news bulletin. Please contact Team Species [email protected] for more information. Species is availableelectronically at: www.iucn.org/themes/ssc/

■ ■ Species 46: July–December 2006 ■ ■

One Programme,One VoiceA joint message from the SSC Chairand Head of the IUCN Species Programme

It certainly is an exciting timeto be part of the speciesconservation team

Another whirlwind year has passed and we havereached the mid-way point in IUCN’s 2005–2008Quadrennium. The Species Survival Commission(SSC) and the Species Programme (SP) have, despitesome huge challenges, also celebrated someimportant successes.

At a recent meeting of the SSC Steering Committee,the floor was opened for our standing agenda itemon SSC success stories. Over 12 examples wereshared within the space of 10 minutes – just offthe top of our heads! Among these were stories ofnew species being discovered, successfulreintroduction programmes, persistence ofexploited species and conservation initiatives thatare working to snatch species from the brink ofextinction. It certainly is an exciting time to be partof the species conservation team.

Administratively, the year has been quitechallenging. Network support has suffered due tothe cutting of two positions in the SP. Faced withthis network support challenge, fundraising hasbeen a priority for all of us. Unfortunately,sometimes being the biggest and arguably the bestknown of IUCN’s Commissions is accidentallyequated with having the most resources to handand this often undermines our fundraising efforts.On the positive side of administration, however, isthe recruiting and restructuring that is on-goingfollowing a programmatic review of in the SP earlyin 2006. Current recruitments include anadministrative support position in Cambridge anda replacement communications person for Gland.A Senior Commission Officer for the SSC Chair’sOffice in Cape Town is also being recruited. The SPis developing a fundraising strategy and priority list,and a number of interesting and modernfundraising approaches are being explored. One ofour agreed priorities is to recapitalize and revitalizethe Sir Peter Scott Fund, with the aim of makingsmall but immediate funds available to SpecialistGroups on a competitive basis.

Governance-wise, IUCN has appointed a dynamicnew Director General, Julia Marton-Lefèvre, whowill take up the position in January 2007. She is nostranger to IUCN (as a former Deputy Chair of theCommission on Education and Com-munication),and has excellent skills in inter-national relationsand development as well as an extensiveenvironmental and governmental network. In the

meantime, constructive meetings have been heldbetween the Commission Chairs and IUCN SeniorManagement – ensuring that the Commission issuesand inputs are considered at a high level and in theimplementation of ‘one’ IUCN programme.

The SSC’s Restructuring Task Force has beenworking diligently to address the conclusions ofseveral external reviews that highlighted the needto renovate our 60 year-old model to enhance itsrelevance and impact. So far, our energies havefocused on clearly articulating the main functionsrequired of the SSC and itsmembership in order toformulate a more efficientstructure for delivery. To thisend, the Task Force wasmandated to continue theirconsultations and planningwith a view to having a firmstrategy in place for a roll out in the nextQuadrennium.

One governance issue that is not progressing as fastas hoped is the Commission Online RegistrationSystem (CoReg). By comparison to the otherCommissions, SSC is very large and therefore theregistration of all our members is proving to be acomplicated and lengthy task. We urge you to goonline and update your information as soon as youreceive your passwords – this is to ensure that wehave your correct contact details and that you areofficially considered a member of the SSC.

Though we would all love to spend our time in thefield doing what we enjoy most, every yearimportant conservation meetings require ourundivided attention. At the Eighth Meeting of theConference of the Parties to the Convention onBiological Diversity (CoP 8) we hosted two sideevents, participated in others and worked to securea mandate for the development, testing and deliveryof biodiversity indicators for measuring progresstowards the CBD’s 2010 target. CITES continues tobe a focus, and we participated in the ‘CITES andLivelihoods Workshop’ (which deliberated theimpact of CITES regulations on local livelihoods)and the 54th CITES Standing Committee meeting.SSC also continues to work with the Conventionon Migratory Species and recently co-hosted asuccessful series of meetings on the saiga antelope.We are working to refine our relationships with 3


TRAFFIC, our Red List partners, the Alliance for ZeroExtinction, the Consortium for the Barcode of Lifeand others. There is an almost endless flow ofindividuals and organizations seeking partnershipwith the SSC, and we are grateful for their continuedinterest.

Some other important initiatives began or came tofruition in 2006. One is the joint SSC/WCPAConservation Planning Initiative – an importantstep towards systematic, landscape levelconservation planning taking biodiversity valuesand assets into account. Another was the successful

Recreational Hunting Symposium, which wasimportant for the sustainable use fraternity andothers engaged in the contribution of sport huntingto achieving broader conservation aims.

Assessment and indicators work still continues atthe usual fast pace, with many Specialist Groupmembers putting a lot of time into assessing theirspecies for entry to the IUCN Red List. At theregional level, interest is also growing for the RedListing process, and some wonderful publicationshave surfaced from the Mediterranean region. TheGlobal Mammal Assessment continues (completiontargeted for 2007), and other assessment work iscoming together to feed into the second edition ofthe Global Species Assessment – due to be releasedat the 4th World Conservation Congress.

To assist with this process, the development of theSpecies Information Service (SIS) has progressedsubstantially over the past year, with the much-needed upgrade to the Data Entry Module (DEM)now complete. Work is now proceeding swiftly onthe specifications for Version 2. Specialist Groupswill be contacted to input into the design of thesystem. To the greatest extent possible, SIS will linkto existing Specialist Group databases, but thedetails of such integration will need to beinvestigated on a case-by-case basis.

All through the year, the SSC Specialist Groups havebeen instrumental in bringing pressing speciesissues to the attention of IUCN’s seniormanagement and, in fact, the world. While we arenot always successful, it is heartening to see thatIUCN really can influence decision-makers to helpwith species-specific matters. Even larger-scalematters, such as the global amphibian crisis, theimpacts of seismic survey work on cetaceans orinteractions with the pharmaceutical industryregarding various detrimental drugs, are beingtackled head-on by Specialist Groups.

Within IUCN, the SSC has been involved in anumber of initiatives. The SSC and SP joint input tothe Mangroves for the Future (MFF) Initiative (aUS$62million project that is being developed bythe IUCN, UNDP and partners as a follow up to the2004 tsunami and subsequent restoration efforts)was well received and incorporated into the finalstrategy document. Through a process ofconsultation with our network we also providedimpressive input to the IUCN Situation Analysis,which will help set the groundwork for IUCN’s nextintersessional programme. This and ourparticipation in the programme planning meetingfor 2009–2012 are first steps in the developmentof a new SSC Strategic Plan.

Every year has its highs and lows and 2006 was noexception: We celebrated the brand newIndianapolis Zoo Prize, which was awarded to SSCCrane Specialist Group Chair, Dr George Archibald,for his life-long work with cranes. Sadly, wemourned Dr Rod East, Dr Ralph Daly, Dr Tirtha ManMaskey, Baron Bertrand des Clers, Dr Tom Foose,and most recently Mary Rabb (wife of former SSCChair, Dr George Rabb).

We now move into 2007 with a full agenda andexciting initiatives. Some of the aims for next yearinclude:

■ ■ Furthering the SSC’s work on climate changeby strengthening species assessments toinclude the characteristics of vulnerability toclimate change – essential work that will allowbiodiversity conservation strategies toincorporate means of addressing climate in amore targeted and meaningful way.

■ ■ Finalising important discussions regardingIUCN’s policies on data ownership, control anduse, with specific attention also being paid toattribution and authorship of individual speciesassessments.

■ ■ Contributing to the World Commission onProtected Area’s Summit on the IUCNProtected Areas Categories and their specificrelevance to the conservation of biodiversity.

■ ■ Preparing the IUCN/TRAFFIC Analyses of theproposals to CITES and providing technicaladvice and inputs to the CITES CoP 14 in TheHague (June 2007).

■ ■ Ensuring a SSC presence at the Society forConservation Biology’s 21st Annual Meeting, tobe held in July 2007 in South Africa. The themeis One World, One Conservation, OnePartnership and supports our own belief inthe need for a joint effort to conserve theworld’s biodiversity.

■ ■ Accelerating the SSC’s work on Indicators byfundraising and initiating the development andtesting for each group of CBD 2010 indicators(e.g. IUCN Red List, Sampled Red List Indices,Sustainable Use, Alien Invasive Species, andFood and Medicine).

All through the year, the SSC Specialist Groupshave been instrumental in bringing

pressing species issues to the attention ofIUCN’s senior management

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■ ■ Planning a SSC Specialist Group Chairs’Meeting (hopefully funds can be secured tohold this meeting early in 2008). The meetingwould be unprecedented and an excellentopportunity for the Specialist Group Chairs tomeet with the SP staff and higher-level IUCNmanagement, an opportunity to showcase theSpecialist Groups’ work, and an opportunityto discuss issues such as the SSC restructuringand our input to the WCC.

■ ■ Conducting one-on-one telephone consult-ations with Specialist Group Chairs to bringvarious issues to their attention as well as toask for their feedback and ideas on activities,communication tools, and the ‘shadow’resources contributed through the SSCnetwork to IUCN.

■ ■ Partnering with Botanic Gardens ConservationInternational on the new GEF plants project,which aims to carry out species assessmentsand identify important plant areas in sixcountries: Costa Rica, Morocco, The Philippines,Cameroon, Sri Lanka and Madagascar.

■ ■ Working to develop both fund-raising andcommunication strategies to strengthen thecontributions of SSC and the SP.

The very biggest event on SSC’s ‘radar screen’ isthe next World Conservation Congress, 5–14October 2008. The SSC actively pushed for a themethat takes us directly back to IUCN’s heartland andour core mission – the conservation of biodiversity.At the November 2006 meeting of the IUCNCouncil, an overarching theme was approved forthe Congress: ‘A diverse and sustainable world’. Ithas three central strands: Safeguarding the Diversityof Life; Shaping Sustainable Solutions; and HealthyEnvironments Support Healthy Communities, eachof which will provide the SSC network ampleopportunity to contribute.

With a busy year behind us and two more busy yearsahead, we once again thank all of you: SSC members,friends, staff and partners. Without you, the SSCcould not maintain its place in the constellation ofconservation super stars.

Holly T. DublinChair – IUCN Species Survival Commission

Jane SmartHead – IUCN Species Programme

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Chiroptera (Bats)

Co-Chairs: RodrigoMedellin and Paul Racey

The Chiroptera Specialist Group (CSG) wasreconstituted in 2006 with the re-appointment ofPaul Racey, Regius Professor of Natural History atthe University of Aberdeen, and the newappointment of Rodrigo Medellin, Professor ofEcology at the Institute of Ecology at the NationalAutonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), as co-chairs. Both Paul and Rodrigo are recipients of theGerritt S. Miller award from the community of batresearchers of North America for distinguishedservices to chiropterology and are the only non-Americans to receive this award. In addition Rodrigoreceived a Whitley Award in the UK in 2004 andthe National Conservation Award from Mexico’sPresident Vicente Fox for his long-standing workin conservation; and Paul is a recipient of the UKMammal Society’s Medal for his work on bats.

Paul and Rodrigo have now selected the majorityof their representatives in most African and someAsian countries, although some remain to beidentified.

Some priorities of the group remain unchanged,such as addressingsome of therecommend-ationsof the action plansfor Micro-chiroptera(2001) and OldWorld Fruit Bats(1993). The latter isurgently in need ofupdating and thistoo will be a priority; as is a new assessment of thestatus and threats affecting New World bats.

One of the compilers of these action plans, SimonMickleburgh, has also compiled a report on Bats asBushmeat and a high priority is to complete andpublish this report online, so that it can be updatedas more information becomes available. A websitefor this purpose has been established by Dr AllysonWalsh and hosted by the Lubee Bat Conservancy,Gainesville, Florida. It will also provide contactdetails of CSG members, for whom an electronicnewsletter will be published early in 2007. Paul andRodrigo will continue to use their extensivenetworks to identify and build the capacity of youngbat conservationists throughout the world, through

Spotlight on SSC’sUnsung Heroes – Part IIIIn this issue of Species we close the march on the series dedicated to profiling the

men and women who drive SSC and the global conservation agenda. All are Chairs of

SSC’s Specialist Groups, Task Forces or Working Groups covering species from bats to

molluscs. They devote their time and energy on a voluntary basis to coordinate the

work of their respective groups of experts, ensuring their collective knowledge and

expertise feeds into the broader conservation agenda. All are committed to reversing

the extinction crisis by providing the science and knowledge needed for sound

conservation action, for species and their habitats.

These profiles aim to highlight the expertise, enthusiasm, and commitment shown

by these leaders who have an immense impact at all levels, from running grass-roots

projects to influencing global conservation policy decisions. Among the profiles

emerges a fascinating range of work on, amongst others; bats, primates, molluscs

and otters.

The Chair profiles will be placed on the SSC website on the Specialist Group pages

over the coming months. The Amphibian and Reptile Specialist Group Chair profiles

are already available (click onto the Chair’s name for the link).

Threats are beingaddressed with tailoredenvironmental educationand promotion of bats’good image

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teaching on training courses (such as thoseorganized by Sally Walker in South Asia) and byhelping them to apply for funding for their research.The most important threats affecting bats in theNew World are vandalism in caves and other roosts,habitat destruction and misdirected vampire batcontrol. These and other threats are being addressedwith tailored environmental education andpromotion of bats’ good image. Understanding theneeds and biology of migration in threatened batshas advanced significantly and this will contributetowards the recovery of those species.

Cuban Plant

Angela Leiva Sánchez

Angela Leiva Sánchez has been working as directorof the National Botanic Garden of the University ofHavana, Cuba, for 35 years. She has been directlyinvolved in the establishment of a Cuban plantcollection, especially Cuban palms, in the BotanicGarden. A graduate of the University of La Habana,she completed her PhD in Biology at the sameuniversity in 1980. Angela has spent 20 years workingfor the conservation of threatened plants and hasbeen a contributor to BGCI in the preparation of aconservation strategy for the botanic gardens of theCaribbean and Latin America.

Since its founding in 1990, Angela has presided overthe Asociación Latinoamericana y del Caribe deJardines Botánicos. The same year she organized theCuban network of botanic gardens and has co-ordinated it since its creation. Angela participatedas a member of the Gran Canaria group thatprepared the first ideas for the Global Strategy forPlant Conservation (GSPC). She has helped toorganize three CAMP workshops in the NationalBotanic Garden under the guidance of personnelof CBSG/ SSC/ IUCN for the conservationassessment of Cuban endemic plants. She has also

been Chair of the Cuban Plant Specialist Group ofSSC since its creation in 2003.

Angela is now co-ordinating the efforts andcommitments of the Cuban Network of BotanicGardens to accomplish Target Eight of the GSPCand is conducting a project on the reintroductionto the wild of five threatened Cuban plants. She isa member of the Palm Specialist Group of SSC/IUCN. Nowadays, the Cuban Plant Specialist Groupis very concerned with the accomplishment ofTarget Two of GSPC, to produce a preliminaryassessment of the conservation status of about5,000 species of vascular plants not yet categorizedor data deficient by 2010.

Mollusc

Mary Seddon

Mary Seddon is currently the Chair of the SSC’sMollusc Specialist Group. This group ofinvertebrates is the largest, most diverse group ofanimals within SSC’s current group structure, as itcovers 85,000 species, as well as perhaps another30% remaining to be described. This represents agreat challenge in terms of delivering a programmeof activity with the world’smalacologists (the name givento those who study snails,slugs, clams, mussels and theother smaller groups thatmake up the PhylumMollusca). Fortunately thereare about 400 peopleworldwide who are currentlyworking mainly on Mollusca, with about 100actively working on conservation issues. Thesepeople provide the vital input to questions posedby members of IUCN.

Mary is currently Head of Mollusca at AmgueddffaCymru – National Museum Wales, based in Cardiff,UK. She’s been working there on the taxonomy,biogeography and systematics of European and

Mollusc are the largest,most diverse group ofanimals within SSC’scurrent group structure

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African landsnails since 1990. The collections atCardiff have international perspective, holdingtypes and reference collections for about 40% ofthe world’s molluscan fauna, with particularconcentrations from the former British Colonies.She became interested in conservation issues whenworking on the landsnail fauna of the MadeiranIslands, a unique archipelago in the North Atlantic,which has a very high number of endemic rangerestricted species. This fauna has protected speciesthat are listed on the appendices of the EuropeanHabitats and Species Directive and this lead toinvolvement with the Threatened SpeciesAssessment programmes of IUCN. Since 1994 Maryhas served as a member of the Mollusc SpecialistGroup and since 1995 has directed volunteeractivity on Red Lists.

At the Museum Mary has been actively working onCapacity Building projects in Africa, mainly fundedby the UK’s Darwin Initiative. This has establishedmolluscan specialists at National Museums of Kenyaand National Museums of Tanzania and thesescientists have also become actively involved inresearch programmes looking at the impact offorest programmes on molluscan biodiversity in theregion.

Mary’s interests also extend to developingeducational interactive programmes on Molluscsin the Museum. Five years ago a programme startedtracking the Alien Girdle Snail in the UK; thisintroduces children to simple keys identifying snailsin their gardens, the online mapping tool allowsthem to send their records of this species which isexpanding its range in the UK, possibly as the resultof climate change. Her interest in climate changestems from her PhD which used fossil snails toreconstruct Pleistocene Environments during thelast glacial period in the UK.

In addition to threatened species assessments, therange of conservation activity on Molluscsworldwide can be seen though the newsletter,Tentacle. This is produced on an annual basis andis available electronically from Rob Cowie’s websitein Hawaii. With her colleagues, Mary providesadvice on Invasive Species, Ex-situ Breeding ofFreshwater Mussels and Landsnails, status forspecies proposed for CITES and trade in Molluscspecies.

Otter

Jim ConroyAfter graduating fromthe University ofAberdeen, Jim wasemployed by theBritish AntarcticSurvey where hestudied seabirds. After11 years, he joinedthe Institute ofTerrestrial Ecology,now the Centre forEcology and Hydro-logy. Initially based atMonks Wood, near Cambridge, Jim moved toBanchory, north-east Scotland, in 1980 where hebegan his study of otters. Research projects on thespecies have included work on pollutants,monitoring, population structure, breeding, status,etc. With the International Otter Survival Fund,where he acts as Scientific Advisor, Jim has organizedtwo international conferences on the Eurasian otter.He joined the Otter Specialist Group (OSG) around1990. In addition to the publication of over 100papers, reports and articles on otters, Jim has alsoedited the Proceedings of the OSG 1996 OtterColloquium and those of the two Skye Conferences.

As well as his work on otters, Jim has been involvedin several other projects, many relating to the oilindustry. These include the development ofcontingency plans to deal with oiled wildlife andthe examination of the environmental impacts oflarge-scale oil spills.

Jim sees the Specialist Groups as key componentsof the SSC. Regarding the Otter Specialist Group,his aim is to ensure that the problems associatedwith the world’s otters are clearly identified. Wherepossible, plans can be made to try and address theseproblems successfully. Research forms an importantpart of any management tool so, through task forces,research priorities will be identified. Attempts willbe made to determine funds to undertake theseprojects. Specialist Groups are selective by theirvery nature, but should not be inward looking.Rather, they should liaise with other Groups withrelated species or interests.

Ultimately, Jim sees the role of Chairman as that offacilitator/manager, to bring the membershiptogether through an effective communicationsystem and make them more fully aware of whathas been happening in the world of otters.

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Primate

Russell A. Mittermeier

Russell A. Mittermeier has been President ofConservation International since 1989. Aprimatologist and herpetologist by training, he hastravelled widely in over a hundred countries andconducted fieldwork in more than 20 – much of itfocused on Surinam, Madagascar and the Amazonianand Atlantic Forest regions of Brazil.

In addition to his work at Conservation International,he also serves as Chairman of the IUCN/SSC PrimateSpecialist Group, which he has led since 1977. Forthe past 27 years he has held the position of AdjunctProfessor at the State University of New York andsince 1996 he has also been the President of theMargot Marsh Biodiversity Foundation. Since 2001,Russell has served as Special Envoy for Great Apeswith the United Nations Environment Programme(UNEP) and in November 2004 he was elected asIUCN’s Regional Councillor for North America andthe Caribbean.

He has published more than 400 scientific andpopular articles and 15 books, including the trilogyMegadiversity, Hotspots and Wilderness, as well asthe recent titles Wildlife Spectacles, HotspotsRevisited, Pantanal and TransboundaryConservation. Among the awards he has receivedare the Gold Medal of the San Diego ZoologicalSociety (1988), the Order of the Golden Ark of theNetherlands (1995), the Cincinnati Zoo WildlifeConservation Award (1997), the Brazilian MuriquiABD Prize (1997), the Grand Sash and Order of theYellow Star of the Republic of Suriname (1998),the Order of the Southern Cross of the BrazilianGovernment (1998) and the Aldo Leopold Awardfrom the American Society of Mammalogists (2004).In December 1998 he was selected by Timemagazine as one of its Eco-heroes for the Planet.

In addition to English, Russell is f luent inPortuguese, Spanish, German, French and SrananTongo, the Creole language of Surinam.

He graduated from Dartmouth College (SummaCum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa) in 1971 and receivedhis PhD in Biological Anthropology from HarvardUniversity in 1977.

In the coming winter of2007 a comprehensivesurvey of the Baltic regionis planned

Seaduck

Chair: Stefan PihlDespite its small size,Denmark supports morewintering seaducks thanany other country inEurope. It was thus naturalthat a Dane, KarstenLaursen, from the NationalEnvironmental ResearchInstitute, set up theWetlands International(IWRB it was then)Seaduck Database andbecame the first SeaduckSpecialist Group Co-ordinator in 1989. A few yearsbefore, Stefan had been hired and soon assumedresponsibility for the co-ordination of the Danishaerial surveys, becoming the Danish national co-ordinator for the International Waterbird Census(IWC), a responsibility that he holds to the presentday. In 1990, Stefan organized a course in aerialcount techniques in Denmark (repeated in Estoniain 1993) which resulted in the Manual for Aeroplaneand Ship Surveys of Waterfowl and Seabirds.

Stefan took over as Seaduck Database Co-ordinatorin 1993 and was functioning co-ordinator of theSeaduck SG from then on until formally appointedchair of the Seaduck SG in 1995. The group haspublished nine issues of the Seaduck SG Bulletinin the period 1992 to 2002.

During the winter of 1993, a major survey of allthe Baltic marine areas was carried out in co-operation between the national co-ordinators of thecountries. Stefan co-ordinated the aerial countsand later presented theresults and new estimates formost European seaduckspecies at Anatidae 2000Conference in 1994.

The Seaduck SG has mainlybeen active in Europealthough regional co-ordinators have beenappointed for North America and Asia. The grouphas been living through many ups and downs,sleeping through extended periods of inactivityunlike most other groups. Monitoring of seaducksis vital, but being based on aerial and ship surveysis very expensive and cannot be carried outannually. In the coming winter of 2007 acomprehensive survey of the Baltic region isplanned. It is feared that it will reveal seriousdeclines in a number of European Seaduck species.

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IntroductionMost commentators and governments now acceptthat climate change is a reality, with all of itsattendant r isks to our way of life and theenvironment. Renewable sources of energy offeran opportunity to minimize the deleteriousenvironmental effects of climate change, arisingfrom over reliance on fossil fuels. Of the mostadvanced renewable technologies, wind energy, isset to make a substantial contribution to energygeneration.

In Europe alone, by the end of 2005, over 6,000 MWof wind power capacity was added to the Europeanelectricity grids, bringing the installed capacity (asdistinct from energy output) from wind in Europeto more than 40,500 MW (www.ewea.org). Spain,Germany and Denmark currently lead the way ininstalled capacity from wind energy.

The industry is still relatively young and so is thestudy of its impact on wildlife. However, after thecompilation of information by BirdLife Inter-national and its partners from over 10 years ofstudies, the impact of poorly sited wind farms onwildlife is now beginning to be more widelyrecognized.

The impact of wind farmson birdsThe potential hazards to birds can be divided intothree main categories:

■ ■ Disturbance leading to displacement orexclusion, including barriers to movement.

■ ■ Collision mortality.

■ ■ Habitat loss and damage from wind farmsand associated infrastructure.

Disturbance

The negative impacts due to wind farms are variableand are very species, season and site specific.Disturbance can lead to displacement andexclusion from areas of suitable habitat, effectivelyloss of habitats for the birds.

Several reliable studies have clearly shown anegative effect up to 600 m from wind turbines forsome species, with a reduction in use or totalabsence from the area close to the turbines. Birdsmost affected included whooper swan (Cygnuscygnus), pink-footed goose (Anser brachy-rhynchus), white-fronted goose (A. albifrons) andEurasian curlew (Numenius arquata). In a largewind farm, or cumulatively across several wind

Feature

Wind energy and wildlife: the effectsof wind farms on birdsAs a benign source of energy generation in relation to pollution and the production of

greenhouse gases, the attraction of wind farms is obvious. However, a review of

studies of their impact over the past 10 years shows that wind turbines in sensitive

areas can have a negative impact on wildlife, particularly birds. As the industry is set

to expand, it is strongly recommended that robust environmental assessments are

undertaken for all new wind farms, and a precautionary approach is advocated to

minimize the impact of future wind farms on wildlife.

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farms, even a small exclusion area or area of reduceduse may amount to a significant loss of availablehabitat. Other species have shown less marked orno changes in behaviour, highlighting the speciesspecific impact of wind turbines.

There is also the risk that disturbance from increasedhuman activity around the wind farm and thepresence/noise of the turbines may also deter birdsfrom using the area close to them. Few studies areconclusive in their findings, and few studies providean indication of habituation to the presence ofturbines, often because of a lack of well-designedstudies both before and after construction. Goldeneagles (Aquila chrysaetos) in California, for example,showed little sign of habituation after several years,but few studies have been long enough todemonstrate it one way or the other.

Offshore wind energy is in the early stages ofdevelopment and there has been little research onits impacts, but several useful studies are underway,notably in Denmark. These indicate that there is avariable site and species response offshore just asonshore, raising concerns that proposals for largewind farms in shallow sea areas may conflict withthe feeding distributions of seabirds, particularlyseaducks. Results to date indicate that, at least insome species, e.g. eider (Somateria mollissima),many individuals adjust their flight to fly aroundwind farms (Desholm and Kahlert 2005).Inappropriately located and designed wind farmshave the potential to be barriers to bird movementif they disrupt ecological links between feeding,breeding and roosting areas. This problem may notbe insurmountable, as sensitive design at theplanning stage, by leaving wide corridors betweenclusters of turbines, may alleviate the barrier effect,but this requires testing.

Collision risk and mortality

High collision mortality rates have been recordedat several large, poorly sited wind farms in areaswhere large concentrations of birds are present,especially migrating birds, large raptors or otherlarge soaring species. Examples include AltamontPass in California, USA (especially golden eagleAquila chrysaetos) and Tarifa and Navarra in Spain(in particular griffon vulture Gyps fulvus) andseveral other Important Bird Areas (IBAs).

The species that have been found to be particularlysusceptible to fatal collisions, which include thetransmission lines as well as the turbines, includehawks, vultures, eagles Accipitridae, falconsFalconidae, terns Sternidae, and owls Strigiformes.The importance of wind farm location and micro-siting of turbines is well-illustrated by a recentlypublished study from Belgium. Four turbines thatintercepted foraging f lights by breeding ternsaccounted for most of their associated collisionmortality (ca 50 birds found dead in each of twoyears) at the port of Zeebrugge, where a wind farmof 25 turbines is situated (Everaert and Stienen2006).

Although collision mortality rates per turbine arelow in most studies, this does not mean that it isinsignificant, particularly wind farms made up ofhundreds or even thousands of turbines, orcumulatively across multiple wind farms. Even smallincreases in mortality ratesmay be significant forpopulations of some birds,especially long-lived specieswith low annual productivityand slow maturity.

It also is recognized that theactual rate of collision is likelyto be under-recorded, owingto limitations of corpsesearches which underestimate the actual mortalityrates. At one wind farm in Spain, two-thirds of thecorpses found, but left in place, were removed byscavengers within 24 hours.

The risk of collision is affected by weatherconditions and is greatest in poor flying conditions,such as strong winds or low wind speeds, whenthe birds’ ability to control flight manoeuvres isimpaired; or in rain, fog and dark nights whenvisibility is reduced. Although wind turbines do notoperate in very low or very high wind speeds, theyare operational at wind speeds that coincide withconditions that affect bird flight.

Lighting is another important factor that can causea marked rise in collisions, particularly in badweather when it has the potential to attract birds.This was clearly demonstrated by the large numberof collisions recorded in just one night in Swedenwhen a single turbine was out of operation butilluminated for repair work.

Habitat loss or damage

Loss or damage to habitat is not generallyconsidered to be a major concern to birds outsideareas of national or international importance, butthe cumulative loss or damage to sensitive habitatsof large wind farms in locations such as sandbankson peatlands may have impacts well beyond thewind farm, as illustrated by the landslide atDerrybrien.

Minimizing the impact offuture wind farms onwildlifeThere is considerable support for wind energy asan environmentally benign source of electricity. Asthe industry is set to expand, with major initiativesannounced to stimulate offshore wind developmentin the UK and elsewhere, lessons need to be learntfrom the impact of existing sites to avoid repeatingthe same mistakes.

There is a clear and strong consensus that thelocation of wind farms is critically important toavoid damaging impacts on birds. There should be

The location of wind farmsis critically important toavoid damaging impactson birds

11


a precautionary avoidance of locating wind farmsin statutorily designated or qualifying internationalsites (such as Natura 2000 in Europe, Ramsar sitesand IBAs), or national sites for nature conservation,or other areas with large concentrations of birdssuch as migration crossing points, or speciesidentified as being of conservation concern. Anydevelopment should not be detrimental to thesesites, but the weight of evidence so far shows thatwind farms within high bird use areas, especially

by protected species, havehad an adverse impact.

Many studies have shown,inappropriately sited anddesigned wind farms can havea negative impact on theenvironment and stringentenvironmental impact

assessments (EIAs) are just as important for windfarms as for other developments. A rigorous EIA isan essential prerequisite to ensure that they areoptimally sited and to avoid or minimize theirimpacts. Poor quality EIAs or lack of informationshould not be permitted to lead to planningapproval on the grounds of no demonstrable effect.

In addition, there is a clear need for best practiceguidance on standard study methods. Ideally, aminimum one-year baseline study (longer in somecases) should be undertaken before construction.Post-construction monitoring should be an

The negative impacts ofwind farms are very

species, season andsite specific

12

obligation to enable short-term and long-termeffects to be identified and provide informationto enable them to be addressed, as well as toimprove our understanding for future wind farms.Further research and monitoring should also beundertaken by governments and the windenergy industry, as initiated under COWRIE(www.offshorewind.co.uk). This needs to be aninteractive process that will inform decisionmaking, appropriate site selection and wind farmdesign.

Footnote: The information in this article is based largelyon the report ‘Windfarms and Birds: An analysis of theeffects of windfarms on birds, guidance on environmentalassessment criteria and site selection issues’ by BirdLifeInternational on behalf of the Berne Convention. A copyof the report is available from:

http://www.coe.int/t/e/Cultural_Co-operation/Environment/Nature_and_biological_diversity/Nature_protection/sc23_inf12e.pdf?L=E

The draft recommendation, included in the above report,from the Bern Convention was changed to that at thefollowing link Recommendation No. 109 (2004) onminimizing adverse effects of wind power generation onwildlife:

https://wcd.coe.int/ViewDoc.jsp?id=847241&BackColorInternet=9999CC&BackColorIntranet=FFBB55&BackColorLogged=FFAC75

For more information contact Rowena Langston on:

[email protected]

Wind turbines on Smøla


Case study: the effects ofwind turbines on white-tailed eagles on Smøla,Norway

Impact on territory occupancy and breedingproductivity

There were no successful breeding attempts withinthe wind farm in 2003 or 2004. In 2005, there werejust two successful nests within the wind farm area(three young fledged), one within 30 m of thenearest turbine on an existing nest, whilst therewas an additional successful nest (two youngfledged) within 2 km of the wind farm. In 2006,there was just one successful nest (one fledgling)within the wind farm. Set against high inter-annualvariability in productivity, it is too soon to knowwhether the reduction in breeding activity in thewind farm is a long-term change and to what extentit may affect overall productivity on Smøla, orbeyond.

Collision mortality

There have been ten fatal collisions recordedbetween August 2005 and September 2006. Fourfatalities were recorded in just one week duringthe 2006 breeding season. Breeding adults andfledged juveniles are among the deaths, includingthree of the five young fledged in 2005 within thewind farm plus 2 km buffer. In reality, the total islikely to be more than 10 as, prior to February 2006,there were no formal searches for corpses; deadbirds were incidental finds.

Discussions are underway in Norway to identifypossible remedial action.

Conclusions

With a low reproduction rate, white-tailed eaglesare likely to be more sensitive to small changes inadult mortality and may not be able to compensateby increasing productivity (i.e. density dependentresponse).

White-tailed eagles are generally long-lived and donot need to breed successfully each year in orderto replace themselves. However, it is too early toknow what might be the long-term effects on thepopulation if the observed reduction in breedingactivity and increased adult and juvenile mortalityassociated with the Smøla wind farm continues. Thewind farm could become a sink if vacated territoriesare re-occupied but collision fatalities continue toaffect mature birds and young birds producedwithin the wind farm area.

In addition to the worrying situation on Smøla,perhaps of greater concern are plans for more windfarms along the Norwegian coast, including areasof similarly high density of breeding white-tailedeagles. Norway has a special responsibility for thisspecies owing to the high proportion of the bio-geographical population of eagles found there, butthe cumulative impacts of multiple wind farmscould lead to a population reduction.

White-tailed eagle Haliaeetus albicilla

Background

The recent decision to build a wind farm in theSmøla islands, an Important Bird Area (IBA) off thewest coast of Norway, has had serious consequencesfor the islands’ white-tailed eagles (Haliaeetusalbicilla). The Environmental Impact Assessmentfor the development highlighted that it could causeproblems for birds, in particular for the highbreeding density of white- tailed eagles found there(min. 65–70 birds). Despite this warning, theNorwegian government took the view that anyimpact would be limited and local in character andgranted permission. BirdLife International took thecase to the Berne Convention but was unsuccessfulin getting the necessary support to overturn thedecision.

The Smøla wind farm consists of 68 turbinesoccupying 18 km2 and was built in two phases. Inphase one, 20 turbines became operational inSeptember 2002 and in Phase two, 48 turbinesbecame operational in August 2005. There wereapproximately 14 to 16 white-tailed eagleterritories in the wind farm area pre-construction.

13


African rhinoThe African Rhino Specialist Group(AfRSG) re-assessed the overall status andmanagement of Africa’s rhinos at itseighth meeting held in Swaziland from 27June to 2 July 2006, and while continuedprogress was reported at the species levelfor both white and black rhinos, the statusof two subspecies is extremely critical

White and black rhino numbers had grown to14,540 and 3,725 respectively by the end of 2005,representing increases of 92.3% (white) and 54.6%(black) since 1995 – the year that the decline inblack rhino numbers had plateaued at an all-timelow of 2,410. This represents a net per annumincrease of 6.6% and 4.5% respectively for whiteand black rhino over the last decade.

However, recent trends vary between subspecies,with the two rarest rhino taxa faring particularlybadly. A recent survey within the last known rangeof the West African black rhino (Diceros bicornislongipes) in northern Cameroon has failed to locateany sign of their continued presence although manysigns of rhino poaching were recorded. Dr Isabelleand Jean-Francois Lagrot spent four months in early2006 covering 2,500 kms on patrol without success,and enquiry amongst 21 hunting guides also drewa blank. While Paul Bour of Association Symbiose

will be in Cameroon till theend of 2006 checking reportsfrom the field, the outlook forthe subspecies does not lookgood. In a similar vein, recentintensive surveys of the lastremaining wild northern whiterhinos (Ceratotherium simumcottoni) in Garamba NationalPark, DR Congo, have locatedonly four individuals (two

adult males, one adult female and one sub-adult ofunknown sex). Modelling should give a realisticassessment of the probability of this remnantpopulation surviving in the long term and this willbe an important consideration at the strategicplanning workshop being planned by DRC’sInstitute Congolaise pour la Conservation pour laNature (ICCN) and African Parks Foundation forsometime after DRC’s follow-up elections in late2006.

The trend in numbers for the other subspecies isup, with black rhinos increasing in the wild to 1,865southern-central D.b minor, 1,220 south-westernD.b. bicornis and 640 eastern D.b. michaeli; andthe southern white rhino (C.s. simum) increasingrapidly to almost 14,540. There are also a further

760 white rhino (750 southern and 10 northern)and 240 black (171 eastern and 69 southern-central) in zoos and other intensively-managedfacilities worldwide.

In addition to numerous presentations anddiscussions on international initiatives, recentsuccessful rhino introduction and managementstrategies, rhino support programmes and newmanagement techniques at the AfRSG meeting, aseries of workshops was held. Good progress wasmade towards developing a framework and termsof reference for the proposed East Afr icanCommunity Rhino Management Group to enhancethe metapopulation management of the easternblack rhino; and also a format and process fordrafting IUCN Species Survival Commissionguidelines for rhino translocations. Agreement wasalso reached on the process and content for thedelivery of reports on the status and managementof African rhinos required by CITES StandingCommittee 54 and CoP 14. Further progress withexamining community-based rhino conservationmodels was made.

Martin Brooks, Chair

AmphibianImportant amphibian habitat safe-guarded and launch of ASG website

The Amphibian Specialist Group (ASG) has builtupon a recent success safeguarding criticalamphibian habitat in Colombia through theprotection of another important site in the CentralCordillera. La Forzosa is home to seven vulnerable,four endangered and five newly discoveredamphibian species and represents the largest forestfragment in the Central Corillera, an area ravagedby rampant gold-mining in the early 20th centuryand largely devoid of suitable forest habitat.Although 150 ha of the forest fragment werepurchased by the local environmental authority in1999, this has not been expanded and remainsunprotected. The ASG has teamed up with theAmerican Bird Conservancy to help ProAves, a localNGO, secure the remaining 1,250 acres toconsolidate the protection of this critical site andestablish a research station, forest guard and reservedirector, trail network and an amphibian researchand monitoring programme.

The ASG has launched a website(www.amphibians.org) which serves as a portal forinformation relating to global amphibianconservation, research and assessment. The bi-monthly newsletter Froglog is available for free onthe website.

Robin D. Moore

From the SpecialistGroups

A recent survey within thelast known range of the

West African black rhino innorthern Cameroon hasfailed to locate any sign

14


Bison (North America)The goal of the North American BisonSpecialist Group (NABSG) is to contributeto the development of comprehensive andviable strategies and management actionsto improve conservation and achieveecological restoration of plains bison andwood bison, where feasible within theiroriginal range

The US Department of Interior (National ParkService, Fish and Wildlife Service) and Parks Canada,along with state and provincial agencies andacademic institutions throughout North America(Canada, US and Mexico) are represented in theSpecialist Group. Several major conservationorganizations are working together with the NABSG,including the World Wildlife Fund, the WildlifeConservation Society and The Nature Conservancy.The Canadian Bison Association and National Bison

Association, representingcommercial bison prod-ucers, are also engaged withthe NABSG to developguidelines for managingsome captive populationsfor conservation. AboriginalNorth Americans are alsoinvolved, including theCouncil of AthabascanTribal Governments, TheIntertribal Bison Co-operative and others.

The NABSG is drafting astatus and conservation

action plan. It will provide a concise, authoritativeoverview of the history, biology and ecology of thetwo modern North American bison subspecies andtheir current numeric and geographic status inCanada, Mexico and the United States. It will offerscience and practice-based guidelines formanagement and restoration of populations and forgenetic conservation. The document emphasizesthe importance of maintaining the wild nature ofbison and restoring populations, where feasible, asan integral element of intact ecosystems, interactingwith other native species, playing other ecologicalroles and behaving as bison would under naturalconditions.

C. Cormack Gates, Co-Chair

ConiferTowards the first plant group to be usedas global headline indicator for trends inbiodiversity: conifers

The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)needs indicators by which to measure trends inglobal biodiversity in order to evaluate whether ornot progress is being made towards the target ofreducing the rate of biodiversity loss by 2010. Oneof these indicators can be provided by IUCN-SSCin the form of twice-assessments of wholetaxonomic groups with aglobal distribution. Amphib-ians and birds provide suchtools already, but plants arelagging behind. The mostcompletely assessed areConifers and Cycads. Thisarticle will assess the currentstatus of conifers and make acase for conifers to be thefirst global headline indicator among plants fortrends in biodiversity.

Conifers are among the best-evaluated groups ofplants in the world. A first attempt at acomprehensive assessment by the ConiferSpecialist Group resulted in the publication of ‘Apreliminary world list of threatened conifer taxa’in 1993. This evaluation of species was done priorto the publication of the IUCN criteria in 1994, butwith knowledge of the issues discussed in theformulation of those criteria. A few years after thatpublication and with the new criteria in hand, theConifer Specialist Group revisited all conifer taxafrom species to variety. The result was the GlobalRed List of Conifers, published in 1999 in the IUCNAction Plan for conifers. The subcategory LeastConcern, later elevated to a full category (LC) wasnot listed. A substantial number of taxa, 80 in total,remained technically Data Deficient (DD) eventhough a good number of them had been identifiedas Vulnerable (VU) or even Endangered (EN) in the1993 list. Since 1999, only incidental assessmentswere made using the 2001 criteria, sometimes ofspecies already assessed, because betterinformation had become available. Early in 2006, aconcerted effort was made by a small committeethat was brought together to assess all theremaining DD conifers. New developments inelectronic data processing had made it possible touse data obtained from herbarium collections in astructured way to help the assessments. At present,only 22 DD cases remain. Many of these areproblematic because they are often based on one-off collections which were described as newspecies while they cannot be relegated tosynonymy off-hand. To revisit their localities to findout how rare, or distinct, they really are is easierto propose than accomplish. The conservationstatus of conifers in August 2006 is presented inthe Table over.

The conservationaction plan will offer

science and practice-based guidelines for

management andrestoration of

populations and forgenetic conservation

Conifers could becomethe first major group ofplants to be used in aRed List Index

15

Wood bison Bison bison athabascae andPlains bison B.b. bison


All accepted taxon names 812(species and lower ranks)

All accepted species names 627

All accepted subspecies names 31

All accepted variety names 153

All accepted forma names 1

IUCN all sp. ssp. var. formacategories taxa

NE 2 2

DD 33 22 1 10

LC 389 287 16 84 1

NT 112 99 5 8

VU 162 120 6 36

EN 84 71 3 10

CR 30 26 4

812 627 31 153 1

Threatened 276 217 9 50(VU, EN, CR)

The present situation (August 2006) is that 34% ofall conifers are threatened with extinction in thewild if current trends continue.

It is very important that several non-relatedtaxonomic groups of organisms with worldwidedistributions (geographically and ecologically) arebeing assessed as completely as possible and assoon as possible. The only taxonomic groups ofplants with suitable baseline data at present arethe Cycads and the Conifers. Conifers are morevaluable for this purpose than Cycads, of which thedistribution, although wide, is much more restrictedboth in terms of geography and of ecology. Conifersoccur indeed worldwide and occupy nearly all themajor biomes of the terrestrial world. With theircomplete first assessment we have provided abaseline against which a second assessment in2009–10 would provide data to estimate a trend.The Conifers could then become the first majorgroup of plants to be used in a Red List Index.

For a second assessment to be made, the datacollected for the first assessment, including criteriaused, will be the baseline. Methods have recentlybeen developed by which in most cases collectiondata from herbarium specimens can be transformedinto a database providing information to assist inthe assessment. Gaps still to be filled in this databasehave been identified and the amount of workinvolved to fill these gaps has been estimated.Modest funding is required to have this essentialwork done, as it falls outside the normal activitiesof the Conifer Specialist Group, and a request forfundraising has been made to IUCN-SSC. Once thedata have been completed, the Conifer SpecialistGroup can do the second assessment of the

Conifers. With an average interval of 10 years, thesetwo assessments will give us the first real timeglobal Red List Index based on plants.

Aljos Farjon, Chair

Conservation breedingAmphibian Ark: keeping threatenedamphibian species afloat

The Global Amphibian Assessment revealed thatone-third to one half of the world’s 6,000 amphibianspecies are threatened with extinction and over 120have already disappeared in recent years. To achievethe vision of “A world that values and conservespresent levels of biodiversity” and prevent theextinction of hundreds of additional species, captivemanagement is required as a stopgap componentof an integrated conservation effort, as called forin the Amphibian Conservation Action Plandeveloped at the Amphibian Summit convened bythe Amphibian Specialist Group (ASG) in 2005. TheAmphibian Ark, or AArk, is a joint effort of theWorld Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA),the Conservation Breeding Specialist Group(CBSG) and the ASG. It is being formed to guideshort-term ex situ management to help ensurethe long-term survival in nature of amphibian taxafor which adequate protection in the wild is notcurrently possible. The AArkwil l coordinate ex situprogrammes implemented bypartners around the world,with the first emphasis onprogrammes within the rangecountries of the species andwith a constant attention toour obligation to couple ex situconservation measures withnecessary efforts to protect orrestore species in their naturalhabitats. AArk will lead a 2008 globally co-ordinated,zoo-based awareness and capital campaign, ‘Yearof the Frog’, to help zoos raise the funds to supportrapidly developing programmes for ex situ rescueef forts, in situ conservation, research andcommunication about the amphibian extinctioncrisis. The outcome of AArk will be that we willhave saved hundreds of species from imminentextinction so that effective long-term measures torestore and protect their populations in the wildcan be devised; developed capacity globally toprovide amphibian species with care andprotection when needed; formed effectivepartnerships between ex situ and in situcomponents of conservation and established amodel framework for responding to future speciesconservation crises.

Kevin C. Zippel, CBSG/WAZA Amphibian Program

Officer

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The outcome ofAArk will be that wewill have savedhundreds of speciesfrom imminentextinction


CraneNotable work in crane conservation in2006 was the development of a plan tostudy the trade of cranes in several Africannations; steps towards conserv-ation ofwetlands vital to Siberian cranes in China,Iran, Kazakhstan and Russia; and progresstoward restoration of Siberian cranes inwest Asia

Populations of grey-crowned (Balearicaregulorum), wattled (Bugeranus carunculatus)

and blue cranes (Anthro-poides paradisea) aresubject to increasing levelsof trade. Preliminaryevidence suggests theselevels of harvest areunsustainable. Under thedirection of Ms KerrynMorrison, information isnow being collected duringinvestigative studies on thesupply of cranes from areasin Kenya, Uganda, Tanzaniaand South Africa. She is alsostudying the demand for

cranes both regionally and inter-nationally. Basedon this information, the project aims to determinethe impact that trade is having on the long-termsurvival of cranes in Africa and to put in place therelevant and most effective mitigation measures tosecure the future of these species.

The first three years have been completed of a six-year UNEP-GEF funded project to protect wetlandsvital to Siberian cranes and other waterbirds inChina, Iran, Kazakhstan and Russia. An independentMid-term Review was conducted and endorsed bythe project’s Steering Committee and UNEP. Workplans for the second phase have been revisedbased on lessons learned. Highlights of the project’snumerous achievements include: allocation ofcritical water supplies to Zhalong Nature Reserve;

progress with research on the relationships linkingwater levels, water plants and waterbirds at PoyangLake Nature Reserve in China; increase in number,size and status of protected areas; establishmentof a non-shooting area in wintering areas inFereydoon Kenar in Iran and development of eco-agricultural guidelines; initiation of community-based site management plans for several projectsites and improved cooperation involvinggovernmental agencies and other partners.

Through support from the oil and gas company,ITERA, and the Strekh Foundation, Russianconservationists from the All-Russian Institute forNature Conservation and the Oka Nature Reserveled two Siberian cranes and two Eurasian craneson a test f light following ultra-light aircraft1,500 kms from the former breeding grounds ofthe Siberian cranes on the basin of the KunovatRiver to Belozerski Nature Reserve in southernRussia. After the migration, the four cranes weretaken back to Oka. They are to be released withwild cranes this spring with the hope they willmigrate north to the area where they fledged onthe basin of the Kunovat River. Eventually theRussians hope to lead flocks of juvenile Siberiancranes to winter with Eurasian cranes inUzbekistan.

This project is inspired by a programme in the USA,underway since 2001, to establish a migratorypopulation of whooping cranes that breeds inWisconsin and winters in Florida. To date there areabout 63 Whooping cranes in the newpopulation. In 2006, one pair nested in the wildand fledged two juveniles.

George Archibald, Chair

CrocodileStrengthening Siamese crocodile conserv-ation through community participation inLao PDR

The Siamese crocodile (Crocodylus siamensis) isconsidered one of the world’s most endangeredcrocodilians and is considered a high priority bythe IUCN-SSC Crocodile Specialist Group (CSG).Recent initiatives by CSG and its partnerorganizations include a review of crocodilemanagement and conservation in Cambodia,reintroductions and ongoing monitoring ofC. siamensis in Thailand and Vietnam (Cat TienNational Park) and habitat surveys in the lowerMahakam River in East Kalimantan, Indonesia. Littlewas known on the status and distribution ofC. siamensis in Lao People’s Democratic Republic,until preliminary surveys were carried out in 2003and 2005 (reported in Species 43).

These surveys confirmed the presence of smallremnant C. siamensis populations, including withinthe Champhone District, Savannakhet Province(central Lao PDR). Most crocodile populationsoccurred in wetlands outside of national protectedareas, indicating the importance of community-based

Two captive-rearedSiberian cranes areto be released with

wild cranes thisspring with the hope

they will migratenorth to the area

where they fledged

17

Whooping cranes Grus americana followingultralight aircraft


wetland management for crocodile conservation. Allwetlands where crocodiles were documentedare threatened by drainage for rice cultivation, fire,clearance or weed invasion.

Champhone District islocated in the centre of theXe Champhone Riversystem, a tributary of theXe Bang Hieng River. TheXe Bang Hieng catchmentincludes one of the largestlowland wetlands in

central and southern Lao PDR, where seasonallyflooded forests provide important habitat for fishproduction and aquatic biodiversity. Recom-mendations of the 2005 surveys conducted by theGovernment of Lao PDR, Mekong WetlandsBiodiversity Conservation Programme and WildlifeConservation Society–Lao Programme, includedfollow-up activities in Champhone District tostrengthen community awareness of crocodiles andinitiate wetland management where crocodilesoccur.

On 19–21 October 2006, a ‘Crocodile ConservationWorkshop’ and field trip were organized by WWFand the national Department of Livestock andFisheries (DLF) in Champhone District. Funded bythe WWF Lao ‘Community Fisheries Project’ and theWWF Living Mekong Pro-gramme, the workshopaimed to promote awareness of the 2005 crocodilesurvey results, including the importance of thedistrict for global conservation of C. siamensis, andto initiate planning for crocodile-related wetlandmanagement. Thirty-eight people from four districtsin Savannakhet Province attended the workshop,including provincial and district government staff(fishery, agriculture and forestry departments) andthe heads of eight villages. Three government stafffrom Attapeu Province (southern Laos, wherecrocodile breeding was also confirmed in 2005)also attended the workshop. A fact sheet aboutcrocodiles in Champhone District was preparedand distributed to participants.

The workshop enabled participants to discussmanagement of local wetlands for the benefit ofcommunities and biodiversity conservation. Villageheads presented information on the occurrence ofcrocodiles, community-managed wetlands and‘sacred’ wetlands in their respective lands. The headof Tansoum Village, close to a site where crocodilehatchlings were documented in 2005, reported thatcrocodiles had been seen again since then.Discussions resulted in a short-listing of key wetlandsites in Champhone District, which could be usedto plan and implement follow-up crocodilepopulation surveys.

The two days spent by workshop participantsvisiting six wetlands in Champhone District gavethem the opportunity to discuss crocodileconservation in the field and observe threats towetland and crocodile habitats. Crocodile dungcollected at one previously unvisited site extended

the confirmed occurrence of adult C. siamensis inLao PDR to a new locality. The workshop raisedconsiderable local interest and was reported innational newspapers. The Governor’s Office ofChamphone District attended and requestedsupport to develop a strategy for wetlandmanagement and crocodile conservation inChamphone District. The National Department ofLivestock and Fisheries and WWF are now planningfurther activities in Champhone District, includingbaseline crocodile status surveys in sites not visitedin 2005.

The CSG is currently providing technical advice tothe Mekong Wetlands Biodiversity Conservation andSustainable Use Programme for the preparation of aSiamese Crocodile Conservation Strategy and ActionPlan, to provide a framework for the recovery ofC. siamensis in the Lower Mekong Basin (LMB). Itis hoped that the Plan will facilitate the developmentof recovery plans within countries in the LMB(Thailand, Vietnam, Lao PDR and Cambodia) andoutside the LMB. The recent workshop in Lao PDRhighlights the need to involve local communities inthe conservation and management of the SiameseCrocodile.

Mark R. Bezuijen

DeerTwo recent venues have allowed deerspecialists to meet and exchange ideas,while new faces have joined the DeerSpecialist Group (DSG)

The 6th International Deer Biology Congress,hosted last August in Prague, Czech Republic, hadthe theme of ‘Deer in a Changing World’. Sessionscovered topics relating to management, diseases,ecology of invasive species, antler biology,behaviour and welfare, reproductive physiology, etc.Meanwhile, in September 2006 the VII Conferencefor International Management of Fauna in Amazoniaand Latin America was held in Ilhéus, Brazil.Mr Fernanda Braga organized and led a deersymposium which covered topics on ecology,endangered species and management measuresimplemented by state government and nationalorganizations.

In 2006 the focus is on reorganization of the DSGby improving regional co-ordination. The aim is topromote deer research, conservation of endangeredand focal deer species. New co-ordinators will becollaborating to improve DSG network skills.Dr José Maurício Barbanti Duarte, well known bymany among our membership as a conservationleader in neo-tropical deer species, will be vice chairof the DSG. The European region is co-ordinatedby Dr Alberto Ferreira, a well known field ecologistwho is heavily involved in management and ecologymethodologies for sustainable deer species use. Inthe North America region, Dr Sonia Gallina is theco-ordinator specialist for white tailed deer. In theAsian region Dr Orus Ilyas is the co-ordinator who

Most crocodile populationsoccurred in wetlands outside

of national protected areas

18


will be establishing a special link to promoteknowledge of endangered species and populationsin Asia. New Red List authorities Dr Patricia Blackde Decima and Dr Mariano Gimenez Dixon arepreparing submissions for the Red List Team. Activecollaboration is the means to achieve DSG goals.

Susana González, Alberto Ferreira, Fernanda Braga,

Sonia Gallina and Orus Ilyas

FlamingoAn African-Eurasian Waterbird Agree-ment/Convention on Migratory Species(AEWA/CMS) single-species action plan isbeing developed for the Near-Threatenedlesser flamingo of Africa and Asia

The workshop was organized by the FlamingoSpecialist Group of the IUCN Species SurvivalCommission and Wetlands International, with theassistance of the BirdLife Africa PartnershipSecretariat, the hosts in Nairobi. It was conductedby Dr Szabolcs Nagy of Wetlands International, Baz

Hughes of Wildfowl andWetlands Trust (WWT)and Sergey Dereliev of theUNEP/AEWA Secretariat.

Dr Geoffrey Howard,Regional Programme Co-ordinator in the IUCNEastern Africa RegionalOffice, opened theworkshop with lesser

flamingo (Phoenicopterus minor) action planningcomments from the past and for the future. Thiswas followed by presentations on workshopexpectations and a biological assess-ment of theLesser Flamingo by Szabolcs Nagy, PaulNdang’ang’a, Africa Species Co-ordinator for theBirdLife Africa Partnership Secre-tariat, and BrooksChildress, Chair of the IUCN-SSC/WetlandsInternational Flamingo Specialist Group.

Lesser flamingo status and distribution data for 21range states from India to Senegal, and from Djiboutito Namibia were presented. There were fouradditional presentations concerning the likelycauses of the recent lesser flamingo die-offs in EastAfrica; a new technique for conducting aerialcensus counts and the building of an artificialbreeding island for lesser flamingos.

The delegates agreed that the three most importantthreats to the future survival of the species werehabitat degradation at the key breeding and feedingsites, disruption of breeding colonies and the massdie-offs occurring in East Africa. The Wildfowl andWetlands Trust will co-ordinate the developmentand implementation of the action plan, with thefirst draft being available for review and commentby the range states early in 2007.

GrouseApplying IUCN Red List categories andcriteria to the Endangered subspecies:Cantabrian capercaillie (Tetrao urogalluscantabricus)

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species plays amajor role in con-servation policy and practice. Allbird species, but not subspecies, are regularlyassessed for their conservation status by theSpecies Survival Commission (SSC) of the WorldConservation Union (IUCN) based on its Red Listcategories and criteria. Subspecies are unfortunatelyleft out of the List because of capacity limitations.

The Grouse Specialist Group has recently assessedthe Cantabrian capercaillie (Tetrao urogalluscantabricus), a subspecies of thewestern capercaillie, endemic tothe Cantabrian Mountains ofnorthwest Spain, according to theIUCN Red List categories andcriteria. As expected, the sub-species qualifies as Endangereddue to rapid population declines,small population size and severelyfragmented range. The implemen-tation of a range-wide recoveryplan is vital for the survival of thissubspecies. Assigning an IUCN RedList category to this subspeciesmay strengthen the attention itreceives in conservation policy inSpain and the EU and thus the chances ofimplementing urgent conservation action.

Ilse Storch, Chair

IguanaExciting news comes from several IguanaSpecialist Group (ISG) recovery pro-grammes for critically endangered rockiguanas (Cyclura) in the Caribbean

The Blue Iguana Recovery Programme in GrandCayman has experienced a landmark event, record-ing the first wild nest to hatch successfully fromthe repatriated populationestablished in the CaymanIslands National Trustowned Salina Reserve. In2004 and 2005, 95 two-year old juvenile captive-bred Cyclura lewisi werereleased into the Reserve.In September 2006 a nestcontaining three recentlyhatched eggs wasdiscovered, conclusiveevidence of natural reproduction. In the BritishVirgin Islands (BVI) a group of 29 headstartedAnegada iguanas (Cyclura pinguis), were releasedin October 2006, bringing the total number ofrepatriations to 101 since 2003. Overall survival from

Introduced exotic mammalsare the primary threat toCaribbean iguana populationsand continue to confoundrecovery efforts for mostspecies

There werepresentations on the

likely causes of recentlesser flamingo die-offs

in East Africa

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Cantabrian capercaillieTetrao urogalluscantabricus


the first three years is roughly 85%. Also in October,27 newly hatched juveniles were collected frommarked nests and placed into an on-site headstartfacility. In total more than 50 of the 2006 hatchlingswill be headstarted for future release in an effortto overcome the suspected 100% juvenile mortalityrate from feral cat predation.

The Jamaican iguana recovery programme reportsthat 125 hatchling Cyclura collei emerged fromwild nests in September 2006, 20 of which weretaken to Kingston’s Hope Zoo for headstarting andthe remainder tagged with passive integratedtransponders (PIT tags) and released. Post partumfemales were radio tracked for the first time in 2006and reliable habitat use and home range data were

recorded on 20 adult iguanas. Unfortunately,incursions of charcoal burners and tree (Lignumvitae) cutters into the Hellshire Hills are increasingand moving closer to the core iguana area.Enforcement efforts have resulted in misdirectedthreats from forest users to the iguana field teamand security has become a serious concern. Ona positive note, the Indianapolis Zoo welcomed thefirst US hatching of 22 Jamaican iguanas lastmonth, a milestone for the captive effort thatsupports the overall conservation and recoveryprogramme. Updates can be found on theInternational Iguana Foundation’s website atwww.iguanafoundation.org.

Introduced exotic mammals (mongoose, cats,dogs, rats) are the primary threat to Caribbeaniguana populations and continue to confoundrecovery efforts for most species. To begin toaddress this issue, the ISG is developing acollaborative relationship with Island Conservation(IC), of Santa Cruz California, one of the leadinginvasive species control groups in the world. Todate, IC staff members have conducted eradicationassessments in the BVI, Turks and Caicos Islands

and Jamaica (Goat Islands). This new partnershipwill be highlighted at the upcoming annual ISGmeeting to be held in Puerto Rico 10–12 November2006.

Rick Hudson and Allison Alberts, Co-Chair

Invasive speciesThe Global Invasive Species Database(GISD) is a free, online searchable sourceof information about species thatnegatively impact biodiversity. Managedby the IUCN SSC Invasive SpeciesSpecialist Group (ISSG), the GISD aims toincrease public awareness about invasivespecies and to facilitate effectiveprevention and management activities

An attractive new GISD interface with additionalfeatures has recently been launched in September2006. Please view http://www.issg.org/database.

With more than 400 invasive species profilescompleted, the database currently receives anaverage of 900 unique visitors per day (58,000 hitsper day). GISD profiles are powerful awarenessraising tools. They can tell you about the harm aninvasive species has done elsewhere, how it isspread, its uses and how it is being controlled. GISDprofiles complement the ‘100 of the world’s worstinvasive alien species’ booklet, in that they haveboth succeeded in increasing the profile of invasivespecies issues around the world.

Feedback from users shows the database is beingused for practical invasive species management andawareness raising activities as well as schoolprojects, training and assessments.

Some recent GISD developments include deep linksto the Red List and Ramsar databases where invasivespecies are identified as threats, support forinitiatives on weeds of Mediterranean-typeecosystems and invasive species in French overseasterritories. We have renewed our longstandingagreement with the US Geological Survey’s NationalBiological Information Infrastructure to review andupload invasive species profiles they create. TheGISD has been included in the New Zealand/USAbilateral climate change programme.

None of this would be possible without the supportof ISSG members and other invasive species expertsaround the world who create or review contentfor the GISD.

Marine turtleThe Marine Turtles Specialist Group(MTSG) Burning Issues 3 (BI-3) Workshopwas convened at the Headquarters ofConservation International in Washing-ton, DC, to revisit, revise and expand the‘Burning Issues’ priority-setting process.Five main objectives were identified forthe BI-3 meeting:

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Biologist Kelly Bradley applies a visible paintmark to an Anegada iguana Cyclura pinguisprior to release; assisting is a a secondarystudent from the Anegada School


■ ■ Review and validate the BI Mission andprogress to date, address concerns voiced byMTSG members and sketch-out a tentativemulti-year work plan.

■ ■ Review progress and procedure for Red Listassessments and other types of riskassessments and priority-setting techniques.

■ ■ Develop an internet survey tool (and a strategy,timeline and work plan for its use) that willallow the MTSG regularly to access thecollective wisdom, knowledge and expertopinion of our far-flung membership.

■ ■ Discuss ways to communicate BI Resultsbroadly.

■ ■ Create a list of ‘Top Un-Answered Questions/Mysteries’ about sea turtle natural history, theunderstanding of which will better guideconservation and management efforts.

Red Listing and other Assessments

One of our most important mandates from theIUCN is the timely and accurate assessment of allsea turtle species. Dr Jeffrey Seminof, who hasheaded the Red Listing efforts for 18 months, madea compelling presentation at BI-3, including apreliminary review of the results of the recentsurvey sent to MTSG members. His talk led to adiscussion from which important decisions on thefuture directions of Red List and other types ofpriority assessments within the MTSG were made.

As the group concluded that managing Red Listingis a greater burden than a single volunteer canhandle, an Assessments Steering Committee (ASC)will be created. The ASC will be responsible for thetimely completion of Red List Assessment; willensure they reflect the highest degree of accuracyand scientific rigor and that they have the maximuminvolvement from the MTSG membership. It isenvisioned that this body will be functional priorto the end of 2006.

The ASC will steward a process that begins withthe selection of qualified Assessors who willprepare preliminary species Assessments, based onthe IUCN criteria. These will be distributed for peerreview by other leading experts and necessarychanges will be made before posting on the MTSGwebsite. Members will be given time to comment,question the Assessors and add anything pertinentto the data. Red List species assessments areperhaps the most publicly valuable contributionthat the MTSG can make to the conservation of seaturtles and they must serve as examples of thegroup’s professionalism and commitment.

It was agreed that the MTSG would commit inearnest to undertaking regional sea turtle statusassessments in each of the world’s four majorocean basins for sea turtles (Atlantic, Pacific, Indian,and Mediterranean). These exercises will bescheduled with the assistance of the Regional Vice-

Chairs, and will also serve as fora for team-buildingand technical training among members.

It was agreed that the ASCwould draft an overview toinclude the reas-ons whythe IUCN Red List Criteriaare not perfectly suited toglobally-ranging, long-lived, slow-reproducingcreatures; and howcomplementary method-ologies, such as regionalassessments, can helpround-out our understanding of sea turtle status.

MTSG Member Surveys

The group discussed the development of aninternet survey tool to engage the membership,harness the collective knowledge of the group toidentify priorities and make the BI meetings andoutputs more transparent. The group decided thatsurveys should be undertaken a few times a year,take no longer than 10–15 minutes and should bein English, French, and Spanish. Each survey willhave a theme and results will be reported to therespondents and to the MTSG as soon as possible.Results from surveys will be used to set prioritiesand act as an early warning mechanism for crises.Peter Schireson (of Schireson Associates,www.schireson.com), has agreed to work with thegroup to implement the survey.

Questions were drafted for the first two surveys, tobe completed before, and have results tabulated andanalyzed by, the MTSG Annual General Meeting atthe 27th Annual Sea Turtle Symposium in MyrtleBeach, SC, USA in February of 2007.

The major unanswered questions of sea turtlenatural history

One of the objectives of BI-3 was to develop a list of‘the major unanswered questions about sea turtlenatural history, the knowledge of which will helpus to better conserve these animals and theirhabitats’. The purpose of this list is to guide the MTSGmembership, students, researchers, conservationistsand donors towards a focus on the highest priorityissues. While not exhaustive, the list can also be usedfor public outreach and awareness and will aid theMTSG in fulfilling its mission.

Arising from the results of the most recent surveythe seven Key Unsolved Mysteries are:

■ ■ Where do sea turtles spend their first years oflife?

■ ■ What are the ecological roles of sea turtles andhow many do we need to fulfil those roles?

■ ■ What proportion of male sea turtles isnecessary to maintain a healthy population?

■ ■ How do sea turtles sense their environment?

■ ■ How do sea turtles navigate?

Red List species assessmentsare perhaps the most publiclyvaluable contribution that theMTSG can make to theconservation of sea turtles

21


■ ■ How will global warming affect sea turtles?

■ ■ What causes fibropapillomas?

Brian Hutchinson, Program Officer, Roderic Mast and

Nicolas Pilcher, Co-Chairs

Medicinal plantsProgress on the International Standardfor Sustainable Wild Collection ofMedicinal and Aromatic Plants (ISSC-MAP)

There has been substantial progress on thedevelopment of an International Standard forSustainable Wild Collection of Medicinal andAromatic Plants (ISSC-MAP), an undertakinginitiated in 2005 by MPSG through IUCN Canada,in partnership with WWF, TRAFFIC, and the GermanFederal Agency for Nature Conservation /Bundesamt für Natur-schutz (BfN).

The development phase of the standard hasinvolved consultation with a broad-based advisorygroup on two preliminary drafts; field consultationsand completion of an implementation study;stakeholder consultations and refinement of thetext of the standard in the first public working draft.Most recently, initial steps have been taken withkey partners to establish a governance and manage-ment structure that will move the ISSC-MAP fromdevelopment to implementation.

Four priority strategies have been identified thatwill provide a broad range of models and practicalexperience in applying the ISSC-MAP: certification(with a focus on organic, in partnership with theInternational Federation of Organic AgriculturalMovements/IFOAM); resource management, legaladoption and policy (e.g., through CITES non-detriment assessments); and voluntary codes ofpractice. Implementation projects in several regionsare currently being developed.

Information on the status and activities of thisinitiative is available via the project website (http://www.floraweb.de/map-pro).

Danna J. Leaman, Chair

MolluscThe Global Freshwater Mollusc Assess-ment, working closely with the IUCNFreshwater diversity Programme, aims toevaluate all 5,500 freshwater species by2010. Work in Africa is almost complete.A new initiative to work on threatenedmarine species is underway

Global freshwater mollusc assessment:2006–08

In 2001, a review of the IUCN Red List showed thatwithin the diverse Phylum Mollusca (c. 85,000species), the freshwater species (c. 5,500) appearedto be the most severely threatened; in somecountries over 60% of the bivalve fauna are underthreat of extinction. The freshwater molluscan fauna

divides into the Gastropods (Prosobranchs andPulmonates: c. 4,400 taxon) and the Bivalves (c.1,100 taxon). The bivalves are particularlyimportant to the continued health of freshwaterecosystems, as they provide the vital services ofwater filtering andcleaning. In contrast thegastropods provide foodfor humans, as well as birds,mammals and fish that livein the freshwater systems.However, the IUCN RedList presently onlydocuments ThreatenedSpecies, so the otherfreshwater species arebeing gradually assessed, topresent a more balancedview of the threats tofreshwater systems.

This programme aims to evaluate the 5,500 speciesthat live in freshwater systems by 2010. At present,most activity is part of the IUCN FreshwaterBiodiversity programme and workshops andspecies assessments have now been carried out inEast Africa, South Africa and West Africa. The currentstatus suggests that about 28% of the fauna in theregion meets the Threatened Criteria status. Furtherresearch is ongoing to delimit areas with a highpercentage of threatened species, using criteriaadapted for molluscs (like those developed forbirds), to identify Key Biodiversity Areas in Africa.

The region to be evaluated over the next six monthswill be North Africa, a fauna with most similarity tothe European and Mediterranean Fauna. This willrun in parallel with a programme on theMediterranean Europe, based from IUCN’sMediterranean Office. This will provide the greatestchallenge to date, as this region has one of thehigher diversities of freshwater faunas in the world,with an estimated 1,200 species to be assessed.

In addition, a random selection of additionalfreshwater molluscs from other regions of theworld will be assessed as part of a new programmeestablished by SSC, to provide an insight into theThreatened Status of species; this is part of theSample Red List Indicator research programmefunded by a grant to the Zoological Society ofLondon.

The next open meeting will be held at the WorldMalacological Congress in Antwerp, Belgium (21–22 July 2007). The main subject for debate at thismeeting will be Freshwater Molluscan faunas:threats and future research needs.

By the next World Congress in 2008, it is hopedthere will be a more complete picture of the threatsto freshwater faunas in North America, Europe andAfrica, as well as some indications of the speciesused by different societies, the percentage whichprovide ecosystem services and those that may beat risk from climate change. Funding is currently

The current statussuggests that about28% of the fauna inthe East Africa, SouthAfrica and West Africaregion meets theThreatened Criteriastatus

22


being sought, in conjunction with IUCN FreshwaterProgramme, to accelerate the rate of speciesassessments in other regions.

Threatened marine mollusc assessments

New initiatives are starting on threatened speciesassessments in the marine realm, with Abalone, anexploited group of marine gastropods, being thefirst project, lead by Dan Geiger working inpartnership with Kent Carpenters Global MarineAssessment programme. Two species have alreadybeen assessed and placed on the IUCN Red List andso the proposal to place some species on CITES,lead to the identification of a group where acomprehensive assessment was appropriate.

Mary Seddon, Chair

Sustainable useLondon Symposium and Workshop findsstrong links between recreationalhunting, conservation and rurallivelihoods

Organized by the IUCN SSC Sustainable UseSpecialist Group (SUSG) and attended by over 200people, the Symposium, Recreational Hunting,Conservation and Rural Livelihoods: Science andPractice, took place at London’s Zoological Societyon 12 and 13 October. Opening the meeting SUSGChair Jon Hutton said “This meeting breaks newscientific ground because for the first time we have

brought together leadingexperts and practitionersfrom around the world toexamine in depth theclaims that recreationalhunting makes a signif-icant contribution toconservation and rurallivelihoods.”

For the purposes of theSymposium recreationalhunting was given aworking definition of‘hunting where thehunter or hunters pursue

their quarry primarily for recreation or pleasure’.From an economic perspective it was recognizedthat there are two broad but not exclusive types:local hunting, where the hunter originates locallyto the hunting area, and hunting tourism, wherethe hunter travels a considerable distance, oftenabroad, and pays a substantial amount of moneyfor the hunting experience.

Some 35 contributors made 26 presentations whichranged from the origins of modern conservationin the initiatives taken by some famous hunters,through global overviews of recreational hunting,angling and falconry to regional models from NorthAmerica and Southern Africa, scientific studies ofthe effect of trophy off-takes on population

dynamics for species such as lion, red deer andbighorn sheep and the interactions of gamemanagement and agricultural policy. Case studiesdemonstrated how controlled hunting, involvingdecision-making by local people, had assisted theacceptance of restored populations of wood bisonin the Yukon; had played a critical role in therecovery of markhor goat and urial sheep numbersin the Torghar area of Pakistan and provided vitalincentives for the revival of the Lake Mburo Parkin Uganda.

Other presentations identified the circumstancesallowing or inhibiting photographic and huntingtourism to be combined in relatively smallprotected areas in South Africa; examined whatrights and benefits villagers in Zambia and Namibiasee as important to their own well-being in relationto hunting tourism by foreigners and theapplication of the Nunavut ‘IQ’ (all inherited,present and future knowledge of the community)to wildlife management and hunting by themselvesand others. Cases were presented of over-exploitation by hunting of antelopes in African aridlands and of corruption by a few key individualspreventing the revenues from tourist hunting beingmaximized for conservation and communitybenefit. The need for good governance at all levelswas a theme echoed by many speakers.

The application of the CITES regime to import andexport of hunting trophies was outlined. Whenexamining new approaches to improving thegovernance of hunting, various initiatives weredescribed defining principles, guidelines, criteriaand indicators for sustainable hunting in Europe;as was an outline code of conduct derived from ananalysis of sport hunting in Southern Africa.Possibilities for certifying hunting at a local levelon the lines of forestry schemes were considered,but something much simpler was advocated. In herconcluding remarks to the Symposium, SSC ChairHolly Dublin set out the challenges of a rapidlyevolving international agenda, while affirming that“a common passion for conserving wildlife uniteseveryone who has taken part in this meeting”.

Immediately following the symposium, on 14 and15 October, the SUSG held a workshop attendedby some 70 people to examine a range of possibletools for enhancing the sustainability of recreationalhunting, including standards, certification,principles, codes and charters and to determinewhether there were topics on which it could workwithin IUCN, as well as those managing andparticipating in recreational hunting. Among theoutcomes to be further considered by the SUSGare work on broad principles of global relevanceand examples of best practice relating to them, aswell as the need for wider understanding of thecontribution which hunting makes to pro-biodiversity land management and livelihoods.

Robin Sharp, Chair European Regional Group, SUSG

Case studiesdemonstrated howcontrolled hunting,involving decision-

making by local people,had assisted the

acceptance of restoredpopulations

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Syngnathid (seahorses andtheir relatives) Red ListAuthorityData, resources and tools to enhanceseahorse conservation

A new initiative to advance seahorse conserv- ationhas been star ted by Project Seahorse(www.projectseahorse.org), the IUCN Red ListAuthority for syng-nathids (seahorses and theirrelatives) with financial supp-ort from the WhitleyFund for Nature.

The project will produce a web-based resource forresearchers, fisheries managers, and otherinterested parties. Its main audience will be nationalagencies responsible for ensuring that all exportin seahorses is sustainable, under CITES regulationsimplemented in 2004 (www.cites.org).

The website will have three main components andwill use simple, intuitive interfaces. The first sectionwill include documents on the status of seahorsepopulations, their biology and trade, plus generaltopics that may be useful to seahorse conservation,such as survey protocols. The second section willprovide country-specific information, initially forthe major seahorse trading nations, but withexpansion to other countries in due course. The

third section will offertools to consider andcompare potentialmanagement optionsfor seahorses. It ishoped to includeevaluations of risk anduncertainty, so thatpolicy-makers andmanag-ers can examinedifferent scenarios forseahorse conservation.

Project Seahorse willbe consulting inter-ested parties exten-sively on the content,appearance and navi-gation of the website. Itshould be on line inmid-2007. The CITESSecretariat is support-ive of the project andshares hopes that thismight become a modelfor providing species-specific information

and capacity building resources of use to CITESParties.

For more information please contact theProject Co-ordinator, Dr Keith Martin-Smith([email protected]) or Dr AmandaVincent, Director of Project Seahorse([email protected]).

TapirThe updated Baird’s Tapir Action Plan iscomplete and the Tapir Specialist Group(TSG) Fundraising Committee is currentlyworking on the development of a list of‘Top Ten Tapir Conservation projects’

The new, updated ‘Baird’s Tapir Action Plan’,developed during the ‘Baird’s Tapir Populationand Habitat ViabilityAssessment (PHVA)Workshop’ held in Belizein 2005, has been final-ized and made availableonline on the TapirSpecialist Group (TSG)website. Three of four tapirspecies have been thefocus of previous PHVAworkshops – Malay Tapir(Malaysia, 2003), MountainTapir (Colombia, 2004)and Baird’s Tapir (Belize,2005) – and one lastspecies is left to work with– the Lowland Tapir. The‘Lowland Tapir PHVAWorkshop’ will be heldfrom April 15 to 19, 2007,at the Sorocaba Zoo, São Paulo State, Brazil.

The TSG Fundraising Committee has just finalizedthe 2006 Funding Cycle of the TSG ConservationFund. Twelve proposals were received and six ofthem were selected to receive a grant of US$1,000each. Selected proposals included conservationprojects on Baird’s tapirs in Guatemala and Mexico,mountain tapirs in Colombia and lowland tapirs inArgentina, Brazil and Paraguay. A TSG List ofEndorsed Projects has been created which is amenu of 55 tapir conservation initiativesworldwide. The List has been made available on thewebsite and will soon be distributed to potentialfunding sources, including zoos in North America,Europe, Latin America and Asia, as well asconservation organi-zations and other fundinginstitutions. Additionally, the TSG FundraisingCommittee is currently working on thedevelopment of a list of ‘Top Ten Tapir ConservationProjects’, very much in the same way the IUCNPrimate SG developed a list of 25 Most EndangeredPrimates. This initiative is listed as a priority actionon the TSG Strategic Planning 2006–2007,developed during the Third International TapirSymposium held in Argentina in January 2006, andcomes from our need to focus our fundraisingefforts to raise funds for priority projects. The listwill be a living directory which will be re-evaluatedevery two years during the Symposium.

Paticícia Medici, Chair William Konstant, Deputy Chair

Seahorse Hippocampusabdominalis

TSG member DiegoLizcano radio-collaringa mountain tapirTapirus indicus in LosNevados National Park,Colombia

24


Invertebrate ConservationSub-Committee (ICSC)This has been a very busy time for the SSC/ICSCrelative to following through the SSC Strategic Planand taking into account the plans for restructuring.Invertebrates are still very much on the agenda forSSC, even though currently there are only two extantSpecialist Groups. These are the Mollusc SG and theOdonta SG, both of which have been highly activein Red Listing species in their respective groups.Much discussion has also taken place on thedevelopment of a Global Dragonfly Assessment tofollow along the lines of the very successful GlobalAmphibian Assessment. The dragonflies of Africahave already been assessed under the auspices ofthe African Freshwater Assessment, where data onFreshwater crabs and Molluscs have also beencaptured. The aim is to continue, at least withdragonfly assessments, in other continents, withfunding to do this now being sought.

Marine and terrestrial (including aquatic)invertebrates are being considered separately butnot necessarily completely mutually exclusive. Thisseparate consideration is because the issues andthreats surrounding marine invertebrates are mostlydifferent from those facing terrestrial invertebrates.In the marine realm, issues such as overexploitationand bycatch are of paramount importance, whileon land, problems facing invertebrates includelandscape fragmentation and habitat loss. It is likelythat the Marine and the Terrestrial invertebrates will

each have their own GlobalRed List Authorities. Under forexample, the TerrestrialInvertebrate Red ListAuthority will be a range ofFocal Points (i.e. scientificexperts) engaged in the RedListing process. Supp-lementing the taxonomic FPs/RLAs will be Geographic FPs/RLAs to deal with regionalissues across many taxa.

These restructuring plans arestill being discussed and allcomments are welcome. Evenmore important at this stageis to welcome on board anypotential FPs. So, if you areinterested in promoting RedListing and conservation of a

particular taxonomic group, or if you are interestedin promoting invertebrates in a particulargeographical area, the ISCS would very much liketo hear from you. Quite simply, there is such a hugeamount to do to stem the tide of extinction of therich tapestry of life that any volunteer activity ismost welcome indeed.

Michael Samways

Marine ConservationSub-Committee (MCSC)The need to strengthen and focus marine workwithin the SSC, as well as link it withcomplementary activities both within and outsideof IUCN, has grown as marine issues attract evermore attention and concern. Specifically, theimportance of integrating existing efforts andinitiatives, prioritizing marine work and increasingSSC representation in a wide range of species-focused marine conservation forums is recognized.To meet these needs a new Marine ConservationSub-Committee (MCSC) is being created. The SCreports to the Steering Committee of the SSC.(http://www.iucn.org/themes/ssc/our_work/marine/indexmarine.htm)

Priority targets were identified following twopreparatory meetings (below) and will include afocus on species representative of key pressures,direct and indirect threats to species fromoverexploitation, 2010 indicators and possiblecross-taxa implications of bycatch mitigationmeasures. Species issues that emerge as a result ofmariculture and stock enhancement activities arealso of considerable interest to this new SC.

Two preparatory meetings were conducted; the firstin Puerto Madryn, Argentina, in December 2005with the Chairs of all marine Specialist Groups, anda later planning meeting with other marine expertsand partners (including the IUCN MarineProgramme, WCPA, the Global Marine SpeciesAssessment project, TRAFFIC, etc.) in Wattens, inAugust 2006. The Wattens meeting was for strategyplanning, to prioritize and structure target activitiesand areas and to shape the work and membershipof the MCSC. This SC will be constituted shortlyand will update members on activities. Reportsfrom both meetings are available on the website:http://www.iucn.org/themes/ssc/our_work/marine/governance.htm

Yvonne Sadovy and Claudio Campagna

From the SSCSteering CommitteeSub-groups

The Ochre Presba,a remarkable newdiscovery in theCape FloristicRegion, S. Africa 25


Review of the definitionand selection of protectedareas for speciesconservationIt might seem obvious that protected areasaim to protect species. But in fact thereare particular types of protected areadesigned specifically for conservingspecies and IUCN is currently reviewinghow these and other protected areas willbe defined in the future. Species SurvivalCommission members need to engage inthese debates if the Commission’s voiceis to be heard

During the late 20th century there was anunprecedented upsurge in the creation ofprotected areas so that over 10% of the world’s landsurface is now under protection; almost certainlythis was the fastest and largest conscious change inland use in history. Yet the phrase ‘protected area’covers many management regimes from areas sohighly protected that no-one is allowed to enter, to

cultural landscapes containing largeand settled human communities. In1994, after years of debate andseveral false starts, IUCN agreed todivide protected areas into six orseven categories based onmanagement objectives. Initially

these were conceived mainly as a statistical tool, buthave been adapted for other tasks including settinglegal and policy frameworks, planning protected areasystems and providing advice to managers. Thecategories are as follows (abbreviated from the 1994guidelines):

■ ■ Category Ia: area managed mainly for scienceor wilderness protection – possessing someoutstanding or representative ecosystems,geological or physiological features and/orspecies, available primarily for scientificresearch and/or environmental monitoring.

■ ■ Category Ib: protected area managed mainlyfor wilderness protection – large unmodifiedor slightly modified area retaining its naturalcharacteristics and inf luence, withoutpermanent or significant habitation, which isprotected and managed to preserve its naturalcondition.

■ ■ Category II: protected area managed mainlyfor ecosystem protection and recreation –natural area designated to (a) protect theecological integrity of one or more ecosystems,(b) exclude exploitation or occupationinimical to the purposes of designation and (c)

provide a foundation for spiritual, scientific,educational, recreational and visitoropportunities.

■ ■ Category III: protected area managed mainlyfor conservation of specific natural features –area containing specific natural or natural/cultural feature(s) of outstanding or uniquevalue because of their inherent rarity,representativeness or aesthetic qualities orcultural significance.

■ ■ Category IV: protected area managed mainlyfor conservation through managementintervention – area subject to activeintervention for management purposes so asto ensure the maintenance of habitats to meetthe requirements of specific species.

■ ■ Category V: protected area managed mainlyfor landscape/seascape conservation orrecreation – area where the interaction ofpeople and nature over time has produced anarea of distinct character with significantaesthetic, ecological and/or cultural value andoften with high biological diversity.

■ ■ Category VI: protected area managed mainlyfor the sustainable use of natural resources –area containing predominantly unmodifiednatural systems, managed to ensure long-termprotection and maintenance of biologicaldiversity, while also providing a sustainableflow of natural products and services.

Protected areas in all six categories also need tomeet the criteria laid out in IUCN’s definition of aprotected area: ‘An area of land and/or sea especiallydedicated to the protection and maintenance ofbiological diversity, and of natural and associatedcultural resources, and managed through legal orother effective means’.

News Features

Over 10% of the world’sland surface is nowunder protection

Wilderness in Namibia26


Of all the categories, number IV is currently theone most closely associated with protection ofspecies, indeed its current name is ‘Habitat/Speciesprotected area’. (There is a proposal to drop namesaltogether in the new guidelines because of theconfusion caused – for instance ‘national parks’ arefound in every category and some are not evenprotected areas as recognized by IUCN.) Theoriginal aim of this category was to include areasset aside to protect a single species or a fairlynarrow habitat; thus being different from a categoryII protected area which aims to contain largerecosystems containing many species. Examples of‘typical’ category IV protected areas familiar to SSCmembers would be, for instance, individualmeadows protected because they containparticular rare flower species, small mire habitatsset aside within managed forests, wintering areasfor cranes where supplementary feeding isrequired, or abandoned quarries that are valuablebecause they contain scarce cliff habitats.

The inference is that because these protected areasare not fully functioning ecosystems (usuallybecause of their small size) they will thereforerequire continuing human intervention if they areto maintain their values. But there is an anomaly inthat currently the detail of the category defines itby the need for intervention, rather than by theend result as in the case of all other categories. Thereare currently many small nature reserves that arenot actively managed, but do not easily fit into othercategories – they are not strictly protected, orecosystems, or natural monuments, or culturallandscapes and are not being managed forsustainable use. It is therefore proposed to changethe definition of category IV slightly, to bring it moreclosely in line with the original intention ofencompassing areas set aside to protect particularspecies, groups of species or habitats: the classicsmall nature reserves that fulfil a vital function inprotecting nature in highly populated landscapessuch as those of much of Europe.

The primary objective would therefore become:

■ ■ Conservation of habitats and species in partsof ecosystems.

With other objectives (which must not underminethe primary objective) being:

■ ■ To secure and maintain the habitat conditionsnecessary to protect significant species, groupsof species or biotic communities

■ ■ To preserve culturally-important managementapproaches and vegetation patterns

■ ■ To facilitate scientific research andenvironmental monitoring

■ ■ To develop public education and appreciationof the characteristics of the habitats and/orspecies concerned

■ ■ To eliminate, where necessary, and thenprevent occupation or exploitation inimical tothe purposes of designation

■ ■ To deliver benefits to people living in or nearto the designated area.

The area should usually play an important role inthe protection and survival of [1] importanthabitats, [2] species of nationally or locally-important flora and/or [3] resident or migratoryfauna. Size should depend on needs of the habitator species but will often be relatively small.Management approaches could differ. Protectionmay sometimes be sufficient, but, since categoryIV only includes part of an ecosystem, it may notbe self-sustaining and thus require activeintervention. Three broad management approachesmay be suitable:

■ ■ Protection of natural or semi-natural ecosystemfragment: e.g. small protected wetlands inScandinavia or rainforest fragments protectingparticular lemur species in Madagascar

■ ■ Active management of natural or semi-naturalecosystem fragment: e.g. wetlands maintainedby controlled cattle grazing in India

■ ■ Active management of culturally-definedecosystems: e.g. olive groves in theMediterranean and tembawang fruit gardensin Borneo.

‘Active management’ is taken here to mean that theoverall functioning of the ecosystem is beingmodified by, for instance, halting natural succession,providing supplementary food sources or artificiallycreating microhabitats – in other words somethingmore than removing artificial threats, such as anti-poaching measures or even in most cases removalof invasive species. Category IV protected areas canbe generally open to humans for management itself,recreational visits, or the sustainable use of naturalresources compatible with the conservation of thespecies of reference. As for all other categories,examples of category IV areas can be found withinall governance types (state and privately ownedprotected areas, community conserved areas andco-management arrangements).

Category IV protected areas frequently play a rolein ‘plugging the gaps’ in conservation mosaics byprotecting key species or habitats in ecosystemsthat have otherwise been substantially altered. Theycan be used, for instance, to protect fragments ofremaining habitat and associated species, securestepping stones or breeding sites for migratoryspecies or provide management strategies in bufferzones around, or corridors between, more strictlyprotected areas.

However, none of this is fixed in stone and eventhe co-authors of the paper examining category IVare still debating between themselves. How todistinguish between ‘ecosystem’ and ‘habitat’? Whendoes a category IV protected area become soheavily influenced by human activity that it is betterdefined as a category V cultural landscape orseascape? If sustainable use of various species canbe compatible with the conservation of the speciesof reference for the category IV protected area, 27


Ramsar adopts a newsite-selection criterion:implications for SpecialistGroupsThe adoption of new site-selectioncriterion by Ramsar’s Conference ofParties (CoP) last year provides a majornew opportunity for Specialist Groups tocontribute to the conservation ofwetland habitats

One of the longest-standing of the criteria foridentifying Ramsar sites is the so-called ‘1%Criterion’ (actually numbered Criterion 6). Thisindicates that:

‘A wetland should be considered internationallyimportant if it regularly supports 1% of theindividuals in a population of one species orsubspecies of waterbird.’

Since its adoption in 1974 the criterion has appliedjust to waterbirds. Its application is simple and itrequires just an estimate of numbers of waterbirdsat a particular wetland to be proportionately relatedto the total numbers of individuals in the relevantbio-geographic population. It is also intuitive – easilyunderstood by non-scientific decision makers – andeasily applicable. Indeed, by September last year,516 of the 1462 Ramsar sites (>35%) had beendesignated using Criterion 6; more than any otherof the ‘specific’ criteria.

The suggestion that the applicability of the waterbird1% Criterion could be broadened to other taxa isnot new and has been discussed at several previousRamsar CoPs as far back as CoP 3 in 1987. IndeedIUCN-SSC had made previous presentations totechnical sessions at CoP 4 (1990) and CoP 5 (1993)exploring how such an approach might work for arange of non-avian taxa and urged its uptake.

In 2004 Ramsar’s Scientific and Technical ReviewPanel (STRP) once again posed the question as towhether, given the wide application of Criterion 6,a similar approach might be adopted for non-avianwetland animals. This also coincided with a requestto Ramsar from the Biodiversity Convention that

what distinguishes it then from a category VI? Ifthe IUCN’s assumption is taken that category isdetermined primarily by the main managementobjective; then the fundamental aim of protectingspecies and habitats may be distinguishing featureenough. Your views would be welcome.

A more detailed paper on category IV can be foundon a special section of the WCPA website alongwith many other papers from the task force.The categories will be debated at a major summitin Spain in March 2007 and the new guide-lines prepared later in that year. For furtherinformation contact Nigel Dudley [email protected]

Nigel Dudley and Grazia Borrini-Feyerabend

quantitative approaches to the identification ofRamsar sites might be considered for non-aviantaxa. As a result, STRP undertook a wide consult-ation with valuable input from several SpecialistGroups.

This review concluded that there seemed to be nofundamental reasons why a 1% criterion shouldnot also be applicableto non-avian taxa. Whilstthere will always belimitations on the app-licability of a quantitativeapproach to site selection— for example, data onpopulation sizes that ispoor or lacking or in-effectiveness of application for species which donot aggregate at high densities — these are nodifferent to similar constraints in the applicationof Criterion 6 for many waterbirds.

A new criterionIn November 2006 Ramsar’s CoP 9 formallyadopted the new criterion, the first addition to itssuite of site selection criteria for almost a decade.Criterion 9 states:

‘A wetland should be considered internationallyimportant if it regularly supports 1% of theindividuals in a population of one species orsubspecies of wetland-dependent non-aviananimal species.’

At the same time the parties also adopted the long-term target:

‘to have included in the Ramsar List all wetlandswhich regularly support 1% or more of abiogeographical population of one non-aviananimal species or subspecies.’

Its application will rely both on site-related data(local population assessments) as well asinformation on the sizes of international or bio-geographic populations. The effectiveness of

Wetlands in Latvia

In November 2006Ramsar’s CoP 9formally adopted thenew criterion

28


Criterion 5 relies on a triennial publicationWaterbird Population Estimates1 (WPE), publishedby Wetlands International, which collates ‘best’estimates of the sizes of biogeographical populationsizes. It does this following consultation with thewaterbird Specialist Groups. Ramsar hasrecommended to its Parties that WPE be used as adefinitive source of population estimates and 1%thresholds for the application of Criterion 6.

The work already being undertaken by IUCN-SSCSpecialist Groups to assess and report estimates ofpopulation sizes clearly now also has a majorpotential role in supporting the application of thenew criterion. In this way it will assist in theidentification of wetlands of internationalimportance that will qualify for national listingunder the Convention. Particular groups to whichit is envisaged that Criterion 9 may be applicableinclude a range of aquatic ‘mega-fauna’ includingsome crocodiles, river dolphins, turtles, seals andwetland cervids.

Next stepsFollowing the formal endorsement of the newcriterion, STRP have been charged with developingprocesses to collate the relevant data andinformation needed to allow its application. Aninitial listing of estimates and derived 1% thresholdshas been collated from the literature, including frommany IUCN Action Plans. STRP will be consultingwith relevant Specialist Groups as to theapplicability of these.

Ramsar envisages the publication of bestpopulation estimates of relevant taxa on a triennialbasis, probably in a similar format to WPE. Thesewill be made widely available online as an issue ofthe new Ramsar Technical Reports series.

The new criterion provides a major opportunityto advance the conservation of many wetlanddependant species through use of existing countdata to highlight the international importance ofcritical wetland habitats.

David Stroud, Scientific and Technical Review Panel

Tributes to two of SSC’schampions – Ralph Dalyand Bertrand des ClersRalph Hinshelwood Daly OBERalph Daly, who died on 24 Septemberaged 82, spent the greater part of his lifein the Arab world including his last 37years in the Sultanate of Oman. His workhelped Oman to become a regional leaderin biodiversity conservation and hedeveloped a particularly close rela-tionship with the SSC. He will be bestremembered for the early success of theArabian oryx project and his key role inthe Sultanate’s generous support of the

SSC’s Sir Peter Scott Fund forConservation ensured alasting legacy for futureconservationists

In 1974 Daly was appointed bySultan Qaboos Bin Said as theAdviser for Conservation of theEnvironment. He immediatelyembarked on organizing the first ofthree ambitious multi-disciplinarysurveys: the Oman Flora and FaunaSurvey of the northern mountains(1975), the Oman Flora and FaunaSurvey of Dhofar (1977) and theRGS’s survey of the Wahiba Sands(1986). In 1975 he helped Omanbecome a State Member of IUCNand later obtained IUCN and WWFbacking for surveys of the endangered Arabian tahr,marine turtles and sooty falcons as well as forstudies to develop a System for Protected Areas andfor a Coastal Zone Management Plan. The results ofthese surveys, many of which were published inthe Journal of Oman Studies, another of Daly’sinitiatives, became the principal reference for futureconservation and development programmes.

However, it was for his work to restore the Arabianoryx to the desert of central Oman that Daly wasbest known. Daly himself recalled ‘In 1974 SultanQaboos bin Said said to me: “And what shall we doabout the oryx?”’ Daly now had a wonderfulopportunity to continue the remarkable story thathad started in 1963 with ‘Operation Oryx’, whichresulted in the establishment of a breeding groupin Phoenix Zoo, Arizona to save the species fromextinction. Reintroduction was, at that time, largelyuntried and so Daly sought the advice and supportof the world’s conservation community workingclosely with WWF and, what was then, the SurvivalService Commission of IUCN.

In 1979 the first oryx were brought home and, aftera lengthy preparation period, released back to thedesert on 31 January 1982. Under the watchful eyeof the local tribesmen the wild oryx prospered andby 1996 the wild population had grown to nearly450 and roamed freely over the vast ‘Arabian OryxSanctuary’: Oman’s first protected area andinscribed on the UNESCO World Natural Heritagelist, the first in the region. Sadly, the success wassuch that it attracted the interest of the illegalregional trade in wildlife and a new outbreak ofpoaching greatly reduced oryx numbers. Deeplysaddened by this Daly continued to fight for theoryx.

Daly’s work helped Oman to become a regionalleader in biodiversity conservation. On theinternational stage Daly worked closely with IUCN,WWF and FFI and he developed a particularly closerelationship with the Species Survival Commissionof IUCN where he will be best remembered. TheReintroduction Specialist Group was created afterthe early success of the oryx project in Oman and

Ralph Daly

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in 1990 the Sultanate’s generous support of the SirPeter Scott Fund for conservation ensured a lastinglegacy for future conservationists. In 1975 Daly hadtaken an Omani delegation to the IUCN GeneralAssembly for the first time and in 2000, at the ageof 76, he attended his last global congress inAmman, Jordan. Leaving Amman he left behind aninternational family of friends and supporters ofOman.

Daly’s outstanding work in the field of conservationwon him the Order of Oman (Civil) in 1980, theOrder of the Golden Ark in 1985 and was laterhonoured by the Royal Geographical Society, theFlora and Fauna Preservation Society and theUniversity of Durham. His wife Elizabeth surviveshim. She shared his strong affection for Oman,which became their home, adoptive country andthe place where Daly was buried.

Dr Andrew Spalton

Baron Bertrand des ClersBertrand des Clers, a member of IUCN formore than 30 years and ‘Member Emeritus’of the Species Survival Commission left us

on October 9. As Director ofthe International Foundationfor the Conservation of Game(IGF) since its inauguration in1976, until his retirement in2001, he was very well placedto advocate sustainable use ofwildlife as a conservationtechnique and as a means toreconcile the imperatives ofdevelopment with the necess-ities of conservation

Although he trained as anaeronautical engineer at theUniversity Johns Hopkins ofBaltimore in the USA, Bertrand desClers devoted most of hisprofessional life to the conservationof wild fauna.

A member of IUCN for more than30 years, he was ‘Member Emeritus’ of the SpeciesSurvival Commission. He had been a member ofseveral IUCN Commissions, the World Commissionon Protected Areas, the Commission onEnvironmental Law and the Survival Species Com-mission. He was also Chairman of the IUCN/SSCEthnozoology Specialist Group, at one time.

In 1976, HIH Prince Abdorreza of Iran asked himto take over the responsibility for developing theInternational Foundation for the Conservation ofGame (IGF), an organization the Prince wasestablishing. Bertrand des Clers served as Directorof IGF until his retirement in 2001. In this capacity,he carried out a wide range of wildlife conservationprojects around the world, e.g.:

■ ■ Creation of two new protected areas in theMongolian People’s Republic

■ ■ Reintroduction of the wood bison in Canada

■ ■ Conservation of the forest reindeer in Finland

■ ■ Elephant anti-poaching in the Central AfricanRepublic

■ ■ Black rhino rescue in Zimbabwe

■ ■ Reintroduction of the dama gazelle in Moroccoand of the scimitar-horned oryx in Tunisia

■ ■ Promotion of community-based naturalresource management programmes (CBNRM)in Southern Africa.

He had been very involved in the drafting of severalinternational conventions in the domain ofenvironment: the CMS, CITES and CBD. Anenthusiastic naturalist and wise hunter since hisyouth, he was very well placed to advocatesustainable use of wildlife as a conservationtechnique and as a means to reconcile theimperatives of development with the necessitiesof conservation.

Among his many credits, he served as:

■ ■ Director of the International Foundation forthe Conservation of Wildlife from 1976 to 2001

■ ■ Assistant Admin-istrator General of theInternational Council for Game and WildlifeCon-servation (CIC) and Chairman of the CICTropical Game Commission

■ ■ Vice-President for Europe of GameConservation International

■ ■ Vice-President of the International Union ofGame Biologists (IUGB)

■ ■ Founder of the European Bureau forConservation and Development (EBCD)

■ ■ Member of Honour of the Board Meeting ofthe International Association of ProfessionalHunters (IPHA).

The work of Bertrand des Clers may best besummed up in his own words:

“In our modern society, man’s domination overnature is overwhelming. The industrialized nationsare destroying the remaining outposts of unspoiltnature while developing countries turn all availableland over to crop or pasture in their efforts toincrease food production and cash returns toensure the livelihood of their growing populations.Mankind, ignorant of ecological interdependenciesof which scientists are only now beginning toappreciate the complexity, has selected vegetableand animal species which could easily bedomesticated, in the process, wild species,considered to be either valueless or harmful, weresacrificed…”

Philippe Chardonnet, Co-Chair IUCN SSC Antelope

Specialist Group

Bertrand des Clers

30


West African black rhinofeared extinctWhile most subspecies of Africa’s two rhinos, theblack and white rhino, continue on the road torecovery, this is not true for two of Africa’s mostthreatened rhino subspecies: the West African blackDiceros bicornis longipes and the northern whiteCeratotherium simum cottoni. The West Africanblack rhino is now feared extinct and numbers ofthe northern white rhino have reached an all timelow in the wild. In both cases, poaching for rhinohorn is the main cause of their demise.

Full story:http://www.iucn.org/en/news/archive/2006/07/7_pr_rhino.htm

Amphibian global actionteam needed to avoid anextinction catastropheThe formation of an Amphibian Survival Alliance(ASA), to co-ordinate global conservation plans foramphibians in the face of the threat of a massiveextinction catastrophe has been called for by a groupof the world’s foremost amphibian experts, in thelatest edition of the journal Science. The IUCN SSCAmphibian Specialist Group of the WorldConservation Union (IUCN) would head the newASA and have an initial five-year budget of$400 million.

Full story:http://www.iucn.org/themes/ssc/news/2006_articles/amphibian_action_team.htm

Conservation of a coralreef giant – the humpheadwrasse

The IUCN SSC Groupers andWrasses Specialist Group isplaying a central role in thedevelopment of a sustainablemanagement plan for thehumphead wrasse (Cheilinusundulatus) fishery. A highlyprized food fish, over-fishing ishaving a serious impact onmany populations and it wasadded to Appendix II of theConvention on InternationalTrade in Endangered Species ofWild Fauna and Flora (CITES)in 2004. Following its listing,the IUCN Groupers and

Wrasses Specialist Group was contracted by theCITES Secretariat to develop a sustainablemanagement plan (Non-Detriment Findings), basedon trade, fishing and population surveys in the field.Their findings have recently been published in tworeports; with a third due out in 2007.

Full story:http://www.iucn.org/themes/ssc/news/2006_articles/Humphead_wrasse_report.htm

Fencing spells disaster forthe last of China’sPrzewalski’s gazellesChina’s only endemic antelope, the Przewalski’sgazelle (Procapra przewalskii) is in imminent perilas less than 300 animals remain. The SSC Sir PeterScott Fund for Conservation Action has supporteda population and habitat survey undertaken by DrZhigang Jiang of the IUCN SSC Antelope SpecialistGroup. The study aims to identify the reasons forits decline and the conservation measures neededto save it. The area inhabited by the gazelle is heavilygrazed by sheep and the introduction of extensivefencing in 1994 has had a very detrimental impact:less than 300 gazelles have to compete with over 3million livestock and fencing has made things a lotworse.

Full story:http://www.iucn.org/themes/ssc/news/2006_articles/Przewalski%27s_gazelle.htm

SSC crane expert receivesIndianapolis ZooConservation AwardIn honour of more than 30 years of dedication tosaving endangered crane species, the IndianapolisZoo awarded the inaugural $100,000 IndianapolisPrize, to George Archibald, Chair of the IUCN SSCCrane Specialist Group. It is the largest internationalmonetary award given to an individual forconservation of a single animal species. GeorgeArchibald’s work includes everything from dancingwith human-reared cranes to enhance fertilization,to promoting a programme to re-establish amigratory flock of Whooping cranes in easternNorth America by teaching juvenile cranes to followultralight aircraft from Wisconsin to Florida.

Full story:http://www.savingcranes.org/award/index.cfm

News Round-up

31

The humpheadwrasse Cheilinusundulatus


The Behler Award forfreshwater turtleconservation

Dr Edward O. Moll, a life-long turtleresearcher and conservationist, is the firstrecipient of the Behler Award, a new andmajor annual award jointly presented by theIUCN Turtle Survival Alliance and IUCN SSCTortoise and Freshwater Turtle SpecialistGroup, to honour leadership and excellencein the field of turtle and tortoise conservation.Named in honour of the late John Behler, aleading herpetologist and previous Chair ofthe IUCN Tortoise and Freshwater TurtleSpecialist Group, the first annual BehlerAward was presented at the 4th AnnualSymposium on Conservation and Biology ofFreshwater Turtles and Tortoises held inSt Louis, Missouri 10–13 August 2006.

Full story:http://www.iucn.org/themes/ssc/news/2006_articles/behler_award.htm

The World ConservationUnion mourns Nepalesehelicopter crash victimsOn behalf of all IUCN members and staff, theDirector General expressed his deepestcondolences to the families, friends and colleaguesof the victims of the helicopter crash in Nepal on25 September. Many of the victims were membersof IUCN’s World Commission on Protected Areasand Species Survival Commission and worked forIUCN member organizations including theNepalese Department of National Parks and WildlifeConservation and WWF.

Among the 24 passengers known to have died wereDr Tirtha Man Maskey, Co-Chair of the IUCN SSCAsian rhino Specialist Group, Mr. Gopal Rai,Nepalese Minister of State of Forests and SoilConservation, Director General Narayan Poudel ofthe Department of National Parks and WildlifeConservation, government officials, local media andseven WWF staff.

Full press release:http://www.iucn.org/en/news/archive/2006/09/25_nepal.htm

CITES puts ivory saleson holdThe Standing Committee of the Convention onInternational Trade in Endangered Species of Wild

Fauna and Flora (CITES), meeting in Geneva 2–6October, has decided not to allow exports ofelephant ivory from Botswana (20 tonnes), Namibia(10 tonnes) and South Africa (30 tonnes) to proceedat this time. The sales were agreed in principle in2002. They were made conditional on the ability ofthe Monitoring of Illegal Killing of Elephants(MIKE) system to establish up-to-date andcomprehensive baseline data on elephant poachingand population levels. However, the CITES StandingCommittee (which oversees the implementation ofCITES decisions in between the major conferences)determined that this condition has not yet beensatisfied and the sales may not go forward.

Full story:http://www.cites.org/eng/news/press_release.shtml

Landmark achievement inwhooping craneconservationThe first successful nesting of wild whoopingcranes (Grus americana) in the American Midwestsince the 1890s marks an important milestone inthe long running conservation programme to savethe world’s rarest crane. Russian craneconservationists hope to emulate this success byemploying similar techniques to save thethreatened Siberian crane (Grus leucogeranus).Members of the IUCN SSC Crane Specialist Groupare closely involved in both projects.

Full story:http://www.iucn.org/themes/ssc/news/2006_articles/cranes.htm

Rich marine life in theheart of South-east Asia’scoral triangle protectedThe Verde Island sea passage, between thePhilippine island of Mindoro and Batangas province,has been identified as the ‘centre of the centre’ ofthe world’s marine shorefish diversity in a studyby Kent Carpenter, IUCN Species ProgrammeGlobal Marine Species Assessment co-ordinator andVictor Springer of the Smithsonian Institute. Thesefindings have inspired the President of thePhilippines, Gloria Arroyo, to enact a new nationalconservation policy this week to protect thearchipelagic country’s unique and rich wildlife,with particular attention to its diverse marine life.

Full story:http://www.iucn.org/themes/ssc/news/2006_articles/Verde_passage_kent.htm

32

John Behler


Biodiversity AssessmentUnitGlobal Mammal AssessmentThe Global Mammal Assessment (GMA) covers over5,500 species and is due to be completed during2007. This work is over 70% completed with mostof the data from Africa, Asia, Oceania, and SouthAmerica now finalized. Major work is currentlyunderway on Central America and marine mammals.During the last 12 months 12 GMA workshops havebeen held at which leading scientists have cometogether to review and complete the data. Theseworkshops have been on: Sirenia, Japanesemammals, Australian/Pacific mammals, Mongolianmammals, Brazilian and Guyanan mammals,Southwest Asian mammals, Andean small mammals,Asian squirrels, Philippine mammals, SoutheastAsian large mammals and bats, Southeast Asianrodents and European mammals.

Global Reptile AssessmentWork has continued on the Global ReptileAssessment (GRA) with the completion of theassessments on reptiles of the Mediterranean andthe Seychelles (over 300 species). It is now closeto completion in Mexico and Europe (over 800species), is well advanced in West Asia and NorthAmerica (over 500 species) and is starting in thePhilippines, the Caribbean islands, Melanesia, theAndes, South Africa and Australia (over 3,000species). The GRA is a very large project (with over9,000 species to assess) and, unless new resourcesare secured, the speed of the project will notgather pace until after the completion of the GMAin 2007.

Global Amphibian AssessmentThe first update of the Global AmphibianAssessment (GAA) was launched publicly on 4 May2006. The data can be accessed on http://www.globalamphibians.org. This year’s GAA updateincludes 5,918 species, an increase of over 170since 2004, most of which are newly discovered.The results of the GAA continue to show rapiddeclines of amphibian species in many parts of theworld, with 34 species confirmed as Extinct, oneExtinct in the Wild and 130 Possibly Extinct. Thefungal disease chytridiomycosis is implicated inmany of these declines and disappearances, andthere is growing evidence that the severity of thedisease is exacerbated by climate change in tropicalmountains.

In addition, members of staff have assisted in theformulation of the Amphibian Conservation ActionPlan which was developed at the Global Amphibian

Species ProgrammeUpdates

Conservation Summit (held in Washington DC inSeptember 2005). Work is now well advanced onthe book on the GAA results, entitled ThreatenedAmphibians of the World, which will be publishedin 2007.

Plants AssessmentsThe GEF-funded Plants Project: run by IUCN inpartnership with Botanical Gardens ConservationInternational, has now begun with the appointmentof a Project Assistant in October. It aims to carryout species assessments and identify importantplant areas in six countries: Cameroon, Costa Rica,Madagascar, Morocco, The Philippines and Sri Lanka.The post of Project Assistant is being fundedthrough Swedish framework funds. Theirresponsibilities will include, amongst othercommitments, the organization of a workshop toseek counterpart funding to coincide with aconference to celebrate 300 years since the birthof Linnaeus.

Preliminary plant assessments: the methodologydeveloped has been tested and received a high levelof approval. The IUCN Mediterranean Office ispreparing to undertake further testing.

Other plant assessments: the complete re-assessment of all cycads by the Cycad SpecialistGroup should be completed in 2007. This will bethe first complete reassessment of a plant group.Other ongoing major initiatives are continuing inthe Caucasus and Eastern Arcs (East Africa) andplant assessments workshops took place in bothlocations this year.

CommunicationsSSC websiteIn the last edition of Species we mentioned that wehad made major changes to the SSC website. Thistime around we thought we’d point out a few thingsthat have changed, or that you may not have noticedbefore. The website is our primary communicationtool and hosts a great number of resources for bothSSC members and non-members, so we want tomake sure they are used.

We welcome feedback and would like to hear fromyou about how we can make the website as usefuland user-friendly as possible. Please [email protected] to tell us what you like(so we don’t remove it), suggest ways to improvethe site or let us know if you see any missing pages.Thank you.

■ ■ A page ‘For Members’ – a one-stop shop forSSC members that gathers some of the mostrelevant resources together on one page. 33


www.iucn.org/themes/ssc/for_members/for_members.htm

■ ■ Members Toolkit – found on the ‘ForMembers’ page, the toolkit is a set of usefuldocuments SSC members can download.Examples include an introduction to SSC,advice on funding opportunities, guidelines forcommunications, publications guideline and aguide to working with the media.www.iucn.org/themes/ssc/for_members/toolkit.htm

■ ■ For Researchers, For Media, ForConservation Practitioners – these pages,like the members’ page, aim to help our keywebsite visitors navigate easily to theappropriate pages on the website:www.iucn.org/themes/ssc/for_researchers/for_researchers.htm, www.iucn.org/themes/ssc/for_media/for_media.htm,www.iucn.org/themes/ssc/for_practitioners/for_practitioners.htm

■ ■ Site Map – to help visitors navigate quicklythrough our website, we have now provided asite map, found on the top right hand cornerof the homepage: www.iucn.org/themes/ssc/sitemap.htm

■ ■ Search engine – our website is nowsearchable by a Google search engine. You canchoose to limit your search to the SSC site, orsearch the entire IUCN set of sites.

■ ■ Species profile – to capture the attention ofour visitors, we profile a species using aphoto and a case study each month. If youhave a short profile or case study with a highquality photo, please send it [email protected] and we will useit on the website.

■ ■ Specialist Group pages – we wanted tohighlight the experts that make SSC what it is,so we have added photos and re-organized. Weare gradually adding links to the previouslyfeatured Specialist Group chair profiles to puta human face to our Specialist Groups.www.iucn.org/themes/ssc/sgs/sgs.htm

■ ■ Who to contact on which issue – if you havequestions and are unsure who in the SpeciesProgramme to contact, this page should leadyou to the right person.www.iucn.org/themes/ssc/about_ssc/core_staff.htm

■ ■ Red List ‘zone’ – any of our pages that relateto the IUCN Red List are in a bright red. Withinthis area of our site you will find mediamaterials from past Red List launches, technicaldocuments, biodiversity assessments and more:www.iucn.org/themes/ssc/redlist.htm

IUCN new visual identity andSSC Specialist GroupsAs mentioned in Species 45, the implementationof the new visual identity will be a gradual processand Specialist Groups are encouraged to follow thenew guidelines when they revise their keypromotional materials, notably newsletters andwebsites. Several Specialist Groups have alreadymodified the look of their websites to follow thestandardized use of the IUCN, SSC and individualSpecialist Group logos: e.g. the Cat Specialist Group(http://www.catsg.org/) and Asian Wild Cattle (http://www.iucn.org/themes/ssc/sgs/awcsg/). AnySpecialist Groups that do not have a copy of thenew IUCN and SSC logos should [email protected]

Freshwater BiodiversityAssessment UnitThe Freshwater Biodiversity Assessment Unit hascontinued to move forward on three key projects.

Pan-Africa Freshwater BiodiversityAssessmentThe European Commission funded pan-Africafreshwater biodiversity assessment project haspassed another milestone. With partner org-anizations, Southern Africa Institute of AquaticBiodiversity (SAIAB) and Wetlands International,two very successful workshops were run, one inGhana and the other in South Africa, where thestatus and distribution of nearly 2,000 freshwaterspecies were evaluated. Analysis of all the data andthe production of regionally focused reports arenow in hand.

During the next year the data from these regionalassessments will be used in three demonstrationsites to show how such information on freshwaterbiodiversity can be integrated into the developmentplanning process. At the Okavango Delta the datawill be used to develop macro-invertebrateindicators to monitor water quality. At a second siteon the Gambia River on the Senegal-Guinea borderthe information will be used to help monitor theimpacts of a dam. Ongoing activities at the thirdsite, the Rusizi Delta at the head of Lake Tanganyika,are building on the dataset collated through theEastern Africa Assessment to feed into plans fordeveloping transboundary management of wetlandresources in the area.

In the near future, planning will start for the nextAfrican regional assessments in North and CentralAfrica.

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European Fish AssessmentThanks to funding gained through the North ofEngland Zoological Society (Chester Zoo) theFreshwater Biodiversity Assessment Unit is alsoworking closely with two prominent Europeanichthyologists, Dr Jörg Freyhoff and Dr MauriceKottelat, to evaluate their assessments of the statusof all of Europe’s freshwater fish. The assessmentwill hopefully be finalized in early 2007. The resultswill first be published by Jörg and Maurice in theirHandbook of European Freshwater Fishes. TheRed List assessments for all European endemicspecies will later be added to the IUCN Red List.

The Darwin Initiative funded project is now wellunderway. Fieldwork has started at the two casestudy sites, Stung Treng Ramsar Site on the LowerMekong in Cambodia and Mtanza-Msona village onthe Rufiji floodplain in Tanzania, following scopingmissions and project workshops at both sites. A draftversion of the Best Practice Manual has also beencompleted, which describes the integratedassessment methodologies that are beingdeveloped.

These integrated assessment methodologies will beused to provide information to decision-makers onthe importance of wetland biodiversity to localpeople’s livelihoods, so that when decisions aremade about future developments (such as buildinga dam or setting up a shrimp farm) the existingvalue of wetlands are not forgotten.

Integrating the biodiversity, economic valuation andlivelihood assessment methodologies is a challengefor all involved, but the field team has alreadyreported some success with this; their dailymeetings during fieldwork enabled them to sharetheir results and adapt the methodologies to includeaspects relevant to other parts of the assessment.The process of developing these integratedmethodologies is ongoing and will incorporatefeedback from the field teams on how it can workin practice.

Global Freshwater Fish SpecialistGroupThe IUCN/WI Freshwater Fish Specialist Group hasalso been active with the Chair, Prof. Gordon Reid,Director of Chester Zoo, promoting the group’swork at both the World Water Forum in Mexico andat the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums(WAZA) annual conference in Leipzig, Germany.

Red List UnitThe deadline for the submission of assessments forthe 2007 IUCN Red List was 31 August 2006; allsubmissions received at the Red List office afterthat date will be held for the 2008 Red List. The lastsubmission date for the 2008 Red List is 31 August2007.

With each update the size of the Red List databasesignificantly increases. Consequently, managing datawithin the database becomes more challenging. Inorder to improve both the stability of the databaseand its compatibility with the SIS Data Entry Modulea major overhaul of the database is currentlyunderway.

The Red List staff continue to provide considerableassistance and support to the Global SpeciesAssessment projects and to the wider SSC network.Since the start of this year they have helpedfacilitate 12 workshops: Shark SG assessmentworkshop (February), Eastern Arc Coastal Foreststraining and assessments (February), Manchester

Metropolitan University Red List training workshop(March), European Mammals (May), Galapagoscorals and seaweeds assessments (May), CaucasusPlants Red List training (June), Southern Africanfreshwater species evaluation (June), West Africanfreshwater species evaluation (July), Shark SGevaluation workshop (July), RBG Kew Red Listtraining (August), South Africa, SANBI Red Listtraining (August) and Eastern Arc Coastal Foreststraining and assessments (November). In addition,a Red List training workshop at RBG Edinburgh and2–3 training workshops in the Mediterraneanregion will take place in December.

Red List WebsiteFor the first time, the web site now includesdistribution maps for more than 7,000 species andover 2,000 searchable synonyms. Taxonomic noteshave also been included. The supportingdocumentation is becoming increasingly long,resulting in the Detailed Results pages for somespecies being extremely long. As a result, a tabbedformat has been implemented. This new format is

35

Indri (Endangered) Indri indri


still under review. A number of the search functionswere also reviewed and changed for the update,but further changes are likely to be made. There isongoing work on the web site to improve theinformation pages and to develop newadministrative functions for maintaining andupdating the acknowledgements pages and thelinks to other websites.

Species InformationServiceProgress on the design and development of theSpecies Information Service (SIS) continues. Theredesign of the SIS Data Entry Module is com-pletedand the tool, which enables the collection andpreparation of information destined for submissionto the Red List, is now widely available to SpecialistGroups involved in Red Listing. If you would like acopy of the new SIS Data Entry Module application,please send an email to [email protected] your request.

In addition, the Species Programme is activelypursuing the next generation of SIS tools, a web-based system for collecting and storing species dataacross the SSC. The first deliverable of this web-based system will be a module for performingspecies assessments destined for the Red List.Moving to an online system (while retaining offlinecapabilities too) will significantly streamline themanagement of species assessments and theproduction of the yearly Red List of ThreatenedSpecies. Currently, technical specifications andfunctional requirements for the new system arebeing produced, with development set to begin inearly 2007.

This new core system, while initially supportinginformation collection and management formaintaining the Red List, is intended to support themanagement of all species information and datawithin the SSC where such a need exists. Followingthe successful implementation of Red List tools theywill be extended to identify areas of greatestexpansion need.

Species Trade and Use Unit(formerly Wildlife Trade)The Species Trade and Use Unit (STUU) work hasprimarily focused on CITES. STUU formed part ofthe IUCN delegation that attended the CITESStanding Committee from 2–6 October. CITEScontinues to rely on IUCN and its networks toprovide technical advice to the Convention asevidenced by contributions from the Elephant SG,Rhino SGs, Antelope SG and Sturgeon SG to itemson the agenda at the Standing Committee.

One of the issues for discussion at the meeting wasthe one-off sale of ivory from stock-piles inBotswana (20 tonnes), Namibia (10 tonnes) andSouth Africa (30 tonnes). This had been agreed inprinciple in 2002, but the sale was made conditionalon the establishment of the Monitoring of IllegalKilling of Elephants (MIKE) system, to establish up-to-date and comprehensive baseline data onelephant poaching and population levels, and ontrade being restricted to approved trading partners.Although it was agreed that Japan, but not China,had met the requirements for designation as atrading partner, the MIKE baseline was notconsidered to be satisfied yet and therefore a salewould not go ahead. The Standing Committee willconsider this again when it meets prior to the 14thConference of Parties (CoP) in the Haag in June2007.

The IUCN-SP STUU will work with TRAFFIC andthe SSC to produce The Analyses of Proposals toamend CITES Appendices in advance of the CoP14. This project is a major undertaking gatheringbiological and status information along with tradeand use data which is assessed against the CITESlisting criteria to ensure that Parties are able to basetheir decisions on amending the Appendices on themost up-to-date information available. SSC’sSpecialist Groups have always provided a hugeinput to this project for past CoPs.

The STUU has been involved in the furtherdevelopment of the use and livelihoodscomponents of the species assessments through theAuthority Files Task Force.

Funding has been raised through the University ofCambridge to continue work on the Sustainable UseProject, which aims to identify the factors thatcontribute to sustainable utilization of speciesthrough a quantitative analysis of case studies. Casestudies from Asia will be collected and combinedwith those collected in the first Asia module for ananalysis of factors influencing sustainable use inAsia. This module will be completed by theSeptember 2007. Funds are being sought to extendthis project to look at case studies from LatinAmerica and Africa.

36


PublicationsThe Status and Distribution ofReptiles and Amphibians of theMediterranean Basin

In this second Mediterraneanregional assessment, all thereptile and amphibian speciesexisting within the region ofstudy have been evaluated fortheir global conservationstatus. This assessment aims toassist in regional planning andto help identify inter-nationally important sites forbiodiversity. Like the first inthe series, it also hopes toencourage development of anetwork of regional experts toenable future assessments andthe continued updating of thebaseline dataset.

The Eastern Mediterranean has a greater diversityof reptile species (lizards, snakes, turtles, tortoises,and crocodilians) due to its characteristically aridland, while parts of the rainier Western Medi-terranean have a wider variety of amphibians. Ofthe 355 reptile species (excluding marine turtles)found in the Mediterranean, almost half of themoccur only in this region and 46 of them arecurrently threatened with extinction.

One in four of the Mediterranean’s species ofamphibians – frogs, toads, newts and salamanders– are threatened with extinction; of the 106amphibian species, 26 are listed in that category.The vast majority of these are found nowhere elsein the world; 64% of these amphibians are endemicto the region. One species is listed as extinct: thepainted frog (Discoglossus nigriventer).

Press release:http://www.iucn.org/en/news/archive/2006/09/14_amphibians.htm

Copy of the report:http://iucn.org/places/medoffice/cd_rep_amp/

Report – The Status andDistribution of Cetaceans in theBlack Sea and Mediterranean SeaThe conservation and status of cetaceans in theBlack and Mediterranean Seas has been a source ofconcern for many years. This was reflected in the1991 Action Plan of the Barcelona Convention andin the global action plans for cetacean conservationpub-lished by the IUCN Species SurvivalCommission’s Cetacean Specialist Group. Scientistsworking in the region have long recognized theneed for additional detailed assessments.

With this objective, a workshop was held at theMinistry of State in Monaco 5–7 March 2006. Itsstated purpose was to assess all populations ofMediterranean and Black Sea cetaceans against the2001 IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria. Theworkshop report is now available and theassessments will be submitted formally for reviewand endorsement by the Cetacean Red ListAuthority for inclusion in the IUCN Red List ofThreatened Species.

Workshop report:ht tp : / /www. iucn .org/p laces/medoffi ce/documentos/status_distr_cet_blac_med.pdf

The World Heritage – UNESCO’sClassified SitesScheduled for publication in October 2006, TheWorld Heritage by Patrick Bonneville and PhilippeHemono is the most complete work to dateshowcasing UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites. All 830listed sites from 138 countries are featured,including the 18 recent additions made last summerat the 30th Session of the World HeritageCommittee in Vilnius, Lithuania. This book is thereference about the subject and is now availableonline at www.worldheritageboutique.com

Species staff comings andgoingsAnnabelle Cuttelod, joined the Malaga office atthe end of August to co-ordinate the Mediterraneanbiodiversity assessments. She is Swiss with mothertongue french. Annabelle has a Masters inoceanography and is currently working for theSwiss Academy of Science. The two main projectsshe will be involved in are the Mediterranean RedList Project and The Pan African FreshwaterBiodiversity Assessment. She will be reporting tothe Director of the Malaga office, but will be closelyassociated with the Species Programme.

End Notes

37


Tatjana Good joined the Global MammalAssessment (GMA) team as a Research Assistant atthe beginning of October. Tatjana served as ProjectOfficer with DIVERSITAS in Venezuela for the lastfew years, working on various biodiversity scienceprojects. She received her PhD in Ecology andEvolutionary Biology from Princeton University in2004. She will be a great addition as we prepare tolaunch some of the GMA’s initial results.

Julie Griffin, the Species Communications intern,took up a new position in the Species Programmein mid-October as Project Assistant on the GEFPlants project. IUCN has formed a partnership withBotanic Gardens Conservation International (Kew,UK) and ArtDatabanken (Swedish SpeciesInformation Centre, Uppsala, Sweden), to supportthe implementation of the IUCN-BGCI GEF plantconservation project, which aims to support theimplementation of the CBD Global Strategy forPlant Conservation in six countries (Cameroon, SriLanka, Costa Rica, Morocco, Philippines andMadagascar). Her email remains the same:[email protected]

Anna Knee, who had been the Species Pro-grammeCommunications Officer for six years, latterly job-sharing with Andrew McMullin, took up a newposition as Writer/Editor within the IUCN GlobalCommunications Unit on 2 October. She willprovide editorial support for a range of corporatecommunications products including the IUCNmagazine World Conservation. Her email remainsthe same: [email protected]

Marie-Christine Labernardière left at the endof August after 23 years with IUCN, the last 11 inthe Species Programme. We thank her for her manyyears of devoted service and wish her good luckfor the future.

Dr Suzanne Livingstone is now working as aGlobal Marine Species Assessment ResearchAssociate with Kent Carpenter at the Old DominionUniversity, Virginia USA. She started in mid-September after completing a PhD on marine turtlesin Trinidad at the University of Glasgow, UK.

Simon Stuart moved to Bath, UK in August wherehe has taken up the role of Species Senior Scientist.He continues to oversee Species Programme staffbased in the United States.

38

Contents3 One Programme, One Voice

A joint message from the SSC Chair and Head ofthe Species Programme

6 Specialist Group Chair Profiles Part IIIFinal focus on SSC’s Unsung Heroes

6 Chiroptera (bats)7 Cuban Plant7 Mollusc8 Otter9 Primate9 Seaduck

10 FeatureWind energy and wildlife: the effects of windfarms on birdsCase Study: the effects of wind turbines onwhite-tailed eagles on SmØla, Norway

14 From the Specialist Groups14 African rhino14 Amphibian15 Bison (N. America)15 Conifer16 Conservation Breeding17 Crane17 Crocodile18 Deer19 Flamingo19 Grouse19 Iguana20 Invasive Species20 Marine Turtles22 Medicinal Plants22 Molluscs23 Sustainable Use23 Syngnathid (seahorses) RLA24 Tapir

25 From the SSC Steering CommitteeSub-groups

25 Invertebrate Conservation sub-committee25 Marine Conservation sub-committee

26 News Features26 Review of the definition and selection of protected

areas for species conservation28 Ramsar adopts a new site selection criterion29 Tributes to two of SSC’s champions – Ralph Daly and

Bertrand des Clers

31 News Round-Up31 West African black rhino feared Extinct31 Amphibian Global Action Team needed to avoid an

extinction catastrophe31 Conservation of a coral reef giant – the humphead

wrasse31 Fencing spells disaster for the last of China’s

Przewalski’s gazelles31 SSC crane expert receives Indianapolis Zoo

Conservation Award32 The Behler Award for freshwater turtle conservation32 The World Conservation Union mourns Nepalese

helicopter crash victims32 CITES puts ivory sales on hold32 Landmark achievement in whooping crane

conservation32 Rich marine life in the heart of South-east Asia’s coral

triangle protected

33 IUCN Species Programme Update33 Biodiversity Assessments33 Communications34 Freshwater35 Red List36 Species Information Service36 Species Trade and Use (Wildlife Trade)

37 End Notes37 Publications38 Species staff changes

Species 46

SpeciesSpeciesSpeciesSpeciesSpecies is the newsletter of the Species Survival Commission of IUCN—The World Conservation Union.Commission members, in addition to providing leadership for conservation efforts for specific plant andanimal groups, contribute to technical and scientific counsel to biodiversity conservation projects throughoutthe world. They provide advice to governments, international conventions, and conservation organizations.

TTTTTeam Specieseam Specieseam Specieseam Specieseam Species – Andrew McMullin with assistance from Sarah Webborn

LaLaLaLaLayyyyyoutoutoutoutout – NatureBureau

CoCoCoCoCovvvvver Photoer Photoer Photoer Photoer Photo – Chris Gomersall/rspb-images.com

Opinions expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect official views of IUCN/SSC

ISSN 1016-927x

Species is printed on recycled paper

©2006 IUCN—The World Conservation Union

Photo CreditsCover White-tailed or sea eagle (Haliaeetus

albicilla) has been adversely affected by theconstruction of a wind farm on the Smølaislands in Norway, with increased adultmortality and reduced breeding success.By Chris Gomersall/rspb-images

Page 10 Wind turbinesCourtesy of rspb-images

Page 12 Wind farm on the Smøla islands, NorwayBy Rowena Langston

Page 13 White-tailed or sea eagle (Haliaeetusalbicilla)By Chris Gomersall/rspb-images

Page 14 Wood bison (Bison bison athabascae) andPlains bison (B.b. bison)By C. Cormack Gates

Page 17 Whooping cranes (Grus americana)following ultralight aircraftBy International Crane Foundation

Page 19 Cantabrian capercaillie (Tetrao urogalluscantabricus)By Isolino Pérez Tuya

Page 20 Anegada iguana (Cyclura pinguis) releaseBy Lee Pagni

Page 24 Seahorse (Hippocampus abdominalis)By Jonathan Clark-Jones/Project Seahorse

Page 24 Radio-collaring a mountain tapir (Tapirusindicus) By Diego Lizcano

Page 25 Ochre Presba dragonflyBy Michael Samways

Page 26 Wilderness in NamibiaBy Thomasina Oldfield

Page 28 Wetlands in LatviaBy Tobias Salathé, Ramsar

Page 29 Humphead wrasse (Cheilinus undulatus)By Valerie Ho

Page 35 Indri (Indri indri)By Jean-Christophe Vié

Contributions to Species 47 should be sent to Team Speciesby 17 April 2007.Email: [email protected]

For address changes, notify:Nathalie VelascoSpecies Program, IUCNRue Mauverney 28CH-1196 Gland, Switzerland

Phone: +44 22 999 0268Fax: +44 22 999 0015Email: [email protected]

Hard copies of Species are available only upon request.SSC members are encouraged to receive the SSC monthlyelectronic news bulletin. Please contact Team Species [email protected] for more information. Species is availableelectronically at: www.iucn.org/themes/ssc/

SpeciesNewsletter of the Species Survival Commission

Number 46, July – December 2006

Rue Mauverny 281196 GlandSwitzerland

Tel: +44 22 999 0000Fax: + 44 22 999 0002

[email protected]

ww.iucn.org The World Conservation Union

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