The Babbler 15

The Babbler September, 2005 Number 15

* Welcome Jonathan C. Eames

* Features The lost and found bird Chasing the Pink-headed Duck

* Regional news Cambodian ranger murdered in Cardammon Mountains, Cambodia Vietnamese hunter turned conservationist

* Important Bird Area News * Rarest of the rare White-rumped Vulture

* Project updates Cambodia activities Vietnam activities Myanmar activities

* Spotlight Organization Save Cambodia’s Wildlife

* Publications * Book reviews * Staff news

BirdLife International in Indochina #4/209, Doi Can, Hanoi, Vietnam Tel: + 84 4 722 3864 Fax: + 84 4 722 3835 Email: birdlife@birdlife.netnam.vn www.birdlifeindochina.org The Babbler is compiled and edited by Dang Nguyen Hong Hanh. If you have any contribution or suggestion for the next issue, please contact Hanh@birdlife.netnam.vn by 1st December.

BirdLife International in Indochina The past there months have been a busy time particularly for fundraising activities in the UK and the launch of our long-awaited World Bank GEF project for Chu Yang Sin National Park, we also welcomed Stuart Housden, Head of RSPB Scotland, to our Hanoi office who reviewed our Vietnam operation provided guidance on programme development. In this issue we report on all of these developments as well as depressing news on the status of a number of Cambodian, Myanmar and Vietnamese IBAs. August was dominated by the British Birdwatching Fair at Rutland Water Nature Reserve.

This year’s fair entitled Helping Save Gurney’s Pitta and their forest home aimed to raise funds for our project which aims to assist the establishment of Lenya National Park in southern Myanmar. It was the most successful Birdfair yet and we report in detail on the event in this issue. On behalf of BirdLife International in Indochina I would like to thank all those who worked hard to make the event such a success. I would particularly like to thank Tim Appleton, Reserve Manager, and Martin Davies, Co-organizer from the RSPB. I would also like to offer particular thanks to Martyn Aspinall and the reserve staff and volunteers, and to Kath and all those at The Lodge who produced the brochure and sales products. Visits to the The Lodge also yielded pledges of support from RSPB to continue supporting the BirdLife/WCS/WWF Cambodia Vulture Action Plan, as well a funding to initiate vulture research in Myanmar in 2006. In this issue Dr Sean Austin reports in detail on our ongoing vulture work in Cambodia, which involves satellite tracking of three birds.

The launch of our World Bank GEF project at the end of July in Ban Me Thout was another milestone in the long saga in bringing this project to implementation, sadly the success of the event has since been soured by the news that the Government of Vietnam has approved plans for the new “Eastern Long Mountains” road, which will bisect the national park, and which may bisect other internationally important protected areas in the Central Highlands, notably Nui Bi Doup – Nui Ba National Park. Let us hope that Special-use Forest legislation will be enforced and that the road planning process will be guided by national law on environmental impact assessment, and that “overriding national interest” or “the security of the nation” will not be used as a pretext for circumventing the existing legislation.

Also in July at the kind invitation of the Cambodian Ministry of Environment, I joined flights over Mondolkiri, Ratanakiri and Stung Treng provinces. This was a marvelous experience and I was able to learn so much about the landscape and the status of Important Bird Areas. Sadly I witnessed extensive excavations within Stung Sen/Santuk/Baray one of the wetland grassland IBAs in the Ton Le Sap inundation zone, which is symptomatic of the land-grab that is currently underway. I was also able to see the major new road and associated plywood factory along its route in western Siem Pang, as well as the rapid deforestation of the islands in the Mekong River Ramsar site near the Laos border. How much rapid will the pace of biodiversity loss in Cambodia become when land routes are opened all the way to China?

The other depressing news on threats to IBAs comes from Myanmar where we have recently leant of plans to build dams on the main channel of the Chindwin, Salween and the Tahintharyi Rivers. We will endeavor to learn more and report on this in the next issue of the Babbler.

Jonathan C. Eames Programme Manager BirdLife International in Indochina

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BirdLife International in Indochina

Features

The Babbler - September, 2005

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istorically Gurney’s (or the Blackbreasted) Pitta Pitta gurneyi was restricted to the “semi-evergreen” rainforest of southernmost Myanmar and southern (peninsular) Thailand. In the right habitat, Gurney’s Pitta lived at relatively high densities, although it was probably never more than locally common. But lowland forest tends to be more accessible and closer to human settlements than other forest types, and provides flat, workable land when cleared. During the last hundred years or so Gurney’s Pitta has lost its habitat to subsistence farming and, more recently, large-scale plantation agriculture, particularly palm oil and rubber. Only tiny fragments remain, all under extreme pressure. As a result, until the Myanmar discovery, Gurney’s Pitta had one of the very lowest known populations of any species on the planet, with just 11 pairs and two spare males counted in mid-2000.

The rapid decline of Gurney’s Pitta went largely unnoticed for much of the 20th Century because commentators tended to recycle and reinforce one another’s assertions that the bird occurred “rather commonly”, even though field trips to parts of its former range were finding no sign of it. In fact, the importance of lowland forest to Gurney’s Pitta had been obscured by a group of collectors in 1936. Commissioned to make the ascent into upland forest

Overleaf: Lost and found, the exquisite male Gurney’s Pitta Pitta gurneyi (Kanit Khanikul/www.savepitta.org) Above: A male Gurney’s Pitta Pitta gurneyi at the nest found by Uthai Treesucon in 1986 after Phil Round had rediscovered the species a day earlier in southern Thailand (Uthai Treesucon) Right: The Crested Jay Platylophus galericulatus is Near-Threatened and is generally uncommon in evergreen forest throughout the Sundaic lowlands up to 1,500 m (Kanit Khanikul/www.savepitta.org)

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during the wet season, they instead took birds from the lowland forests, and labelled them as having been collected at elevations of 600 to 1,060 m. It was the inclusion of known lowland specialists like Malayan Peacock-pheasant Polyplectron malacense and Gould’s Frogmouth Batrachostomus stellatus that roused the suspicions of Phil Round of Mahidol University (Oriental Bird Club representative for Thailand) and Nigel Collar, Research Fellow at BirdLife (then ICBP).

Realising that the species was at the very least in serious trouble, Nigel and Phil had begun independently to review all previous records of Gurney’s Pitta in Thailand and Myanmar, with a view to identifying surviving patches of forest in its former range where efforts to find it should be concentrated.

In May 1986, Nigel was called by Bruce Miller of Oklahoma Zoo, with a report that two Gurney’s Pittas had been seen in the secret backroom of an unidentified Bangkok animal dealer. Nigel passed the information on to Phil, who began to make enquiries in Bangkok.

Trade in all species of pitta and most other native wild birds is illegal in Thailand, and only one of three major animal trading companies Phil contacted in Bangkok admitted familiarity with Gurney’s Pitta. The managing director of

this firm said his company received five or six a year, and claimed as many as 50 birds a year were still entering the trade.

Contacts in Bangkok identified the town of Krabi in southern Thailand as a major clearing-house for locally caught wildlife.

Phil visited the largest of three illicit dealers in Krabi, who promised to ask the village subdealer who brought him the birds where they came from. The site, Khao Nor Chuchi, turned out to be one Phil had already earmarked for survey because it probably still supported lowland forest.

In the second week of June, accompanied by two villagers as guides, Phil Round and Uthai Treesucon, also of Mahidol University, hiked into a 1.6km2 plot of lowland forest. The plot was surrounded by intensive cultivation with some patches of secondary scrub jungle, but still connected to forest on the hill slopes. It had been previously logged, and was crisscrossed by trails used by resin tappers.

They heard gunshots, and met bird trappers. But though most larger birds had been hunted out, this battered patch of forest still contained a great diversity of forest birds, including many “extreme” lowland specialists and other species scarce or absent from existing nature reserves in Thailand.

Soon after first light each day, they set out separately, recording all bird species

seen and heard, and paying particular attention to the “short, monosyllabic or disyllabic, fluty or whirring” notes of pittas. They played the taped call of a captive male Gurney’s Pitta, hoping for response.

After three days they had encountered small numbers of Banded and Hooded Pittas P. guajana and P. sordida, but seen no sign of Gurney’s. They moved to a second, more disturbed site next to a logging road, with fewer forest birds. Late in the afternoon, after a brief but heavy rainshower, Phil was rounding a bend on a trail near the logging road when a male Gurney’s Pitta flew up in front of him. He recognised it easily by its plump shape, and uniformly brown back and wings contrasting with its blue crown and tail.

When he played back the tape of the captive bird, a male Gurney’s Pitta reappeared, allowing itself to be followed for about 30 metres as it bounded along the trail, stopping at intervals to forage, before moving into dense undergrowth. A little later, two birds began to call in response to the recorded bird, and the male revealed himself again. These calls were taped.

Next morning Uthai Treesucon played back the new recordings, and was moving towards a responding bird when, brushing against a spiny Salacca palm some 50 metres from the logging road, he flushed an unidentified pitta off a nest containing three eggs. He hid nearby, and after some

30 minutes the bird, a male Gurney’s Pitta, returned to the nest.

The two young birds that hatched were watched throughout the first two weeks of their lives. But when the researchers returned from a three-day trip in search of other Gurney’s territories, there was no sign of adults or young. Predation by snakes or theft by a villager seemed the most likely explanation, although it’s possible that, as with some other tropical forest species, fledging had taken place extremely quickly to minimise the time they were vulnerable to predation in the nest.

BirdLife (then ICBP) and IUCN quickly submitted recommendations to the Thai Government for a protected area around the site. So began a battle, still not won, to save the tiny fragments of forest at Khao Nor Chuchi from encroaching loggers, settlers and cash-croppers.

A series of surveys between 1987 and 1989 led to an estimate of 24–48 pairs throughout peninsular Thailand, of which 20–30 pairs were in or around Khao Nor Chuchi. But by 1992 much of the secondary forest had been cleared, and only 21 pairs were to be found. At least nine and possibly 20 pairs disappeared in the five years to 1992—in other words, up to half of what was believed to be the last known population on the planet.

Thailand’s Royal Forest Department (RFD) acted swiftly to protect part of Khao Nor Chuchi in 1987 as a Non-

The Chestnut-naped Forktail Enicurus ruficapillus is Near-Threatened and occurs along rivers and streams and is patchily distributed through the Sundaic lowlands (Kanit Khanikul/www.savepitta.org)

Hunting Area (NHA), a step on the way to being declared a wildlife sanctuary. But the NHA boundary missed out a crucial 30km2 of Gurney’s Pitta core habitat, because there were many villages inside this area, and under Thai law wildlife sanctuaries must not include human settlements. So when it was declared in 1993, the Khao Pra-Bang Khram Wildlife Sanctuary covered just five of the area’s 21 Gurney’s Pitta territories, leaving 16 pairs in the Bang Khram National Reserve Forest, which had only nominal legal protection. The Wildlife Sanctuary’s long perimeter-to-area ratio (it is only 1–2 km wide in places) meant that even those five “secure” territories were vulnerable.

Statutory protection may have slowed the loss of forest, but the law was poorly enforced because of conflicts and gaps between the responsibilities of different Thai government agencies.

Outsiders who had illegally purchased land in the area cleared at least 1 km2 of forest and mature secondary growth in the 1990–1991 dry season, causing the loss of three pitta territories.

Despite warnings to the authorities, no action was taken until June 1996, 10 years to the day after the bird was rediscovered, 15

when project staff found a bulldozer beginning to smash down trees in the core area, where six pairs had their territories.

Meanwhile, Gurney’s Pittas were still turning up in captivity and in trade.

Between 1990 and 1997, three birds were confiscated from villagers at Khao Nor Chuchi and returned to the forest.

BirdLife Partners and the Oriental Bird Club (OBC) worked hard behind the scenes to persuade the authorities to tackle these problems. Intervention by the Thai Department of Forests and Parks put a stop to dry-season clearance, and patrols by the Thai Border Police prevented encroachments in 2001/2002.

Even so, it was touch-and-go for the Khao Nor Chuchi pittas when a team of conservationists, including representatives from Myanmar’s Biodiversity and Nature Conservation Association (BANCA) and BirdLife International, made their momentous discovery in Myanmar in 2003.

The team found pittas at four lowland forest sites, with a maximum of 10–12 pairs at one of these. All these sites were close to places where the birds had occurred historically, although the last confirmed record from Myanmar had been in 1914.

But as in Thailand, Gurney’s Pittas in Myanmar are threatened by clearance of the forest to make way for oil palm plantations. “Throughout our work we could hear the constant whine of chainsaws, and everywhere we saw patches of recently burned forest,” said Jonathan Eames of BirdLife International in Indochina. “Lowland forest is being rapidly cleared from the region, particularly along the route of the transTennasserim highway. The extent and scale of the forest clearances are clearly visible from satellite images.”

Subsequently the Myanmar population was estimated at several hundred pairs.

Most are in the Ngawun Reserve Forest, which, with what could be called Gurney’s Luck, is just outside the proposed Lenya National Park, where it would enjoy a higher level of protection.

“This presents the Government of Myanmar with a tremendous conservation opportunity,” said Jonathan Eames. “If these areas were combined, through a modification of the proposed boundaries to Lenya National Park, it would conserve a representative example of the wildlife and forests that once cloaked southern Myanmar and neighbouring Thailand.”

The priority now is to identify the largest remaining areas of suitable lowland forest in Myanmar, and work with the relevant authorities to develop a conservation strategy for them. That’s why the organisers of this year’s Birdfair have pledged the proceeds to support BirdLife’s 16

World Birdwatch June 2005 27.2

Top: A female Gurney’s Pitta Pitta gurneyi at Khao Nor Chuchi (Kanit Khanikul/www.savepitta.org)

Above: The first Myanmar records of Storm’s Stork Ciconia stormi, an Endangered species, were made by the joint BANCA-BirdLife expedition that rediscovered Gurney’s Pitta in the country (Jan Branje) work to save Gurney’s Pitta in the forests of Myanmar and Thailand.

BirdLife and its partners will continue to work to protect and increase the population at Khao Nor Chuchi, with the long-term aim of re-establishing the bird elsewhere in Thailand. Although some commentators have written off the Thai birds as below viable levels and doomed, BirdLife believes this population is important for the longterm survival and genetic viability of the species. Gurney’s Pitta appears to favour secondary, regenerating forest, and so could benefit from the reclamation and restoration—perhaps by replanting with native species—of lowland forest.

A scientific paper describing the rediscovery of Gurney’s Pitta in Myanmar has recently been published in BirdLife’s scientific journal, Bird Conservation International.

The rediscovery of Gurney’s Pitta Pitta gurneyi in Myanmar and an estimate of its population size based on remaining forest cover by Jonathan C Eames, Htin Hla, Peter Leimgruber, Daniel S Kelly, Sein Myo Aung, Saw Moses and U Saw Nyunt Tin. Bird Conservation International (2005) 15: 3–26.

Chasing the Pink-headed Duck Karin Eberhardt, a member of a recent expedition to northern Myanmar, describes the frustrations of a possible encounter with the Holy Grail of Asian ornithology—the “extinct” Pink-headed Duck...

“

Ducks up!” At Tim’s call our team of five birdwatchers scramble madly down the slope to aim our scopes and binoculars along his line of sight. We have come on a wild duck chase to a hillside garden overlooking one of the last expanses of natural wet grasslands in northern Myanmar. The sun sparks a brief halo on the flying duck and colour flashes in Tim and Jonathan’s scopes.

“Pink!” they exclaim in unison.

Swallowing hope that sticks like thistles in my throat, I sift for field marks.

My binoculars have lower magnification than their scopes, and do not show pink.

I see a long pale neck strain forward from a dark brown body, the wings pulse a uniform light to dark—underwing to upperwing—in a powerful rhythm.

Besides a dark patch that blurs the front of the head, I detect no other field marks.

The tension crackles through our group like a fire through dry grassland.

Finally we break into a trading of field marks that sounds like a taxidermist’s auction.

“Pale underwing, very dark body” “Bill nearly the same pale as the neck” “I see an all-pale neck, shouldn’t it have a brown stripe underneath?” It does.

“What about the dark mark on the front of the head? Could it be the eye or an eyestripe?”

“Can anyone see any marks on the upper wing?” No one can.

“Could it be a Spot-billed Duck?”

Although the question will come up again, the possibility of a Spot-billed Duck Anas poecilorhyncha is dismissed for now by the lack of white near the speculum, and lack of a bill-spot.

The duck flies in several directions before choosing a course, presenting us with clear front, back and side views, and is airborne for close to three minutes until finally spiralling down to shelter in a hidden pool. The flight path is so erratic it is almost as if the duck intended to affirm its existence by scrawling “I was here” in bold pink graffiti on a bright blue sky.

The Pink-headed Duck Rhodonessa caryophyllacea, considered for more than half a century by many ornithologists to be extinct, once inhabited wetlands within the British Empire; from modern-day north-eastern India, across southern Nepal to Bangladesh and Myanmar.

Colonial-era naturalists, hunters and civil servants documented the natural history of the region’s flora and fauna. Their accounts reveal the Pink-headed Duck, probably never abundant and difficult to find even by the mid 1800s, lived a

Opposite: The immediate aftermath of the sighting... (A W Tordorf/BirdLife) Above: Captive Pink-headed Ducks Rhodonessa caryophyllacea (male on the left), photographed in 1926 at Foxwarren Park, Surrey, UK (D Seth-Smith)

Lower left: Elephants were used during survey work (A W Tordorf/BirdLife) Lower right: The expedition encountered fishermen in many of the oxbow lakes (A W Tordorf/BirdLife) reclusive life in pairs or small flocks on weedy forest ponds and hidden grassland pools, and fed by dabbling in vegetation and diving for crustaceans. Birds moved locally, perhaps to follow rains, moving to swampy areas near rivers (although apparently never on them) when higher wetlands dried out. The duck’s sedentary lifestyle may have contributed to its downfall, because it was a specialist in the rich wetlands that are ideal for ploughing into rice fields. Reports from India in the early 1900s describe how “vast areas of swampy ground have been brought under cultivation within the last half century” and “cultivation has beaten back the jungle and driven birds to yet remoter and less trodden jungles.”

Though habitat loss was the primary cause of the bird’s demise, hunting was probably a contributing factor. Colonial sportsmen killed thousands of wildfowl— one report, from the Brahmaputra marshes, counted 1,400 ducks taken by four men over a two and a half day hunt.

By the 1930s, the last living Pink-headed Ducks were known only from a few private collections in Europe.

I first heard of the Pink-headed Duck five years ago, shortly after my move to Myanmar to work for international aid organisations. A local colleague, a keen birder and former hunter, spoke in a reverent near-whisper about the ducks he had seen with pink heads in a place not far from Myitkyina, the capital of Myanmar’s northernmost Kachin State. I later discovered the Pink-headed Duck is one of the most sought after birds in Asia; one of 41 avian species in the region classified as Critically Endangered and, like seven other species, widely believed to be extinct.

The Pink-headed Duck has become to ornithologists in Asia what the Ivory-billed Woodpecker is to ornithologists in the US—a powerful symbol of a lost wilderness. The Pink-headed Duck has a singular taxonomy and appearance, with unique features such as the deeply triangular goose-like bill, un-ducklike feet, weak sexual dimorphism, and near-

spherical eggs, and it is placed in its own genus, Rhodonessa. Jean Delacour, the famous early 20th Century ornithologist and Curator of the Los Angeles County Museum, described the Pink-headed Duck as unlike any other duck “in proportions and colours,” with a “peculiar, if not very graceful shape,” and therefore “quite remarkable.”

Northern Myanmar is considered the last place on earth where the Pink-headed Duck may still exist. It lies at the transition from Indochinese to Himalayan ecosystems and contains a wealth of flora and fauna, some still unknown to science. Remote places where Pink-headed Ducks were historically recorded still have suitable habitat, but political isolation coupled with civil strife have prevented their ornithological exploration for decades. The duck’s survival cannot be ruled out.

The leader of our small expedition, BirdLife International in Indochina’s Jonathan Eames is one of the leading ornithologists in South-East Asia. He has discovered three species new to science and several races of birds in Vietnam and Cambodia. In Myanmar he has helped rediscover Gurney’s Pitta Pitta gurneyi, and rediscovery of the mysterious Pink-headed Duck would be the crowning feather in his already richly adorned ornithological cap.

Jonathan has pored over the historical records of distribution, habitat and behaviour of Pink-headed Ducks, inspected museum skins, listened to local accounts of contemporary sightings, spoken to the few westerners still alive who saw the bird in the days of the Raj, and talked to local people to find out where suitable habitat still exists. This was his third expedition to Myanmar looking for the Pink-headed Duck.

The day after our possible sighting, I enter the grassland with the local rice farmer who had flushed the suspect duck when on assignment from our team to beat through suitable habitat. We glide in his dugout canoe, the hull barely wider than my hips. At first the stream runs broad, separating paddyfield from dry grassland.

Soon elephant grass and reeds thicken and grow tall, and the channel narrows. A Common Moorhen Gallinula chloropus cackles ahead; above us a Lesser Adjutant Leptoptilos javanicus soars into view, widefingered wings led by an oversized yellow beak, so close I can see the hairs on its head and cheeks.

Finally, we lodge the boat in the reeds to continue on foot. We slog through a small cut between hillocks of elephant grass and enter a floating meadow.

Walking on the grass mat is like being on a

waterbed, but soon we sink through and have to wade up to our thighs. At the far end of the meadow is a still, ten metre long, grass-lined pool. This, my companion tells me, is the pool from where the duck flew. I imagine the scene the day before. In this secluded pond a lone duck had heard a nearby disturbance, lifted its (pink?) head, extended its long neck, and taken flight.

The farmer tells me his family moved to the area when he was a boy, to cultivate rice. At that time this matted “meadow”— his hand sweeps the 30 metre wide expanse—was one big open pool. In those days, he always found about a hundred ducks on the pond. “Why?” I ask “did the big pool and the ducks disappear? Why did the water dry up?” He shrugs. “Too many people have come,” he replies. “In those days, few people lived here. Now there are many people from all over, and a whole village nearby.”

Later, I ask Tim Appleton, warden of Rutland Water Nature Reserve in the UK and one of the principal organisers of the British Birdfair, why he thinks the pools have largely disappeared. Tim thinks the grasslands require ungulates; in earlier times, wild buffalo and elephant would have wallowed in and kept open the pools that ducks need to thrive. But the main problem, he says, is the conversion of wet grasslands, turning vast areas of northern Myanmar into unbroken stretches of paddyfields.

We spend four days camped in the area, scanning the sky over the wetland and sending local youths as beaters to flush ducks from the pools. We comb the

grasslands by elephant-back to enter the hidden pools from a vantage point above the reeds. We do all that is possible to spot the duck again, but without success.

We move on to search old oxbow lakes along a northern river, including one where a local fisherman says he shot and ate a Pink-headed Duck the year before. In these swampy forests we encounter rattan collectors and follow fishermen. We encounter abandoned forest camps containing the tattered feathers of a Black Stork Ciconia nigra, macaque and wild pig skulls, and hornbill beaks scattered in the ashes of recent fires. Although these hunters are probably poaching tiger and bear, they live on what they can shoot or trap along the way.

Our three-week expedition yields a rich harvest of bird sightings. We see healthy populations of threatened species, including Green Peafowl Pavo muticus, White-rumped and Slender-billed Vultures Gyps bengalensis and G. tenuirostris; and a fleeting glimpse of a Masked Finfoot Heliopais personata. We record two new species for Myanmar; Himalayan Griffon Gyps himalayensis and Chestnut-crowned Bush-warbler Cettia major; and a range extension for the endemic Hooded Treepie Crypsirina cucullata. In 20 days in northern Kachin State, the group tallies almost 300 bird species. Yet the expedition is like a sentence constructed backwards, that starts with a triple exclamation mark and trails into three dots… …leaving us with one burning question: was our sighting really a Pinkheaded Duck?

Back in Hanoi, Jonathan rechecks his field notes and fieldguides, inspects expedition photos of Spot-billed Ducks, and ultimately cannot rule out the possibility that the duck we saw may have been the zonorhyncha race of Spot-billed Duck; a bird with a uniformly dark upperwing, dark colouring up the neck, and a beige to pink head—all features team members noted. Emails fly through cyberspace in another flurry of field marks, as frantic as the duck’s flight over the grassland. On balance, team members agree that our duck was likely a Pinkheaded, but Jonathan’s professional integrity and sense of responsibility won’t allow him to confirm the sighting and he must err on the side of caution. In the official trip report posted on the BirdLife International in Indochina website, the sighting stands as “possible and unconfirmed.”

For BirdLife and its local partners— expedition organiser Wildbird Adventure Travel and Tours, the conservation NGO Biodiversity and Nature Conservation Association (BANCA), and the Department of Forestry—the search for a confirmed sighting will continue. Plans for late 2005 include extended excursions to wet grasslands near the 2004 possible sighting, and a “wanted” poster campaign, offering a reward for information leading to a confirmed sighting of Pink-headed Duck.

But for me, at least, one Pink-headed Duck still wings across the blue sky and dabbles in weedy ponds. Although, as the rankest of amateurs, my judgment carries less weight than the down on a Pinkheaded Duck’s breast. In the changing world of northern Myanmar, we can only hope that the duck’s luck holds. So prepare to celebrate when, like the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, the Pink-headed Duck flies from the forest alive and well—like a miracle, to join those species no longer given up for lost.

Upper left: Lesser Adjutant Leptoptilos javanicus, a globally threatened species recorded by the expedition (Tim Loseby) Upper right: Some of the last 10 Pinkheaded Ducks Rhodonessa caryophyllacea exported from India in 1929 (black & white photograph courtesy of Raymond Sawyer, hand-coloured by John Bass).

Lower left: A male Red-crested Pochard Netta rufina could be an identification pitfall for the unwary (Tim Loseby)

Lower right: Possible confusion; Spotbilled Ducks Anas poecilorhyncha of the race zonorhyncha have dark bodies and contrasting pale heads (J C Eames/BirdLife) World Birdwatch September 2005 27.3

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BirdLife International in Indochina

Rediscovered wren-babbler easy to find but hard to see Rusty-throated Wren-babbler Spelaeornis badeigularis has been seen again after a 58 year gap. In November 2004 Ben King and Julian P. Donahue rediscovered the bird in the Mishmi Hills, eastern Himalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, India.

The species was described by Ripley in 1948, based upon a unique female specimen mist-netted by the Ripley party on 5 January 1947 at an elevation of 5,100 feet (1,545 m), on the Lohit River drainage of the Mishmi Hills. King and Donahue rediscovered the species 6,000 feet (1,800 m) up on the Roing-Hunli road, in the Dibang River drainage of the Mishmi Hills. The bird initially responded to a taperecording of its nearest relative, the Rufous-throated Wren-Babbler Spelaeornis caudatus. Those responses were recorded and played back, with excellent results. “We had little difficulty locating the furtive, active bird, from its vocalisations and the movement of the dense roadside undergrowth,” reported Donahue, “But it took an hour of effort to observe enough ‘pieces’ of the bird to identify it conclusively.

“On subsequent days we learned that the species is easily located, but still excruciatingly difficult to observe, in broadleaf evergreen forest on the roadside between Roing and Hunli. One day we elicited responses from seven different birds along just one kilometre of road.”

Source: World Birdwatch June 2005. Photo: Julian P. Donahue

India to ban diclofenac The Indian Government has said it intends to phase out diclofenac, the veterinary drug responsible for the massive decline in vulture numbers, within the next six months.

Diclofenac, used in South Asia as a livestock treatment, is toxic to vultures when they feed on contaminated carcasses, causing kidney failure and death (see World Birdwatch 26(1): 12–13). Three vulture species; White-rumped Gyps bengalensis, Indian G. indicus and Slender-billed G. tenuirostris are in danger of extinction, and have already disappeared from parts of the region. The decision to ban the drug is welcome, but there are still stockpiles of diclofenac in Indian pharmacies. Captive breeding is seen as the only viable way to prevent extinction of these vultures.

Dr Debbie Pain, Head of International Research at the Royal Society of Protected Birds (RSPB) (BirdLife in the UK), commented, “An alternative livestock treatment needs to be found as soon as possible. Initial trials conducted in South Africa have raised hope that a drug already available in India may be a viable alternative to diclofenac, and of comparatively low toxicity to vultures.” Dr Asad Rahmani, Director of Bombay Natural History Society (BirdLife in India) added, “Prime Minister Mr Manmohan Singh has taken the most important step yet to save these fast-disappearing vultures.

However, the battle is not yet over. We have to establish conservation breeding centres as a further safeguard for these magnificent lords of the sky.”

“This decisive move is a credit to the Indian Government, and we now hope it can be implemented in time to ensure a diclofenac-free environment when birds are released from the captive breeding programmes,” added Chris Bowden, the RSPB’s Vulture Programme Manager.

BirdLife is appealing to the governments of Pakistan and Nepal to join India in banning the veterinary use of diclofenac. Without concerted conservation efforts, we could soon witness one of the most dramatic bird extinctions since the Passenger Pigeon Ectopistes migratorius.

Source: World Birdwatch June 2005

The Babbler - September, 2005

10 BirdLife International in Indochina

This poster offering a US $ 1,000 reward for anyone who can show BirdLife/BANCA staff a living Pink-headed Duck Rhodonessa caryophyllacea has been distributed throughout northern Myanmar during the summer and has also appeared in local magazines. A BirdLife/BANCA survey team will continue the search this October.

The Babbler - September, 2005

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Regional news Logging giant APP put on notice Asian Pulp and Paper (APP), founded in Indonesia in 1984, has drawn criticism for its logging activities, as well as for jilting investors. APP’s most recent rebuke has been in Cambodia, where it has set up several firms to log concessions, which have for a long time been a favourite target because the government has been less than scrupulous in handing them out. Recently, however, the Ministry of Environment has been sending signals that it will no longer tolerate any shenanigans, including the cutting of ancient forests in national parks.

APP has a history of moving from country to country and ignoring laws, moratoriums and official proclamations. Despite the fact that then-Indonesian president Megawati Sukarnoputri declared illegal logging a capital offence punishable by firing squad last summer, it was not until the end of October that APP decided to stop logging in Indonesia. Still, according to a recent Greenpeace report, up to 90% of all industrial wood extraction in Indonesia is illegal.

Source: Asia Times, January 12, 2005

Fish eagle studies Genetics researchers from Nottingham University in the UK will travel to the forests of Cambodia later this year to trap fish eagles and take measurements and blood samples, before releasing them back into their natural habitat. The studies will give an insight into the ecology of the Grey-headed Ichthyophaga ichthyaetus and Lesser Fish Eagle. I.humilis and investigate the degree of genetic distance between the species.

The university is collaborating with various NGOs in India, Nepal and Cambodia to set up the research programme. The aim is to attract students from the region to come to Nottingham where they will be trained in academic and practical skills, before returning to the area to run the research programme, monitor the birds and collect ecological data.

Source: Nottingham University press release, May 23, 2005

Cambodian ranger murdered in Cardammon Mountains, Cambodia Recently Mr. Pin Vor, one of the National Resources Protection Group’s (NRPG) wildlife rangers lost his life while fighting for the survival of the Cardamoms’ forests and wildlife. There are hundreds of poachers plundering the resources of the mountain range every week, yet very few rangers fight back. Just as Cambodia Conservation Programme (CCP) and South West Elephant Corridor (SWEC) Patrol units, NRPG’s rangers are the last line of defense for the Cardamoms’ forests and it is thanks to men like Pin Vor that the Cardamoms’ endangered wildlife will survive in the future.

His passing on comes shortly after the prison verdict of the well-known tiger and elephant hunter Yor Ngun in Koh Kong who was arrested in March by a SWEC ranger. This sequence of events confirms that poaching in the Cardamoms is a very serious problem and we can hope that wildlife crime will now move to the forefront of public awareness, creating a greater consensus and momentum to stop the criminals responsible for endangering both wildlife and human lives.

Text by Suwanna Gauntlett, WildAid – Cambodia

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Vietnamese hunter turned conservationist

Mr. Herbert Covert, Professor of Anthropology, University of Colorado at Boulder (left) and Nguyen Van Hoan (right) Photo: Duong Minh Phong

Thanh Nien Newspaper reported on September 17, 2005, a story about a hunter turned conservationist: Nguyen Van Hoan used to be both an illegal hunter and logger in Xuan Trach commune, Bo Trach district, Quang Binh province. He is called “gaur” Hoan. After shooting a Gaur Bos gaurus , he was sentenced to 48 months’ probation and made to pay a fine of two million dong. He felt so guilty for what he had done he decided to return to the forest to protect the four remaining Gaur. In addition, he persuaded quite a few hunters in the area to give up hunting and inspired them with his love for wildlife.

Moreover, he spent his own money to bring unlucky primate species by buying them from hunters and returning them to the forest. Besides taking daily care of the four remaining Gaur day by day in Bo Trach State Forest Enterprise, he also guides wildlife survey groups in the area. With a strong passion for wildlife protection, he is really an exemplary example in Vietnam. Is he unique? Let us know if you know someone else like this whom we could feature.

Golden Cat Catopuma temminckii discovered in Chu Yang Sin National Park, Vietnam On September 10, 2005, Chu Yang Sin National Park’s rangers caught a man transporting a Golden Cat Catopuma temminckii in the park area. This arrested man said he used bicycle brake cables to make traps and put them in the forest for several days. 200 cables were seized from him. Golden Cat Catopuma temminckii is a rare species listed as Vulnerable by IUCN. This is the second time Chu Yang Sin National Park rangers have discovered Golden Cat in the park.

This specimen weighs 9.6 kilos and had injured its right leg in the trap and is in poor condition.

According to the Health Testing Board, this individual is not strong enough to prey in the wild if released. The previous individual confiscated weighed 7.8 kilos was caught in good condition and was later released back to the forest.

This Golden Cat was delivered to the Zoological and Botanical Garden of Ho Chi Minh city for treatment.

Text by Tran Quoc Toan, Head of Ecotoursim Section in Chu Yang Sin National Park

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Important Bird Areas news Dams to be built on the Salween and Tenasserim rivers, Myanmar Cooperation in efforts to find solutions to the energy problem was among the topics raised for discussion when Foreign Minister of Thailand, Kantathi Suphamongkhon met Senior General Than Shwe, the leader of Burma’s military junta, for talks on September 1, 2005. “As neighbours, we look forward to greater cooperation, particularly with regard to the current energy problems faced by many countries,” Mr. Kantathi said. “This will include alternative sources of energy” The issue of cooperation was timely given that Suphot Dhirakaosal, the Thai ambassador to Yangon, announced that the Joint Cooperation Committee of Thailand and Burma had recently signed an energy cooperation agreement. He said the agreement included a plan to build five hydropower dams in the Salween and Tenasserim river basins with a combined capacity of 70,000 kW of electricity per year and an investment budget of about 100 billion baht.

Mr. Suphot said a feasibility study would begin this September and a final report would be made to the two governments by the end of next year. Thailand’s Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand would join in the investment.

Source: the Bangkok Post, September 1, 2005

Ton Le Sap Lake land grab threatens Stung Sen/Santuk/Baray IBA (KH021), Cambodia From discussion with WCS who has an ongoing Bengal Florican Conservation Project in Kampong Thom Province (north-east of Tonle Sap Lake), and Seng Kim Hout (BirdLife Project Officer) who just completed Bengal Florican surveys with WCS, much of the inundated grassland habitat critical for Bengal Floricans is under threat from development and land-use alteration. A lack of comprehensive land rights and land titling laws in Cambodia means areas are being appropriated by individuals or "leased" to wealthy land owners by Provincial authorities. Private individuals are claiming areas and converting natural grassland habitat to grow crops such as rice and cashew nuts. Larger areas leased by the government develop Eucalyptus plantations and also grow dry season rice necessitating the digging of reservoirs and canals. BirdLife International is collaborating with WCS to carry out further Bengal Florican surveys to determine critical habitat areas and aims to contribute to conservation and management efforts around the Tonle Sap Lake. The attached photograph, taken by Jonathan C. Eames on 16 July 2005 clearly shows recent excavations within the Stung Sen/Santuk/Baray IBA (KH021).

Text and photo by Jonathan C. Eames, BirdLife International Indochina Programme Manager

Ang Tropeang Thmor (KH001), Cambodia, under threat A recent visit by conservationist and photographer Eleanor Briggs, revealed rampant hunting of Eld’s Deer Cervus eldi by men with packs of dogs, reports of hunting Sarus Cranes Grus antigone with dogs, and cultivation of the entire core-zone of this IBA. Eleanor Briggs witnessed the hunting of a male Eld’s Deer which was pursued to exhaustion and despite her efforts died later. More on the shocking developments at this IBA in the next Babbler.

Text by Jonathan C. Eames, BirdLife International Indochina Programme Manager

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Road construction through Western Siem Pang IBA (KH008) Cambodia, brings deforestation The attached photograph, taken on 16 July 2005, shows the new road through the western part of Western Siem Pang IBA (KH008), which will reach the Laos border and will eventually link Cambodia to China. Clearly shown is a plywood factory, which forms part of one of the concessions in this IBA. This road and the new bridge over the Se Kong River will facilitate access to this IBA and inevitably lead to a decrease in its conservation value.

Text and photos by Jonathan C. Eames, BirdLife International Indochina Programme Manager

Deforestation along Mekong River from Kratie to Laos IBA (KH023) (Cambodia) The attached photograph taken on 16 July 2005, shows the rapid deforestation that is occurring on islands within the Ramsar site.

Text and photo by Jonathan C. Eames BirdLife International Indochina Programme Manager

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Tam Dao IBA (VN032) Vietnam, threatened by development plan Conservationists have aired concerns over a plan to build a giant resort on the cool hilly mountains of Tam Dao in northern Vinh Phuc province in Vietnam, claiming the project would cause environmental damage. The provincial Trade and Tourism Department has listed the project on its website, calling for $200 million to build a complex with villas, garden houses, hotels, restaurants and entertainment facilities in an area where the French used to go for weekend retreats from Hanoi.

Vinh Phuc, eager to turn tourism into a spearhead sector for the local economy, plans to build the Tam Dao II Resort as one of the key tourism projects for the province. It has invited international planners to work out a development master-plan for the project and plans to attract foreign investment for the project.

The proposed site for the resort is 1,100 – 1,200 meters above sea level and a new 15-25-meter-wide and 15- kilometer-long road will be built to link the current Tam Dao I resort complex to the future resort.

A forest conservationist said the project should be carefully considered, suggesting that the area be developed into an ecological tourist system instead of a small city with villas and recreational facilities. Other environmental experts have warned that the nation’s forest system will be affected if some 200 hectares were put aside for the construction of houses and villas. “The planned resort is located in a place where forest density is the strongest in Tam Dao and the most special in Indochina,” said an expert. However, a consultant, who is promoting foreign investment in the project, said investors know how to take care of the local environment. She said potential investors might not chop down trees to build the resort but instead dig trees up and plant them in them surrounding areas.

The consultant said it was a waste of resources if Tam Dao was left untouched since it was a singularly unique place near Hanoi that has a similar cool climate to Da Lat and Sapa. Provincial authorities said the existing resort area is too small and difficult to expand as it is surrounded by mountains and there’s a need to build a larger one in other areas. An 18-hole golf course and a cluster of villas is currently under construction at the foot of the Tam Dao mountains.

There was also a plan for a new town in the Tam Dao National Park five years ago. However, the provincial has yet to find investors and more importantly, it would have to be approved by the Prime Minister since it is located inside the National Park. It is said that so far the Prime Minister has refused to approve this plan and has even issued a letter asking development plans for Tam Dao II to be stopped.

Source: Vietnam Investment Review, 18 September 2005 Tam Dao National Park and Buffer Zone Management

A Green Peafowl Pavo Muticus discovered in Dakrong district (VN031), Quang Tri province, Vietnam

On August 12, 2004, while a SSG in Dakrong commune, Dakrong district, Quang Tri province was conducting a regular patrol, its members observed one Green Peafowl Pavo muticus in Dong Che area. This is a remarkable discovery for Dakrong IBA as many survey groups of international and local experts visited there and failed to record this rare species, which qualifies as Globally Vulnerable. The SSG has therefore added this species of international and national conservation significance to the bird list of Dakrong Nature Reserve.

Text by Le Trong Trai, BirdLife International Vietnam Programme

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New East Truong Son high way threatens Chu Yang Sin National Park IBA (VN030), Vietnam The Government has recently announced plans to construct the Truong Son Dong (East Truong Son) in the central region of Vietnam, part of the historic Ho Chi Minh trail, which is to be paved into a new national highway. This 700 km road will run from Thanh My commune in Nam Giang district in Quang Nam province to Lac Duong district in Lam Dong province. It is considered by some an important route for Vietnam’s national defence strategy as well as its socio-economic development plans. The Government has assigned the Ministry of Transport and Communications to include the future road into the scheme to develop roads in the country between now and 2010. With a total investment of VND 3.5 trillion, equivalent to US$ 222 million, it will be one of the three most important national highways in Vietnam, together with backbone national highway 1A and the Ho Chi Minh route, which is also still under construction. A ground-breaking ceremony for its construction was held in Lam Dong province early September. The route is expectedly to be completed by 2010.

Source: Thanh Nien News, September 5, 2005 Vietnam News Agency, January 3, 2005 BirdLife is very concerned that the proposed route of the road will bisect Chu Yang Sin National Park an Important Bird Area and site for a major new World Bank/GEF funded project.

A rapid bird survey in the Red River Delta by BirdLife Vietnam

Red-necked phalarope Phalaropus lobatus (left) and a flock of painted storks Mycteria leucocephala (right) in a recent bird survey by BirdLife Vietnam Programme. Photo by Nguyen Duc Tu From 13-18 September 2005, a rapid bird survey was conducted in the Red River Delta by BirdLife Vietnam Programme staff. The survey was undertaken to monitor the status of IBAs during the autumn migration period. Four sites were visited comprising Tien Lang, Thai Thuy, Tien Hai and Xuan Thuy. Unfortunately, due to the unseasonably warm weather and adverse tide conditions during the survey, not many birds were recorded in Tien Lang, Thai Thuy and Tien Hai, while few birds were recorded in the Xuan Thuy IBA including the rare passage migrant Red-necked Phalarope Phalaropus lobatus and a flock of 11 Painted Storks Mycteria leucocephala (Globally Near-threatened).

Text by Nguyen Duc Tu, BirdLife International Vietnam Programme

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Rarest of the rare

CR – White-rumped vulture Gyps bengalensis 2005 IUCN Red List Category (as evaluated by BirdLife International - the official Red List Authority for birds (IUCN): Critically Endangered 2005 IUCN Red List justification This species qualifies as Critically Endangered because it has suffered an extremely rapid population decline, particularly across the Indian subcontinent, probably as a result of feeding on carcasses of animals treated with the veterinary drug diclofenac, perhaps in combination with other causes.

Family / Sub-family ACCIPITRIDAE

Species name author Gmelin, 1788 Taxonomic sources Cramp and Simmons (1977-1994), Sibley and Monroe (1990, 1993) Identification 75-85 cm. Medium-sized, dark vulture. Adult has blackish plumage, white neck-ruff, rump and underwing-coverts, silvery panel on upper surface of secondaries, dark head and neck, and rather short, heavy, mostly silver bill.

Juvenile dark brown with prominent white shaft-streaks, especially below. White down on head and neck and usually a brownish nape- patch. Subadult drabber brown. Similar spp. Long billed Vulture G. indicus has pale brown lesser and median coverts, dark brown remiges and pale brown, almost unstreaked, underpants. Voice Croaks, grunts, hisses and squeals at nest colonies, roosts and carcasses.

Population estimate

Population trend

Range estimate

Country endemic?

2,500-9,999

Decreasing

4,917,000 km2

No

Range & population Gyps bengalensis occurs in Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, Laos, Cambodia, southern Vietnam and Yunnan, southern China. It has been recorded from south-east Afghanistan and Iran where its status is currently unknown. Previously widespread and abundant across its range, it disappeared from most of South East Asia in the early 20th century and now only occurs locally. Since 1996, it has suffered a catastrophic decline in its remaining strongholds in Pakistan and India, although flocks are still present locally. It is very rare in southern China.

Ecology It occurs mostly in plains and less frequently in hilly regions where it utilises light woodland, villages, cities, and open areas. It feeds on carrion - in India, largely on cattle carcasses and human remains. It is social and usually found in conspecific flocks. It breeds in small colonies in tall trees, often near human habitation.

Threats By mid-2000, Gyps vultures were being found dead and dying in Nepal, Pakistan, and throughout India, and major declines and local extirpations were being reported. There is some evidence that a viral disease may be the causal agent, at least at Bharatpur. Other suggested factors are changes in human consumption and processing of dead livestock, and massive poison and pesticide use, but these are only likely to be of minor significance. East of India, the near-total disappearance of the species predated the present crisis, and probably results from the rarity there of large wild mammals and human consumption of deceased livestock.

Conservation measures proposed Identify the location and number of remaining individuals and identify action required to prevent extinction. Measure the frequency of diclofenac treated carcasses available to vultures. Establish a study group to coordinate collection and analysis of data and compile an action plan for Asian vultures. Gain government commitment to control veterinary use of diclofenac, and support species management or restoration, as needed. Initiate public awareness and public support programmes.

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Project updates Vulture Conservation Project in Cambodia Cambodia is of exceptional importance for the conservation of Vultures with three resident species found in the dry forest landscape: White-rumped Vulture Gyps bengalensis, Slender-billed Vulture G. tenuirostris and Red-headed Vulture Sarcogyps calvus. The populations of all three species have been declining throughout their range during the 20th century. In South Asia populations of both Gyps species have declined by over 97% since 1993, and are facing imminent extinction. Both are now listed as Critically Endangered by IUCN. Research has demonstrated that the declines are caused by veterinary use of the drug Diclofenac, which is highly toxic to the birds. Only two remaining wild populations of Asian Gyps vultures exist outside South Asia, and in one – Cambodia – veterinary Diclofenac is not used.

As a consequence the Gyps population in Cambodia is considered to be irreplaceably globally significant, as highlighted in the 2004 South Asian Vulture Recovery Plan.

A Cambodian Vulture Conservation Project was formed in 2004 in recognition of the global importance of this population and the complete lack of knowledge regarding its size, distribution or threats. The project represents Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) - Cambodia, BirdLife International in Indochina – Cambodia Programme Office, World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) - Cambodia, the Department of Nature Conservation and Protection (DNCP) of the Ministry of Environment, and the Forestry Administration (FA) of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries. The project aims to restore vulture populations to levels consistent with their long-term survival, through a comprehensive set of activities outlined in the Cambodian Vulture Action Plan (2004) Early accounts suggest that these species were once abundant across most of mainland South-East Asia and have gradually declined throughout the 20th century. The current status of vultures in Myanmar is unclear, and requires further research. The Cambodian Gyps vulture population is centered on an area of approximately 300 by 250 km in northern and north-eastern Cambodia, and including adjacent parts of Vietnam and Laos (Figure 1). Individuals probably range across the entire area. Red-headed vultures are more widespread, occurring from southern Mondulkiri through to Siem Reap, although individuals are less wide-ranging.

Figure 1: Status of Gyps Vultures in Cambodia, Lao PDR, Vietnam, and Thailand

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19 BirdLife International in Indochina Early research by WCS and BirdLife International indicated relatively high vulture numbers and evidence of successful breeding (i.e., many juveniles). This was supported by the observation of the highest global count of Slender-billed Vultures in Siem Pang District, Stung Treng Province in May 2004. The same region-wide work also revealed that Diclofenac is not used in veterinary medicine in Cambodia, giving these vultures an excellent chance of surviving in the wild.

The principal means for researching and monitoring vultures in the wild is through a method commonly called a "vulture restaurant" (Photo 1 and 2). This process involves placing dead cows in remote dry forest locations and subsequently observing the vultures that come to feed. This gives a snapshot of the number, species, and age structure of vultures immediately in the area. By conducting these "restaurants" across the dry forests landscape (Figure 2) and over time, we can begin to see population and distribution trends. These restaurants are also used to live-trap vultures for more detailed examination and fitting of satellite transmitters.

Following a lengthy, concerted trapping effort in May 2005, WCS researchers were rewarded with the successful capture of seven vultures (three Slender-billed Vultures, two White-rumped Vultures, and two Red-headed Vultures). All birds were wing-tagged, leg-banded, and three birds (two Slender-billed and one White-rumped) were fitted with satellite transmitter units provided by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB; BirdLife in the UK) and released.

Samples also were collected to determine the health status of the birds and their exposure to infectious disease.

Satellite tracking provides an accurate, up-to-date, landscape overview of vulture behaviour and ranging patterns.

Maps of the three satellite tagged vultures from May 2005 [Figures 3,4,5] show that all three birds left the trapping area soon after capture and settled quite close to each other approximately 80 km to east. The greatest distance was covered by the White-rumped Vulture who travelled considerably further than the others, drifting through five provinces. Highlighting the importance of a transboundary conservation approach, one of the Slender-billed Vultures travelled north at one point settling along the Mekong River in southern Laos.

Vultures are examples of what conservationists call "dispersed species" that range at low population densities over very large areas in search of food. Martin Gilbert, Regional Field Veterinarian for WCS Cambodia noted that "hunting of Cambodia’s wild ungulates has greatly reduced the availability of food for vultures, forcing them to forage over wider areas, and exposing them to risks beyond the confines of limited protected areas. Satellite tracking has been used effectively in parts of South Asia and will provide a critical insight into the movements and home range of these vultures across the entirety of Cambodia's dry forest landscape". "By fixing satellite transmitters and monitoring their movements, we develop a greater understanding of their range size, habitat preferences, and seasonal movements. This increased understanding of ecological parameters allows us to develop more effective, targeted conservation actions and management guidelines", states Dr. Sean Austin, Programme Manager for BirdLife International's Cambodia Programme Office.

Vulture Restaurants in Western Siem Pang IBA, Cambodia

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Figure 2: Distribution of vulture "restaurants" across the dry forests of north-east Cambodia

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Figures 3, 4: Movement of satellite-tagged Vultures in north-east Cambodia

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Figures 5: Movement of satellite-tagged Vultures in north-east Cambodia

The current extent of knowledge about the population status and distribution and the main conservation interventions required is still limited thus necessitating further research and investment. After initial expectations that Vulture numbers were quite high across Indochina's dry forest landscape, further research suggests that all three vulture species currently occur at low numbers. Satellite tracking is showing that individual animals have large home ranges and can utilise all suitable, available habitat in the region. Since individuals are wide-ranging, conservation actions therefore do not have to be prescriptive for particular areas, and all actions across the landscape are beneficial.

Conservation needs are divided into two main areas: research and interventions. The principal focus for research is population estimation, investigation of ranging behaviour, and location of nesting sites. Priority interventions are to ensure Diclofenac remains unused in veterinary practice, the establishment of viable food sources, and the protection of nesting sites. In the short-term, supplementary feeding via vulture restaurants will help to support remnant vulture populations and, perhaps, increase breeding success, while protective measures for large prey populations take effect.

Text and photos by Dr. Sean Austin, BirdLife Cambodia Programme Manager and Mr. Kry Masphal, Project Officer

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Project Inception Workshop: “Integrating watershed and biodiversity management in Chu Yang Sin National Park, Dak Lak province, VN” On 29 July 2005 in Buon Me Thuot, Dak Lak Provincial People's Committee in collaboration with BirdLife International Vietnam Programme held a project inception workshop titled Integrating watershed and biodiversity management in Chu Yang Sin (CYS) National Park, Daklak Province. The project is funded by a grant of US $ 973,000 from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) through the World Bank.

This workshop aimed to introduce the project to local authorities, agencies and relevant stakeholders in Dak Lak province, and to create an opportunity for co-operation and information exchange between local agencies and major donor initiatives active in the area. In Dak Lak province, following Yok Don, CYS is the second National Park to receive a GEF grant for biodiversity conservation. The workshop was an important milestone to kick-off the project after a long project preparation process.

With its overall objective of conserving the biodiversity attributes of CYS National Park by integrating watershed management and protection in the area, the provincial leadership, agencies, the donor and CYS National Park staff hope that the project will succeed and greatly contribute to the cause of biodiversity conservation and sustainable development in Dak Lak province.

CYS project team at the Project Inception Workshop

At the workshop, a lot of opinions of relevant stakeholders about their expectations of project achievements were expressed. With activities during the project period, CYS National Park and the whole CYS landscape will hopefully become an exemplary model of biodiversity conservation, watershed management and poverty alleviation. In addition, the project will support CYS National Park so that it can attain an appropriate position in the protected area system of Vietnam. Participants have expressed some specific expectations as follows: • • •

The CYS landscape and the surrounding protected areas will be nominated as a World Natural Heritage Site in accordance with UNESCO’s criteria.

The CYS landscape will become famous nationwide and well known for its unique biodiversity values.

CYS will be an attractive and interesting place for foreign investors in researching and conserving biodiversity and protecting watersheds.

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Spotlight organization Save Cambodia’s Wildlife Save Cambodia's Wildlife is a local Cambodian conservation organisation providing environmental education, awareness and community outreach programs across Cambodia. It was established in January 2000 by Ms. M. Kit Whitney and registered with the Ministry of Interior.

Save Cambodia's Wildlife implements environmental education and training programs to help protect and conserve Cambodia 's wildlife and natural environment. Its projects combine innovative teacher training, children's conservation publications and community based natural resource management to raise public awareness of environmental issues and encourage sustainable development in communities. It promotes the economic, social and spiritual benefits of a healthy environment with flourishing variety of natural habitats and species.

Save Cambodia's Wildlife was highly successful with a range of diverse projects in 2000 and 2001, including the provision of technical support to Phnom Tamao Rescue Centre, and increasing environmental awareness both within the wildlife rescue centre and the general public through teaching programs, study tours, book publications, videos and presentations and environmental awareness campaigns.

In the years 2002 and 2003, SCW continued their focus on raising environmental awareness and improving environmental education amongst the children and adults of Cambodia through the Non-formal Education Teacher Training Project. SCW produced an array of quality educational materials such as books, posters, and brochures to compliment their extensive environmental education training projects in all 24 provinces. SCW also provided capacity building training courses and materials to other NGO partners working on environmental education.

2003 and 2004 also saw its project base expand to incorporate cross sector projects and community outreach programs including training on forestry law affecting communities, community outreach and education in the Bokor National Park , Environmental Publication projects, and a Cross Sector project on conflict resolution. SCW’s important work in environmental awareness and education continues today and its projects grow and diversify to address the issues relevant to Cambodia 's forest dependant communities.

Save Cambodia’s Wildlife #272, St. 107, Boeung Prolit, 7 Makara, Phnom Penh Tel: (+855-23) 211 263, Fax: (+855-23) 222 036, www.cambodiaswildlife.org

Publications A preliminary ornithological assessment and conservation evaluation of the PT Daisy logging concession, Berau district, East Kalimantan, Indonesia by Jonathan C. Eames, Forktail, Journal of Asian Ornithology, No. 21 August 2005: 51-60

An ornithological survey in the PT Daisy logging concession, Berau district, East Kalimantan, Indonesia, was undertaken as part of wider research effort to provide baseline data on its biodiversity in order to facilitate improved forest management. PT Daisy retains almost 30% of primary terrestrial forest, whilst 45% of the concession has now been logged. A total of 230 bird species were recorded including six Vulnerable, 47 Near Threatened and two restricted-range species. Compared to other protected areas in Kalimantan, the bird species diversity of PT Daisy is above average, but the reserve supports fewer globally threatened species and restricted-range species. The bird fauna of PT Daisy shows greatest similarity with Gunung Palung and Tanjung Putting National Parks.

The undisturbed mixed dipterocarp lowland forests of PT Daisy are likely to be typical of the Sangkulirang Peninsula. The best current conservation opportunity for forests in the peninsula is probably under a sustainable forest management regime. The current unsustainable approach to forest management at PT Daisy will inevitably lead to seriously reduced levels of biodiversity.

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25 BirdLife International in Indochina The rediscovery of Gurney’s Pitta Pitta gurneyi in Myanmar and an estimate of its population size based on remaining forest cover by Jonathan C. Eames, Htin Hla, Peter Leimgruber, Daniel S. Kelly, Sein Myo Aung, Saw Moses and U Saw Nyunt Tin, Bird Conversation International (2005) 15:3-26 A preliminary survey for Gurney’s Pitta Pitta gurneyi was undertaken at five sites within the species’ historical range in the Tanintharyi (Tenasserim) Division of Myanmar form 14 to 24 May 2003. During the surveys, Gurney’s Pittas were heard and/or observed at four sites with a maximum of 10-12 pairs recorded at one site. Bird were encountered in logged primary and secondary forest below 100 m on flat ground, sometimes less than 10 m from forest edge. All encounters were within 2 km of the main trans-Tanintharyi highway. Landsat satellite imagery was used to map remaining lowland forests and Gurney’s Pitta habitat in the Tanintharyi Division. Our analysis demonstrated that only 4,705 km2 of lowland forest remain with about 3,496 km2 in flat areas with slopes < 10°. On the basis of previously reported population densities, these habitats may support a population of 5,152-8,586 pairs.

Much of the remaining habitat is restricted to small and fragmented patches < 1km2 in area.

This survey demonstrated that Gurney’s Pitta still occurs within its historical range in Myanmar, although probably not at any of the historical collecting localities visited. The global population of Gurney’s Pitta is at least 100% greater than the latest published estimate. This survey has also shown that the Gurney’s Pitta population in southern Tanintharyi Division is under pressure from forest conversion to oil palm. Contrary to the situation in neighbouring Thailand, sufficient forest remains to establish landscape level protected areas covering a broad ecological continuum. Securing populations of Gurney’s Pitta within either expanded or entirely new protected areas must be the best chance for the species and the Sundaic flora and fauna of which it is part.

Abundance, Distribution, and Reproductive Success of Sandbar Nesting Birds Below the Yali Falls Hydropower Dam on the Sesan River, Northeastern Cambodia by Andrea H. Claassen, WWF-World Wide Fund for Nature/Danida/WCS/BirdLife International Phnom Penh, Cambodia 2004. 43pp River ecosystems in South-East Asia are some of the most biodiverse, yet most highly threatened in the world. North-eastern Cambodia supports numerous bird species of conservation significance, may of which depend on the river systems for all of their habitats and food requirements. The contiguous stretches of the Mekong River and its three major tributaries, the Sesan, Sekong and Srepok Rivers, have immense regional importance for riverine birds. Several species of riverine birds nest on sandbars, which makes them particularly vulnerable to alteration of the river habitat, predation and disturbance.

Surveys and nest monitoring on the Sesan and Sekong Rivers were conducted from 21st February through 6th May 2003. Focal bird species included the sandbar nesting Blackbellied Tern Sterna acuticauda, River Tern Sterna aurantia, River Lapwing Vanellus duvaucelii, Great Thrick-knee Esacus recurvirostris, Small Pratincole Glareola lactea, and Little Ringed Plover Charadrius dubius, and the Mekong Wagtail Motacilla samveasnae which prefers rocky rapids.

The Sesan River, a primary study area, had extensive sandbar habitat, while the Sekong River, a comparitive study area, had less sandbar habitat and more areas of channel mosaic and rocky rapids. The Yali Falls dam is situated on the Sesan River in Vietnam about 70 km from the Cambodia/Vietnam border. Although the Yali Falls dam did not become fully operational until 2001, it has caused unnatural daily fluctuations in water level during the dry season since 1996. The Sekong River has not been noticeably affected by dry season water fluctuations. Major threats to sandbar nesting birds on the Sesan River are inundations of nests and chicks, reduction in breeding and foraging habitat, and reduction in food sources caused by the Yali Falls dam, predation of nests and chicks by animals, egg collection by villagers, and incidental disturbance by villagers and domestic animals.

Numbers of River Lapwings and Small Pratincoles were significantly lower than counts conducted in 1998. Dam-related inundation and predation caused an equal number of nest failures of all focal bird species combined, however predation levels may have been augmented by the decreased are of sandbar habitat when water levels were high due to large releases of water from the Yali Falls dam. Egg collection by villagers was the next highest cause of nest failure of all focal species combined.

In order to minimize the negative effects to sandbar nesting birds, the flow regime of the Yali Falls dam should be operated to replicate the natural daily and seasonal flow cycle of the Sesan River. No large peak releases of water should occur during the breeding season (February through May) of sandbar nesting birds. Strong mitigation measures to reduce the negative impacts of the Yali Falls dam need to be implemented. Further research needs to be conducted on the impacts of hydropower projects on river geomorphology, fish populations, and water quality of the Sesan River.

Further meetings will all villages located along the Sesan River should be held to raise awareness about the conservation of sandbar nesting birds.

The Babbler - June, 2005

26 BirdLife International in Indochina

Book reviews Bird Identification techniques – A training manual for beginners

by Tan Setha and Frédéric Goes. Wildlife Conservation Society Cambodia Programme. 2003. 73 pp

This manual is published in Khmer by Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) Cambodia Programme Office as an introduction to bird identification. The government officials, visitors and ordinary people, who are interested in learning about and identifying the bird species for themselves in the fields and towns, can use this manual.

This manual is arranged to build the capacity beginners to learn about bird species, their families, bird counting techniques and their habitats. Eight chapters are included in the manual comprising birds and bird watching; size, shape and colour; body parts, recognizing birds to the family level; field descriptions and sketching; identification markings; further aspects of identification; and waterbird counting techniques. Some pictures are illustrated in each chapter in order to make it easy to understand.

After having many wildlife conservation and management activities conducted by the Forestry Administration of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries in collaboration with many national and international organizations, there are many Globally Threatened species occurring in Cambodia. Therefore, this manual is useful for bird watchers who are interested in identifying the bird species of which there are 535 species so far recorded in Cambodia.

Seng Kim Hout, BirdLife International Cambodia Programme

A Field Guide to the Birds of South-East Asia

by Craig Robson, New Holland Publishers (UK) Ltd. 2005. 304 pp. ISBN: 1-84330-746-4. US$ 25

This concise, updated edition of the award-winning A Field Guide to the Birds of South-East Asia is the most comprehensive, compact guide to this magnificent birdrich region.

• Over 140 full-color plates by a range of expert artists covering major plumage variations.

• All 1,270 species covered in detail • Up-to-date text covers the identification, voice, habitat, behaviour and range of all the species and distinctive subspecies of the region • Complete field and reference guide to the birds of Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia, Singapore, Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia. Also covers a wide range of species found in the Indian subcontinent, China Taiwan, Sumatra, Java, Bali, Borneo and the Philippines.

“This guide is a magnificent achievement, regionally without peer, and clearly the essential guide for future visitors to the region” - World Birdwatch, journal of BirdLife International.

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27 BirdLife International in Indochina

Birds in Bhutan – Status and Distribution

by Peter Spierenburg, the Oriental Bird Club, U.K. 2005. 383 pp. ISBN: 0-9529545-1-6

For a country of its size, Bhutan has an overwhelming diversity of birds. The vast areas of forest and grasslands offer outstanding opportunities to observe some of Asia's rarest birds, in a magnificent setting of rich cultural and natural heritage. In the last 10 years, our understanding of the occurrence of birds in this tiny mountain kingdom has increased significantly. Birds in Bhutan: Status and Distribution provides a comprehensive review of the present knowledge of the country's avifauna.

The book covers all 645 species recorded in Bhutan up to 2004. The introduction includes useful information on habitats, migration patterns and the country's remarkable conservation efforts. For each species, an account is given of its status and distribution, placed in the context of its ecology and extralimital range in the region. The species accounts are supported by over 950 maps and graphs, providing a detailed overview of the geographical, altitudinal and seasonal distribution of Bhutan's birds. A total of 90 illustrations by various artists accompany the text. This book is an essential reference for anyone interested in the avifauna of the Himalayas and especially for those who have the opportunity to experience the rich birdlife of this remarkable country for themselves.

Butterflies of Vietnam – Nymphalidae: Satyrinae

by Alexander L. Monastyrskii, © A.L. Monastyrskii, 2005. 198 pp, volume 1. ISBN: 0-9551211-0-8

Having had the pleasure of spending two years in Vietnam and witnessing the progress of entomological sciences in the country, it is a pleasure to introduce this fine book on its 115 or so species of Satyrinae. The book overturns much of the received wisdom on Vietnamese butterflies. It also shows how much still remains to be known.

It is amazing how much new information has been obtained during the last 10-15 years, not just in the Satyrinae. As a detached observer, the special nature of the fauna of the Central Highlands – and neighbouring parts of Laos and Cambodia – is an unexpected feature of great biogeographical import. The joint work by A. L. Monastyrskii and A. L. Devyatkin in demonstrating this will remain an important contribution taxonomy and biogeography.

The Satyrinae are sometimes considered a rather “unexciting” group of insects. I disagree. During the past ten years molecular phylogeny (DNA studies) in Africa has yielded fascinating results on likely evolution within the family. Present researchers in Madagascar are trying to get in touch with Vietnamese colleagues to research potential faunal affinities that might stretch back more than 80 million years. The more recent relationships between the many Ypthima in Indochina and those of Africa will make a fascinating study. But only when books like this provide a firm taxonomic framework is such work possible.

The author and those who have supported his work must be congratulated on an excellent achievement that far transcends its contribution to the study of the regional fauna. It is an important scientific contribution to the study of the Satyrinae worldwide.

Torben B. Larsen Hanoi, Vietnam, July 2005

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28 BirdLife International in Indochina

Handbook to Indian Wetland Birds and their Conservation

by Kumar, A., Sati, JP, Tak, PC & Alfred, JRB. Director, Zool. Surv. India, 2005. 450 pp. US$ 80

The way books are being brought out on Indian birds is not to be seen in other taxa which is indicative of the rising interest of people on this beautiful group of creatures.

In the last few years there have been quite a few publications both of the 'field guide type' and the ones focusing more on the conservation issues (Important Bird Areas of India). A recent addition to this is the 'Handbook on Indian Wetland Birds and their Conservation' by Arun Kumar, J P Sati, P C Tak and J R B Alfred of the Zoological Survey of India, which manages to gel both these aspects very well. The team of authors had earlier brought out 'Waterbirds of Northern India', in 2001, but the present one is very elaborate touching upon practically every aspect of wetland birds and their conservation.

The 310 species described in the book include not only the wetland birds but also the wetland dependent birds. The authors have obtained photographs from a large number of bird photographers many of which are the best in their field and thus ensured a very good quality of pictures in the entire book. Almost every species is covered through a very good quality picture. Although most of the pictures are closeups and are very helpful in identifying the birds, they are supplemented by nice handdrawn illustrations of all the birds making it a complete field guide. The descriptions are packed with a lot of information about the species besides the detailed accounts of the morphology and identification. Even the colour of the species header signifies its conservation status. In addition threshold numbers (1% of biogeographic population) of each species are also given which help in quickly knowing whether a particular wetland meets IBA (or Ramsar) criteria. Where ever available even the population estimates and other relevant conservation information have been given. I found the description of Cranes particularly interesting with even maps showing relative abundance of the birds in recent years.

While a little more than half of the book is dedicated to the species accounts, the remaining part gives very useful information on the conservation aspects. This I would say is the specialty of the book as very few books of the 'field guide' type have such information and so many a birdwatchers get deprived of it. It is important that more and more interested people know about the conservation aspects so as to contribute towards them more effectively. These additional chapters in the book talk about the biogeography of the country and basic facts about wetlands and wetland birds, status of the wetland birds, socio-economics of the wetlands, wetland protected area network and finally a framework for conservation discussing national and international policy and legal instruments.

Dhananjai Mohan, Indian Forest Service, Conservator of Forests, Dehra Dun

Vietnam Conifers – Conservation Status Review 2004

by Nguyen Tien Hiep, Phan Ke Loc, Nguyen Duc To Luu, Philip Ian Thomas, Aljos Farjon, Leonid Averyanov and Jacinto Regalado Jr., Fauna and Flora International Vietnam Programme 2005. 128 pp. ISBN: 1-903703-16-6 “Vietnam Conifers: Conservation Status Review 2004” is the culmination of a major international collaboration, spearheaded by Fauna and Flora International’s (FFI) Hoang Lien Mountains Project (primarily funded by the European Union).

Collaborators include Vietnamese Government agencies, botanical gardens and research institutes in Europe and the USA, together with global initiatives of the World Conservation Union (IUCN), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and FFI. It is the latest FFI report to assess the conservation status of key flagship species groups for Vietnam, which already includes gibbons, leaf monkeys and elephants.

Vietnam is one of the top ten global conifer conservation ‘hotspots’, as defined by the IUCN Species Survival Commission’s Conifer Specialist Group. Nearly half of Vietnamese 33 indigenous species of cypress, pine, podocarp and yew are listed as globally threatened: at the national level, over 90% qualify for ‘Red List’ status.

Direct exploitation and loss of primary forest habitats threaten rare endemics, such as the recently discovered ‘Golden Vietnamese Cypress’ and widespread forest dominants such as the commercially valuable Fokienia hodginsii.

The Babbler - June, 2005

29 BirdLife International in Indochina In recent years, Vietnamese conifers have attracted global attention. The discovery of a number of species new to science, and several new records for the country has highlighted our ignorance of these trees, yet also galvanised preliminary action for their future protection. Almost all Vietnamese conifer species produce valuable timber, or nontimber forest products, such as resin and essential oils. Most are either localized endemics, or are restricted to specialized habitats. Other populations occur at the extremities of a species’ natural range. Many ethnic minority communities, as well as the majority population, also have a strong cultural attachment to certain conifers, such as Taiwania and Fokienia. As such, conifers are national and global flagships for the conservation of forest and tree diversity, and hence for the protection of forest-dependent biodiversity in Vietnam.

As a synthesis of all the available information on the status of Vietnam’s conifers, this review represents the first step towards securing their future. It raises awareness among conservationists, decision-makers and scientists alike, and provides a reference guide for natural resource managers throughout the country. It is hoped that the recommendations for urgent action will be heeded by donor agencies. This publication aims to help secure the investment necessary to halt the otherwise inevitable decline into extinction of many of Vietnam’s ancient and magnificent conifer species.

Staff news Vorsak Bou (Vorsak) received his bachelor degree in the field of Accounting from the National University of Management (NUM), Cambodia in 2001 and spent the following two years with the Pestalozzi Children Foundation, Cambodia program as an Administrative Assistant. Then he worked as administrative manager for WATHNAKPHEAP, a Cambodian NGO that supports children and youth at risk.

Vorsak also has a bachelor degree in the field of Geography and Psychology from the Royal University of Phnom Penh (RUPP), Cambodia. He used to work as short term researcher and consultant with several NGOs. Currently Vorsak is continuing his master degree studies in the field of Management at the Royal University of Law and Economics. BirdLife International in Indochina - Cambodia Programme Office has employed him as Finance Officer/ Administrative Officer since August 2005.

Stuart Housden is the Director of RSPB Scotland. He has worked for the RSPB for 27 years and has helped the organization grow ten fold in that period. In August 2005, Stuart paid a week long visit to the BirdLife office in Hanoi to learn about conservation activities in Vietnam and exchange the experiences of the RSPB, that hopefully can help BirdLife Vietnam develop in the future. BirdLife Vietnam hopes friendly relations with RSPB will enable it to develop its programme sustainably in the years ahead.

Dr Tran Trung Dzung graduated with a BSc in Geography from the Kharkov National University of Ukraine in 1985 and was awarded a PhD in Environmental Science from Hanoi National University in 2000. Dzung has worked in environmental and rural development fields since 1986, when he first worked as a climatological and pedological research assistant in the Second Central Highlands Research Programme implemented by National Academic Institute from 1986 to 1988. In 1988, he joined Tay Nguyen University and worked as a lecturer, and more recently was the Chief of the Forest Ecology and Environment Section, Agriculture and Forestry Faculty of the University. Since the early 1990s, Dzung has worked with a number of national and international projects/programmes in the Central Highlands. And through those, he has gained a lot of expecience on community development, environmental protection and biodiversity conservation.

From June 2002 to January 2005, Dzung was employed by Scott Willson AsiaPacific Ltd. as an Executive Secretary of the UNDP/GEF funded project Creating of Protected areas for Resources Conservation using landscape ecology (PARC) in Yok Don National Park, Dak Lak province. In July 2005, Dzung became the Chief Technical Adviser and Team Leader for the World Bank/Global Environment Facility funded Integrating Watershed and Biodiversity Management in Chu Yang Sin National Park, Dak Lak Province Project, executed by BirdLife in collaboration with Dak Lak Provincial People Committee. We hope with his invaluable expertise, Dzung will make enormous contributions to the success of the project.

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30 BirdLife International in Indochina

Ms Tran Thi Kim Loan has been employed as Project Accountant and Administration Officer on the Worldbank/GEF funded Project Integrating Watershed and Biodiversity Management in Chu Yang Sin National Park since July 2005. She is in charge of all financial aspects and administration issues at the project site.

Ms Loan studied English at Qui Nhon University and Financing and Accounting at Da Nang Economic University with an emphasis on English language and finance. Her extensive practical experiences are in the area of office procedures, particularly in accounting, and also in interpretation, translation and in English teaching.

From the Archives

Pink-headed Duck Rhodonessa caryophyllacea

The Babbler - June, 2005

Pioneering nineteenth century naturalist, scholar and administrator Brian Houghton Hodgson was for many years British Resident in Katmandu, Nepal where he described or collected over 120 species of bird new to science, including the Critically Endangered Pink-headed Duck.

He trained a team of Nepalese artists to produce water-colour plates for a projected work on the birds of the Himalayas, which was never completed.

This priceless collection, including the above illustration, is now in the possession of the Zoological Society of London. This plate is reproduced from A Himalayan Ornithologist: The life and work of Brian Houghton Hodgson by Mark Cocker and Carol Inskipp published by Oxford University Press in 1988.