Executive Manager's Message

Happy Holidays! As the year comes to a close, it’s a great time to reflect on all we’ve been able to accomplish together this year – as colleagues and friends who share a commitment to protecting and preserving the natural environment for the benefit of all species today and into the future.

In March we announced the 2009 Conservation Award winners, with 29 award-winning team projects from 12 countries. We had the pleasure of meeting a representative of each of these teams in June at the CLP International Training Course, which was held in Beijing. Equipped with new skills and knowledge, these individuals returned to their countries to share what they learned with their colleagues and to commence their projects. You can read more about the great work being carried out by these individuals in this issue of the enewsletter.

The annual Society for Conservation Biology meeting was also held in Beijing in July. The CLP brought together 80 award winners and it was a great opportunity to network with other conference participants. We are already seeing the benefits of these interactions, and have been able to facilitate formal exchanges between two teams in Brazil and other mentoring opportunities are currently being developed.

As a programme, we are continually looking for ways to expand the training opportunities available to young conservation professionals. In October and November we offered three stand-alone courses which were attended by 45 participants in total: project development, fundraising and proposal writing in Indonesia; statistics of biological monitoring in Kenya; and scientific publication writing in India. We shall be offering these courses again next year in other locations.

Finally, over the course of the year, we have supported seven internships, with individuals gaining hands-on experience working with WCS in Brazil, Indonesia, and Cameroon; Birdlife in Paraguay, Indonesia, and the UK; and FFI in Ecuador.

Wishing you all a safe and peaceful holiday season and we look forward to our continued interactions with you in 2010.

Robyn Dalzen
Executive Manager

23 – 25 March 2010 Student Conference on Conservation Science, Cambridge, U.K.

9 – 15 April 2010 4th International UNESCO Conference on Geoparks, Kedah, Malaysia

2 – 3 June 2010 CBD – IUCN: International conference on safeguarding biodiversity in Africa, Libreville, Gabon

3 – 7 July 2010 International Congress for Conservation Biology: Conservation for a Changing Planet, Edmonton, Canada

19 - 23 July 2010 The 2010 International Meeting of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation. Tropical Biodiversity: Surviving the Food, Energy and Climate Crisis, Bali, Indonesia

12 - 18 September 2010 International Primatological Society’s XXIII Congress: Quest for Coexistence with Non-human Primates, Copenhagen, Denmark

The CLP is offering a limited number of travel grants to CLP alumni to cover travel expenses for the annual International Congress for Conservation Biology, hosted by the Society for Conservation Biology (SCB), including the membership and registration fees for selected applicants. All applications are due by January 21, 2010. Click here to find out more information or email clp@birdlife.org

Salmon Project Leaps to Take Top Prize

Orchestra Raises Funds for the Kate Stokes Memorial Trust

CLP Learning Exchange: Converting Scientific Information into a Fun and Attractive Language

News From the Field

Team Awards are granted to teams of three or more individuals who are undertaking high-priority conservation projects. The awards are arranged in a tiered system to allow for progression and include the Future Conservationist Award, Conservation Follow-up Award and Conservation Leadership Award.

AFRICA
Dugong Without Borders: Building Capacity for Indian Ocean Sirenian Conservation, Comoros (2009)
The ‘Dugongs without Borders’ project, implemented by C3 and local partners, aims to build national and regional capacity in Comoros and Madagascar for collaborative dugong research and conservation initiatives. One component of this project is the collation of information on seagrass habitat in the region, including baseline surveys and mapping, using the Seagrass-Watch protocol.

Read more about projects in Africa...

ASIA
Ecology and Conservation of Frogs of Mount Gede Pangrango National Park (2004, 2006)
The team has worked tirelessly to continue frog conservation education projects through the support of CLP and also the Whitley Fund of Nature. Last year they were involved in a fun spelling bee competition which attracted over 1,000 participants from schools from Bogor and Jakarta.

The Bhimashankar Strategy - towards a region-wide community conservation programme in the north Western Ghats of India (2007, 2009)
It has been a time to train and be trained…. As a part of the Kate Stokes Memorial Award, the team conducted two training sessions for local tourist guides who will now be able to lead tours early next year.

Conservation Of The Myristica Swamps - The Highly Threatened And Unique Ecosystem In The Western Ghats, India (2003)
Two years ago, survey work conducted by this project supported the discovery of a new species of frog, Philautus neelanethrus sp. Nov, named because of its eyes (in Sanskrit ‘neel’ means blue and ‘nethra’ means eyes).

Conservation initiatives for Greater Adjutant stork in Assam, India (2009)
So far three awareness-raising events have been carried out by this project, two of which involved bird-watching. In September, 22 young conservationists were accompanied by Kulojyoti Lahkar, a famous bird watcher and CLP alumnus and Udayan Borthakur, coordinator of Wildlife Genetics Programmes and a famous bird expert, to learn how to watch birds and how to take good photos of them.

Assessing tiger translocation in Sumatra, Indonesia (2009)
Although progress for this new project has been delayed, activities have started well. The project has moved to its new site in the Ulu Masen Ecosystem in Aceh, northern Sumatra and is being fully supported by the two new project partners – Fauna & Flora International (FFI) and BPKEL.

Ecological Assessment of Hispid Hare in Manas National Park, India (2009)
The team has commenced project activities, organised five community meetings and conducted interviews with the local people and forest staff to gather secondary information about Hispid hare.

Read more about projects in Asia-Pacific...

EURASIA
Expanding Protected Areas In Argun Midflow And Bird Monitoring Network In Daurai Ecoregion On Russia-China-Mongolia Border (2008)
The Hailer river - Dalai lake water transfer canal – the first of several water engineering projects threatening Argun River Wetlands is now operational so the team has began the long and difficult process of lobbying China and Russia to agree on acceptable environmental flow norms for the transboundary Argun/Erguna River.

Conservation of Rare Plants of Lake Baikal, Russia: Monitoring of Plants and Education of Local Community (2008)
In September the team initiated a big round-table discussion between all 16 ecological NGOs working in the Lake Baikal area. The aim was to analyze the main challenges that each NGO faces, and work on a general strategy for the region.

Community-based Conservation of Lake Kuyucuk, Kars, Turkey (2008)
It has been a very busy autumn for the team. At one point they were simultaneously hosting two documentary crews, organizing the Kars-Igdir Nature Festival, running the Kuyucuk bird banding station, the Kuyucuk wetland restoration, getting ready for the Europe tourism fair, placing camera traps for bears for another project, and hosting the Flying Man!

Read more about projects in Eurasia...

LATIN AMERICA
Alder Amazon Project: conservation through borders, Argentina - Bolivia (2008)
The first Festival of the Alder Amazon (Amazona tucumana) and the Yungas was carried out on August 8, 2009 in the town of El Fuerte. More than 100 local artists, renowned singers and traditional local dancers showed their abilities and delighted the crowd of more than 300 people including some who had travelled many kilometres to join the celebration.

Conservation Status of Parrotfish Species in Protected Coral Reefs, Colombia (2009)
Following alarming Caribbean coral reef degradation and lack of protection of key species such as parrotfish, 10 prestigious institutions in Colombia (from both government and private sectors) recently met to combine efforts to conserve these vulnerable ecosystems.

Advancing Seabird Conservation in Peru’s Artisanal Fishery Through Education and Research (2007)
The team recently completed their part in a national survey of Peruvian diving petrel which is being led by Dr. Carlos Zavalaga. The last survey was conducted over 10 years ago, when the estimated population was approximately 13,000 breeding pairs.

Conservation of threatened wildlife in southwestern Amazonia, Brazil (2008)
The 5th October is recognized around the world as “Bird Day”, and SAVE Brasil celebrated this date with the grand opening of its Education Center for the Conservation of Serra do Urubu in the city of Lagoa dos Gatos.

Five Threatened Species of Colombia’s Western Andes (2008)
Bird Day was celebrated in Chicarol (La Cumbre, Valle del Cauca), Colombia on 26th November with games and educational activities to teach students and children about bird conservation.

Assessment and Conservation of Cundinamarca Antpitta at Farallon de Medina, Cundinamarca (2008)
The team has recently been involved in teaching a group of 15 people (mainly children) about basic avian biology. Workshops have been run for local people at Guayabetal to train them in wildlife monitoring and surveying techniques which are fundamental tools for wildlife management and conservation.

Read more about projects in Latin America...

CLP Alumni: Where Are They Now?

Chamnan Kim - Evidence That Success Breeds Success

The turtle is a symbolic animal in Asian culture and the ‘Royal Turtle’ is one of seven national symbols of the Kingdom of Cambodia. However, until relatively recently, there was little information available about the number of species, their distribution, diet, or habitat preferences in Cambodia. To read more about how Chamnan and his team have been conserving a number of turtle species click here

Final Reports Received

These recently concluded projects have had some exciting results. To download a pdf copy of a project report, click on the project title below to visit the relevant project page on the CLP website.

Project Websites

Check out project websites for updated news and images from award winning teams in the field: