Conservationists Urge Locals to Save Cambodia's Rarest Bird

Bengal Florican

By VOA Khmer, Washington
Video Editor: Manilene Ek
28 May 2008

It's in the cool of the very early morning, when the people of Kampong Thom province have only just begun to stir, that the bird-watcher has the best chance of spotting the Bengal Florican. This mysterious member of the bustard family was only discovered in Cambodia in 1999. Until then it was believed to exist only in tiny populations in Vietnam and Nepal.

Most of the year the Bengal Florican is a shy creature, but in the breeding season it casts caution, and itself, to the wind in one of Cambodia's great natural sights: the male Bengal Florican's courtship dance.

Biologists are trying to learn more about this enigmatic bird. For Lotty Packman, from the University of East Anglia, in the UK, it's a labour of love. Packman says the birds are an interesting species to study because they are very striking and charismatic.

Lotty Packman: "They're very striking, very charismatic, very interesting display they way they jump up and they call and fly down. They're just very unique, very interesting species to be studying."

But now the flamboyant Florican is facing a grave and unprecedented threat as a result of Cambodia's economic progress. Tom Evans from the Wildlife Conservation Society explains that the biggest threats come from companies who build industrial-scale farming operations which remove the birds' natural habitat.

Tom Evans: "The biggest threats come from companies who come to invest in the land, and build industrial scale farming operations which remove the grasslands, which remove habitat for the threatened species, and also limit the access of local communities to the areas they used to use."

Since 2005, more than 100 strip dams have been carved into the grasslands, creating thousands of hectares of paddy fields. Almost a third of the Bengal Florican's habitat has vanished. Conservationists believe this economic progress could kill off the species in its heartland within five years.

An innovative approach to land protection. This police unit is patrolling parts of the grassland that have been designated as Integrated Farming and Biodiversity Areas, or IFBAs. Within these zones new development is forbidden. There are currently 5 IFBAs in Kampong Thom and Siem Reap provinces, ring-fencing around 350 square kilometres.

Conservationists believe they have put the brakes on the land grab with several schemes already abandoned or scrapped since the protection began 2 years ago. Sin Sienglay from the Forestry Department says he is proud to work on the project.

Sin Sienglay: "I'm proud to work on this. If we can protect this area and save the habitat, we can save the bird."

And it's not just the birds who are affected. Overnight, livestock farmers have lost pasture they've used for decades. Others have lost small-scale crop plantations to the mega-paddy fields.

The New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society, Birdlife International and the Cambodian government, who jointly developed the IFBAs, have reached out to these threatened groups to get them on side. Meeting with village elders they've explained how the needs of the Bengal Florican and the needs of the community go hand in hand. The scheme has been given the nod by the Village Chief, Meas Than.

Meas Than: "This biodiversity project is importan for everyone here in this district so we can have a better life for generations to come."

So much is still unknown about the Bengal Florican. The pictures seen here of the female are believed to be the first ever on moving images caught on tape. It's to fill the yawning gaps in our knowledge that Lotty Packman is attaching satellite transmitters to the Bengal Floricans. These solar-powered devices will send back vital data every two days.

So far the females have eluded Packman's nets, but even so, any information about the species can play a part in saving it from extinction. Packman says it's a race against time. She and her colleagues have to gather as much information on the birds as possible before they disappear. But she's confident that once the information is to hand the habitat of the Bengal Florican can be managed.

Information for this report was provided by APTN.

Humor helps a rare bird survive in Cambodia

Conservationist Sum Song Zoning speaks about the value of the Bengal Florican bird to a group of villagers who live near Tonle Sap Lake. (David Montero)
Tonle Sap Lake is the largest freshwater body in Southeast Asia. (Heng Sinith/AP – File)
The rare Bengal Florican bird had been decimated by hunting, but now its numbers are on the rise – thanks to efforts like Mr. Zoning’s. (Allan Michaud/AP)

Conservationists’ gentle engagement with locals boosts the prospects for the Bengal Florican.

May 13, 2008
By David Montero
Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

For Sum Song Zoning, a community officer with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) of Cambodia, the secret to conservation is a good sense of humor.

His audience: monks and farmers, housewives with screaming babies – each with a skeptical look that deepened as the morning heat rose. His subject: the Bengal Florican, an endangered bird few have ever heard of, let alone seen. His task: to convince the lean-looking villagers that, should they ever come across the bird, a hefty five-pounder, it is better to save it than to eat it.

By all accounts, he succeeded wonderfully. There were cheers as he took playful jabs at a monk and teased two bemused old ladies, using humor to impart the value of the bird. Diagrams and posters were marshaled to explain that, as much as they look alike, Bengal Florican eggs are not duck eggs and should be left alone. During the quiz at the end, the 30 or so participants raised their hands with gleeful eagerness, suggesting that, whether or not they ever saw the bird, they were ready to protect it.

“Ten years ago, people didn’t understand the importance of the bird,” says Zoning. “Now they understand that it’s something special for Cambodia.”

Village by village, and province by province, this simple interaction is helping to save the Bengal Florican, one of the world’s rarest birds, by directly engaging the communities that dwell in the bird’s habitat. And in so doing, this approach is presenting a unique model of community-based conservation, observers and participants say.

“This is a model of conservation between communities and conservationists,” says Robert van Zalinge, a field technical adviser for the WCS. “In remote regions, protected areas are set up just based on government decisions, and that is enforced. But here, in an area of high human population, you have a much larger community interface than any other protected area in Cambodia.”

For bird enthusiasts, the Bengal Florican is prized for its rarity, being native to only three countries in the world: Cambodia, India, and Nepal. Today there are believed to be roughly 1,300 left in the world, with about 800 to 900 in the flood plains of Cambodia’s Tonle Sap Lake, the largest freshwater body in Southeast Asia, according to research conducted by WCS.

To scientists, the bird is unique for its elaborate mating ritual, or display: the otherwise secretive males make hopping loops in the sky, hoping to attract female attention with their striking presence – black bodies set against glaring white wings.

“They’re very difficult to see. But when they display, the male sort of advertises its territory, trying to attract females,” says Lotty Packman, a doctoral student from England who is assisting the WCS to track and tag the birds.

For the people in these stark grasslands, though, where scarcity is a way of life, the bird is a potential source of income or food. By the 1990s, hunting had significantly diminished its numbers.

Today the bird faces an even greater threat: the grasslands of the Tonle Sap, which used to stretch for hundreds of miles, are quickly diminishing as private companies convert land into large-scale rice-farming operations. Almost 30 percent of the grasslands were lost in 30 months from 2005 to 2007, warns a recent report by the WCS.

“At that rate, in five to 10 years, the grasslands could be gone and the Florican extinct,” says Mr. Van Zalinge.

To prevent that, conservationists worked with the provincial governments in the flood-plain area to devise a solution: an Integrated Farming and Biodiversity Area – a protected area that outlaws large-scale dry rice farming, which damages the Florican’s habitat, but allows farmers to continue traditional methods of deep-water rice farming. The latter’s use of grazing and burning supports the Florican by preventing the growth of scrub that destroy the grass patches favored by the birds.

In 2006, a provincial government decree designated 135 square miles of the flood plain a protected area, preserving roughly half of the Bengal Florican population here. So far, the provincial governments have stopped at least two large-scale dry rice projects, according the WCS, suggesting the firm commitment of local authorities.

What makes the project novel is also the level of community involvement. As many as 20 times a month, community officer Zoning and others gather several dozen people in towns throughout the Tonle Sap flood plain. Men and women, young and old: Their participation has helped the Bengal Florican return, like the rest of Cambodia, from a devastating past.

It is too early to say how successful the protected areas have been in increasing the overall population of Cambodia’s Bengal Florican. For now, project administrators say, success means reaching people like Meach Komhan, a farmer in the district of Baray, part of the flood-plain area.

“I had never heard of the bird before,” he says, after listening to Zoning’s presentation. “I really support the conservation, because the bird is useful for Cambodian people as a natural resource. We don’t want to lose it in the future.”

Conservation efforts helping endangered Cambodian bird recover

2008-04-14

STOUNG, Cambodia (AP) - Conservationists in Cambodia think they may be turning the corner in their fight to save one of the world's rarest birds.

Since 2005, a rush to turn grasslands into large-scale rice farms has gobbled up one-third of the Bengal Florican's habitat in Cambodia, threatening the critically endangered bird with extinction.

Now, a land protection plan devised by the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society, along with British-based BirdLife International and Cambodian authorities, appears to be slowing this controversial real estate grab.

Most of the world's Bengal Floricans, believed to number less than 1,000, live in scattered pockets on the fringes of Cambodia's Great Lake. The rest are in India, Nepal and Vietnam.

The Cambodian program to protect Florican habitat bans development in five zones totaling 135 square miles (350 square kilometers). Villages and farms within the zones can remain, preserving traditional ways of life. Police patrol by motorbike during the dry season and by boat when floods come.

Since the program was adopted, three planned developments have been canceled and another put on hold, says Tom Evans, a Wildlife Conservation Society technical adviser in Cambodia.

«Some prospective developers have been deterred at an earlier stage when they learned that the areas had a special designation,» he added.

More such zones, dubbed Integrated Farming and Biodiversity Areas, are planned.

In mid-March, the height of the dry season, the grasslands near Great Lake are at their bleakest. They stretch to the horizon, brown and flat under the blazing sun, with barely a tree to break the monotony. Smoke curls into the air where farmers burn off scrub to rejuvenate pasture for their cattle. Ox carts trundle down deeply rutted tracks. An occasional motor vehicle kicks up clouds of dust.

But for the patient and the sharp-eyed, this landscape offers a sight to behold: the courtship display of the male Bengal Florican.

The bird, a black-and-white bustard that looks like a small ostrich, struts into a clearing, stretches its long neck and ruffles up its feathers. Then, it flits into the air before fluttering back to the ground in an undulating pattern, like a parachutist caught in a crosswind.

As it descends, it emits a deep humming sound that has earned it its Cambodian name, «the whispering bird.» The displays are usually carried out within sight of other males, in what amounts to an open dance competition to attract a mate.

«They're really unique,» says Lotty Packman, a 24-year-old researcher from the University of East Anglia in England. «They're very striking and very charismatic.

Packman was spending long days in the heat, netting Floricans and attaching tracking devices to learn more about them, especially the elusive female of which very little is known.

«You can't conserve it if you don't know its natural history,» Packman said after tagging and releasing a male with a solar-powered transmitter that will send back data every two days. «It's a race against time.

The species was rediscovered in Cambodia in 1999. Until then, the country's decades-long civil war had made detailed exploration of the countryside too dangerous.

But peace has proved to be a far greater threat.

Businessmen have snapped up thousands of acres (hectares) of land in often murky deals and built more than 100 strip dams, which turn the grassland into emerald-green rice paddies that can produce rice during the dry season.

Conservationists have worked hard to win the villagers' support, but despite the restrictions on development, a new plantation has been laid out in one zone and preparations have been made for another. Signs marking the protected areas have been knocked down - it's not clear by whom.

Bird, monkey species in Cambodia added to critically endangered list

September 19, 2007

Two types of birds and one species of monkey native to Cambodia have had their survival prospects worsen significantly in the past year, according to the World Conservation Union's 2007 "Red List", the most comprehensive annual assessment of the world's endangered animals and plants, local media reported Wednesday.

The red-headed vulture and the Bengal florican, once abundant in Cambodia, have been re-classified as critically endangered, meaning they face an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild in the immediate future, the Cambodia Daily newspaper said.

Meanwhile, the douc monkey has also been elevated to endangered status worldwide, according to the World Conservation Union, or IUCN.

Recent worldwide declines in the population of red-headed vultures are believed mainly to have been caused by the pharmaceutical Diclofenac, which is used to treat livestock but toxic to vultures that feed on their carcasses, the IUCN report said, adding that there could be as few as 300 of the vultures remaining in all of Southeast Asia.

The Bengal florican has declined to as few as 900 birds in Cambodia and could be extinct in the country within five years, the report stated.

The douc monkey also faces a very high risk of extinction in the near future, it said.

Tom Evans, technical adviser for the Wildlife Conservation Society, said the decline of the red-headed vulture in Cambodia was mainly due to less carrion on the ground than poisoning.

In fact, Diclofenac is not used in Cambodia, which could mean there is a good chance for the species to begin recover its numbers here, he said.

Included on the "Red List" are 26 animals, fish and plants found in Cambodia, which are listed as critically endangered, and some 36 species listed as endangered.

Source: Xinhua

Group Launches Plan to Save 189 Birds

In this photo released by U.S.-based Wildlife Conservation Society, a Bengal Florican is seen in Kampong Thom province, about 130 kilometers (80 miles) north of the capital Phnom Penh, Cambodia, in this May 13, 2006 file photo. An international conservation group launched an ambitious plan Thursday, Aug. 16, 2007 to raise tens of million dollars to save 189 endangered birds over the next five years by protecting their habitat and raising public awareness about their plight. (AP Photo/Wildlfe Conservation Society, HO)

Wednesday, August 15, 2007
By MICHAEL CASEY
AP

BANGKOK, Thailand - An international conservation group launched an ambitious plan Thursday to raise tens of millions of dollars to save 189 endangered birds over the next five years by protecting their habitat and raising public awareness about their plight.

U.K.-based BirdLife International is calling on environmental groups, corporations and individuals to contribute the $37.8 million needed for what it is dubbing the Species Champions initiative.

The campaign comes as the numbers of extinct birds is on the rise, mostly due to poaching, habitat loss and overdevelopment. In the last three decades, 21 species have been lost, including the Hawaiian honeycreeper Poo-uli, Hawaiian Crow or alala and the Spixs Macaw from Brazil, BirdLife said.

The first birds to benefit will be the Bengal Florican in Cambodia, the Belding's Yellowthroat in Mexico, Djibouti Francolin in Djibouti and Restinga Antwren from Brazil. All have seen their numbers drop from a few thousand to a few hundred and their ranges limited to a few isolated locations.

"Critically endangered birds can be saved from extinction through this innovative approach," the group's Chief Executive Mike Rands said in a statement. "This is an enormous challenge, but one we are fully committed to achieving in our efforts to save the world's birds from extinction."

All the birds targeted in the campaign are listed by the World Conservation Union as critically endangered which means they are on the brink of extinction.

Among them are the Black Stilt, a New Zealand shorebird whose numbers have been reduced to a handful. Many like Taita Thrush in Kenya are confined to diminishing fragments of their former habitat. Others like the Red-headed Vulture are still widespread in Asia and still have populations measurable in thousands, but are in dramatic decline, having lost over 80 percent of their numbers in just three generations.

"We all have a negative impact on the environment, and we all have a little bit of blood on our hands when a species goes extinct," said Stuart Butchart, BirdLife's Global Species Program Coordinator. "The Species Champions initiative provides everyone with a personal opportunity to play their part in mitigating these impacts and in saving species from extinction."

BirdLife officials said the funding will also go to implementing environmental awareness programs, helping developing government conservation policies, creating protected area networks and carrying out surveys to better understand, assess and fight the threats facing the birds. Programs will also be aimed at removing invasive species, especially those that threaten island nesting species.

"The initiative is about raising funds to direct at the key people and organizations on the ground who can make a difference for these species on the brink of extinction," Butchart said. "It is the first time this approach has been taken in such a globally comprehensive and coordinated way for an entire class of organisms."