I am away this week, so I am taking the opportunity to invite colleagues tell you about some of our International Research. In today's guest blog, Danaë Sheehan shares her experiences in Burkina Faso, one of the poorest countries in Africa.I work on issues related to the decline of African-Eurasian migrant birds – those that fly back and forth between Africa and Europe or across to Asia - and I've just returned from a trip to visit the Living on the Edge project sites in the Sahel of northern Burkina Faso. Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, is a hot, dusty, chaotic city – tiny compared to some of the major African metropolises, and precariously perched on the edge of the great desert. Life can be pretty harsh here, and conservation a challenge. I visited two local volunteer Site Support Groups (SSG) – one working at Lake Higa, near the border with Niger, the other at an Important Bird Area in the Sourou Basin, next to Mali. The Living on the Edge project represents a unique collaboration of local, national and international partners working together across the flyway to find solutions to a shared problem – protecting migrating birds.
Site Support Group members surveying for birds (Danaë Sheehan)SSGs are about biodiversity AND people - they support local communities to implement conservation actions that provide benefits for people as well as migratory birds. The Living on the Edge project promotes sustainable land use, aiming to enhance livelihoods while restoring and protecting important habitats. Everyone wins.Watching Eurasian turtle doves feeding alongside resident Sahelian doves on the northern shore of Lake Higa, I reflected that this bird is now a rare sight, having had population declines of more than 70% over 30 years. I'm lucky that a few pairs still breed around my village in Cambridgeshire, and seeing them here now brings home the distances they travel, twice each year – an incredible journey that we need to understand better. This spring, RSPB scientists will be working on its breeding grounds in East Anglia, and will track individuals using small satellite tags as they return to Africa in the autumn. There is still a great deal to learn about the ecology of many species of migrant birds on their African wintering grounds, including exactly where different populations go, when they arrive, the habitats they use, how they move around Africa, and the threats that they face.
Turtle dove (Danaë Sheehan)The RSPB works closely with organisations in both Europe and Africa to improve our ability to explain the alarming population declines and conserve migrants. Exciting and very important work...and something that can only be done if local people at both ends of the journey are actively involved and passionate about protecting these wonderful birds.
Landscape from Burkina Faso (Danaë Sheehan)
If you would like to post a comment, you'll find simple instructions here.
Hi Taffy2, thanks, and you are lucky to have turtle doves in your area. It's amazing to think that our birds travel so far, and Danaë's photo could well be one from your neck of the woods. Keep an eye out here and on the Saving Species blog for more details as the project progresses.
We echo your sentiments Peter! Africa is amazing, and there is something visceral about being there – the heat, the smell of the air…it's exciting, a bit scary at times, and always memorable (a sandstorm in Burkina Faso is something you never forget).
You are right Sooty – farmers on both sides of the Mediterranean often work in difficult conditions, and members of the public can be far removed from the realities of food production. I remember taking an American friend to the market in Oxford, and he had never seen a carcass hanging (and was pretty ill I can tell you) – his meat was always in cellophane. Farmers need to be supported in such a way that they can make a living and benefit wildlife at the same time – many do very successfully, and we work with them directly (eg through our Volunteer Farmer Alliance) and through trying to influence farming policy for win-win outcomes.
Farmers in the EU are certainly able to perceive our dependance on nature when feeding millions of people while working and struggling with either drought,floods,gales,freezing conditions and all other things nature throws at them.Oh yes farmers know their dependance on nature even if a lot of the public don't.
Tell a farmer that who is digging his flock of sheep out of snowdrifts.
It is worth trying to remember the sheer scale of the Sahara; it is far far larger than Europe and many many many many times the size of Wales ! The Mediterranean is a pond on its north edge; which could be easily traversed by its arid sands. I remember driving with my father for three days south into the Algerian desert and all we saw was hot stones and two small oases like green watery jewels in the arid hot rock. I saw many wheatears ! There were the ruins of Roman irrigation systems far into what is now goat/sheep driven stony desert.
The heroic scale of the epic traverses of this hot barren wilderness by the swallow, cuckoo, warblers et al has long been taken for granted in a country blessed by adequate rainfall; a country that has never suffered food shortage in its living memory nor knows what its to witness a people praying for rain or witnessed the ravages of drought on crops, wildlife and people.
A great deal of the cynical breath taking complacency of the West to climate change perhaps is rooted in its temperate rain blessed climate; its people are psycologically unable to perceive the depths of our dependance on nature. God Bless Africa.
Many thanks for the info about the project in Burkina Faso, and pics of the landscape there. We have a couple of Turtle Doves still manage to return here to S.Warks each year (so far!), but the landscape is so, so, different! I'm looking forward to the results of research and tracking. We probably need as much, if not more, education in providing the right habitat for these birds as anyone in their winter quarters. Roll on April and the sound of their song again!
Brilliant and vital work by all involved. thanks for keeping everyone informed about your work, it's great.