April 2012
Conservation Leadership Programme e-Newsletter
2012 Conservation Awards Announced!
Executive Manager's Message

In December, I attended the International Congress for Conservation Biology in Auckland, New Zealand, where nearly 40 CLP alumni presented their project results and other work at one of the Society for Conservation Biology’s largest meetings to date. One of these individuals, Noemi Ester Llanos, is working tirelessly to protect the endangered Cochabamba mountain-finch in Bolivia, locally known as Poospiza.

During a conversation with Noemi, she said to me gratefully: “The CLP has been like a Mama Poospizita to me – you took me under your wing, gave me support when I needed it, and helped me to fly.” What an honor to receive this compliment from someone who reveres this endemic bird.

As we enter into springtime in the Northern Hemisphere, this image is fresh in my mind. With the spring comes a new cadre of Conservation Award winners. After months of extensive review, I’m pleased to announce that 28 teams have been granted Conservation Awards to carry out high-priority conservation projects. You can view the full list of projects on the CLP website.

This year’s award-winning projects range from establishing baseline data for the critically endangered Isabela Oriole in the Philippines, to acting for primate conservation in Cameroon and managing reserves in the Brazilian Amazon.

Our annual awards process would not be possible if it weren't for the time and dedication of our expert reviewers and judges. Thanks to those of you who contributed time for this process.

We welcome these new teams to our network of dedicated conservationists. We will provide them with training and tools to be successful, and will look forward to watching them fly as well.

Robyn Dalzen
Executive Manager

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Where Are They Now?

Leadership, lessons….and lemurs!
An interview with Julie Hanta Razafimanahaka

As a student in 2004, Julie joined a CLP team for a project which focused on bats in Madagascar. Nine years later, she is Director at Madagasikara Voakajy (MV) a leading national NGO in Madagascar which uses conservation science and community participation to protect endemic Malagasy species and their habitats. In an interview with the CLP, Julie tells us how about her career to date. READ MORE

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IN THIS ISSUE
Executive Manager's Message
Where Are They Now?
NING News
Upcoming Events
Conservation in Action
Final Reports
Alumni Publications
Project Websites
NING News

First place in the 2012 CLP photo contest went to K. Suryawanshi for his image “Snow leopard (Panthera uncia), Mongolia.” READ MORE

Upcoming Events

18 June-2 July 2012: CLP Conservation Management and Leadership Training Workshop, Alberta, Canada

5 July 2012: CLP Alumni Travel Grant Deadline

9-13 July 2012: 12th International Coral Reef Symposium, Cairns, Australia Register by 15 June

15-18 July 2012: SCB's North American Congress for Conservation Biology, California, USA Abstracts due 28 April

2-4 Aug 2012: Student Conference on Conservation Science, Bangalore, India Abstracts due 30 April

8-14 Aug 2012: World Congress of Herpetology, Vancouver, Canada Register by 31 May

28 Aug-1 Sept 2012: SCB’s European Congress of Conservation Biology, Glasgow, Scotland Register early by 30 April

6-15 Sept 2012: IUCN World Conservation Congress, Jeju, Korea Register early by 5 July

14-21 Oct 2012: 13th Pan-African Ornithological Congress, Arusha, Tanzania Abstracts due 30 April

Conservation in Action

China and Vietnam start habitat restoration project for cao vit gibbons

 

Creating an eco-trail through Serranía de los Yariguíes National Park

 

Conservation of the endemic titi monkeys through outreach in Bolivia

Success in Peruvian seabird conservation initiatives

 

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Final Reports

Assessment and conservation of Grey-necked Picathartes in southeast Nigeria (2010)

Mitigating human-crane conflict in Driefontein Grasslands, Central Zimbabwe (2010)

Researching bird and mammal populations on the Liben Plain, Ethiopia (2010)

Strengthening Vulture Safe Zone in Nawalparasi, Nepal (2010)

Conservation Assessment and Action Plan for Threatened Colombian Cycad (2009)

Conservation Initiatives for Greater Adjutant Stork in Assam, India (2009)

Refugial Forests of the Western Lesser Caucasus (2007)

Community-driven Conservation of Cambodian Chelonians (2007)

Click here to read summaries of these reports.

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Alumni Publications

Lucherini, M., Palacios, R., Villalba, L. & Iverson, E. (2012). A new Strategic Plan for the conservation of the Andean cat. Oryx 46: 16-17.
The Andean cat Leopardus jacobita is the most threatened felid in the Americas. The Andean Cat Alliance (AGA) is an international and interdisciplinary network that aspires to achieve the conservation and long-term maintenance of Andean cat populations and its habitat, in harmony with local communities. The newly-released Strategic Plan for the species launches a new phase for AGA and consolidates all its conservation efforts. For each of the threats the Strategic Plan provides a list of indicators that permit the recognition of the studies required to understand how the threat is affecting Andean cat populations, and the actions required for mitigation.

Suryawanshi, K.R., Bhatnagar, Y.V. & Mishra, C. (2012) Standardizing the double observer survey method for estimating mountain ungulate prey of the endangered snow leopard. Oecologia: 1-10. doi: 10.1007/s00442-011-2237-0.
Mountain ungulates around the world have been threatened by illegal hunting, habitat modification, increased livestock grazing, disease and development. Mountain ungulates play an important functional role in grasslands as primary consumers and as prey for wild carnivores, and monitoring of their populations is important for conservation purposes. However, most of the several currently available methods of estimating wild ungulate abundance are either difficult to implement or too expensive for mountainous terrain. A rigorous method of sampling ungulate abundance in mountainous areas that can allow for some measure of sampling error is therefore much needed. This paper provides the first statistically robust estimates of the ungulate populations that form the primary prey for the snow leopard.

Thong, V.D., Puechmaille, S.J., Densinger, A., Bates, P.J.J., Dietz, C., Csorba, G., Soisook, P., Teeling, E.C., Matsumura, S., Furey, N.M & Schnitzler, H-U. (2011) Systematics of the Hipposideros turpis complex and a description of a new subspecies from Vietnam. Mammal Review, 42: 166–192. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2907.2011.00202.x.
Hipposideros turpis is traditionally known as a species composed of three subspecies, H. t. turpis, H. t. alongensis and H. t. pendleburyi, distributed disjunctly in south-west Japan, north-east Vietnam and south-west Thailand, respectively. Prior to the present study, the systematic status of forms within the species remained unclear. Using morphological (external, bacular, cranial and dental characters), genetic and echolocation data, we demonstrate that turpis, alongensis and pendleburyi represent three distinct species, and that these species are endemic to Japan, Vietnam and Thailand, respectively. They are very distinct genetically and do not even form a monophyletic group.

Verissimo, D., & Metcalfe, K. (2012). Whaling: Quota trading won’t work. Nature 482,162-162.
The quota-trading scheme proposed by Christopher Costello and his colleagues is a promising market-based solution for whale conservation, but is unlikely to succeed. For some countries, such as Japan, whaling is a symbol of national and cultural identity, so the economic returns may not provide sufficient incentive. Also, this is strictly a moral issue for the anti-whaling lobby, driven not by environmental conservation but by the suffering imposed on individual whales.

Click here to see more alumni publications.

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Project Websites

Association for the Conservation of Biodiversity in Kazakhstan | Bat Census in Crimean Caves (Ukraine) | Birds-Indonesia | Community-based Conservation of Lake Kuyucuk, Kars (Turkey) | Community Centered Conservation (C3 - Comoros) | Community Forest Buffer (India) | Conservacion Argentina | CROC (Philippines) | Ecology and Conservation of the Chilean Dolphin | EcoLeague (Russia) | EcoMuseum (Kazakhstan) | Fundación Conserva (Colombia) | Giant Otter Conservation (Bolivia) | Katala Foundation (Philippines) | Macedonian Ecological Society | Madagasikara Voakajy | Marsh Deer Project (Argentina) | Mpingo Conservation Project (Tanzania) | Nature Conservation Foundation (India) | Nature Iraq | ProDelphinus (Peru) | Project Hapalopsittaca (Colombia) | Project Karumbé (Uruguay) | Sakhalin Salmon Initiative (Russia) | Seabirds Argentina | Soul of the Andes (Argentina) | Strizh Ecological Centre (Russia) | Turtle Conservation & Research Programme (India) | WildlifeDirect (Kenya)

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