The Babbler 26

BirdLife International in Indochina

The Babbler

June 2008 Number 26 Welcome Jonathan C. Eames Features Community action to conserve wildlife in Natmataung National Park Assessing key impacts of climate change on biodiversity in Vietnam Wild birds and avian influenza Regional news Important Bird Area News Dam projects in Cambodia threaten Srepok and Sesan river systems IBAs, protected areas and ADB BCI pilot site At last Javan Rhinos to get their own road

BirdLife International in Indochina

Welcome to The Babbler number 26 covering the period April to June 2008. In this issue we present another feature by Karin Eberhardt, this time looking at the impact of our local community based conservation work together with the Biodiversity and Nature Conservation Association around Natmataung National Park in Myanmar. I am pleased to announce that BirdLife will continue to support this work in 2008.

For the first time we have reported in depth on the role that wild birds may play in the spread of H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza.

This is taken from a FAO publication that BirdLife assisted in drafting. Lastly, in our feature section John Pilgrim considers the impacts of climate change on biodiversity in Vietnam.

Rarest of the rare Project updates Gurney’s Pitta research in Tanintharyi Division, Myanmar Gurney’s Pitta research and conservation in Thailand and Myanmar Assessing the status and distribution of the Endangered White-eared Night-heron in Vietnam White-eared Night Heron photographed at Na Hang Nature Reserve Traditional forest resource use by local communities, and impacts of establishment of Chu Yang Sin National Park Conservation ecology of the Bengal Florican in Cambodia Searching for the Critically Endangered White-eyed River-martin in Cambodia Publications Reviews

We report on two very disturbing developments that have emerged this quarter: the decision to build a road through the Cat Loc sector of Cat Tien National Park, in Vietnam which BirdLife totally opposes, and reveal plans by Chinese and Vietnamese companies to disrupt the flow of the Srepok and Sesan Rivers in Cambodia, through the construction of hydro-power projects, one of which will flood half of Lomphat Wildlife Sanctuary, where BirdLife currently works. This news came to light shortly before the recent mid-term review of the Asian Development Bank’s (ADBs) Biodiversity Conservation Corridors Initiative project in Hanoi, which I attended together with Dr. Swen Renner the new project manager. Since Lomphat Wildlife Sanctuary lies within one of this projects’ pilot sites, we are awaiting an intervention by the ADB to try and prevent these developments, which are at odds with the aim of the project. The credibility of the project is at stake here: ADB will never get a better opportunity to prove this project is not mere green washing as some critics have claimed.

Staff news From the archives BirdLife International in Indochina is a subregional programme of the BirdLife Secretariat operating in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam. It currently has two offices in the region: Vietnam Programme Office, N6/2+3, Lane 25, Lang Ha Street, Ba Dinh District, Hanoi, Vietnam.

Tel: +84 (0)4 514890 Cambodia Programme Office, #25B Street 294, PO Box 2686 Tonle Basac, Phnom Penh, Cambodia Tel/Fax: + 85523993631 www.birdlifeindochina.org

Jonathan C. Eames Programme Manager BirdLife International in Indochina

The Babbler is the quarterly newsletter of BirdLife International in

Indochina and is compiled and edited by Jonathan C. Eames

Eames@birdlife.netnam.vn. The views expressed are those of the contributors and not necessarily those of BirdLife International.

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Features Community action to conserve wildlife in Natmataung National Park Below us a mountain range zigzags down to distant plains; behind us rise the cool oak‐pine forest and peaks of Natmataung National Park. Just before us is a less inspiring sight. There stands a low table, the top of which is barely visible under its load of skulls, snares, traps and pots of sticky glue. Natmataung National Park (also known as Mount Victoria) is in the Chin Hills on the Myanmar border with India, and one of the countryʹs more

A view from near the summit of Mount Victoria shows the deforested lower slopes of the mountain. Without concerted action the increasing demands for land from the ever-rising human population will result in a continual upward migration of shifting cultivation. Photo: J C Eames accessible parks. Considered part of the eastern Himalayan ecosystem, it is on the trailing edge of the mountains created as the Indian sub‐continent squeezed up against Asia. The forests of oak, rhododendron and pine are habitat to a bird that is found nowhere else on Earth, the White‐browed Nuthatch, as well as other threatened birds, mammals and flora including Blythʹs Tragopan, Humeʹs Pheasant, Hoolock Gibbon and Gaur.

Forest Guard Hung Mang takes up the snares and explains how each is designed to catch its prey; trapping a wild pig by its leg, for instance, or snagging a barking deer by the throat. Some are specifically for birds, such as the glue held in a dried gourd pot. The glue, made from the sap of a banyan tree, is smeared on the stems of grasses and twigs that surround forest springs; precisely those spots where small birds come to perch before drinking. ʺWith this glue, hundreds of birds can be taken at a time,” says Hung Mang. He explains that here among the ethnic Chin, gifts of birds are a traditional kinship offering made to affirm clan relations. The hunting tradition runs deep in these communities, as great hunters earn great respect, their homes proudly displaying rows of bear skulls and deer antlers as evidence of their skill. But the men of this village are turning in their snares and sap‐

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pots, and instead are taking up notebook, flashlight, and donning a wide‐brimmed ranger hat when they go to the forest. These hunters have become a local conservation team responsible to patrol ʹtheirʹ area of forest several times a month, looking for people, sometimes neighbors or friends, who are violating park regulations by collecting orchids, setting snares, or clearing forest to plant pumpkins. Snares and traps are confiscated, and the violations are reported to the park staff. Sometimes forest guards patrol with the team to back them up and to build relations. In 2007, the 16 village patrol teams referred a total of 46 infractions to the park staff; an impressive first for Myanmar, as this system exists nowhere else in the country.

Hunting runs deep in Chin culture. Photo: J C Eames

It seems too good to be true. Why would these men who are deer hunters, bird trappers, and orchid collectors,give up their traditional (and illegal) activities to become enforcers of park regulations? These men are subsistence farmers who plant corn and millet in shifting cultivation systems and rely on forest products for part of their livelihoods. Yet they have agreed to collaborate with park staff and local conservation non‐government organization the Biodiversity and Nature Conservation Association to form local conservation groups for forest conservation. ʹWhy?ʹ I had to ask them, as I have been asking in all the villages we have visited these last few days where similar conservation groups exist. The answers are consistent, convincing and disturbing.

As hunters, many of the patrol team members have observed the alarming changes in the forest over the last few decades. As human populations have increased, the forest has been cleared by the Chin and has retreated up the hillsides. In the past they could find goral, serow, sambar and wild pig, but now all that is left are barking deer‐ and even those are becoming difficult to find. ʺIn the past all around the village you could hear barking deer, and the sounds of many animals, but now there is just silence. We want to protect the forest for the animals,ʺ said one former hunter. ʺIn the past we didnʹt know about conservation. But now we know that if we donʹt conserve it will be too late for the animals.ʺ Some team members remember long cultural traditions of resource protection, saying that the Chin have always protected their water sources and forest. And some donʹt like the fact that strangers are intruding on their forest, in search of game or other forest products. Patrolling gives them a sense of security, an empowerment from the park staff to keep out outsiders. But most of all, there is the sense that the time for conservation has come. ʺThere is no way around it; we must conserve nowʺ said the village head.

BANCA, an Affiliate of BirdLife International, has collaborated with the park and other agencies to help form these so‐called Local Conservation Groups, formed from local stakeholders, in 16 of the 30 villages in the national park. BANCA initiated this work in 2005 with five villages who signed an agreement to engage in conservation behaviors, including active patrolling, in exchange for development assistance that BANCA provided. Since then development agencies such as CARE and UNDP have begun to support livelihoods development activities in the townships were the park is located. Now BANCA cooperates with these agencies to meet village needs; BANCA supports the conservation work, while the development agencies support environmentally sustainable livelihoods development. As we arrive in another village, a line of women in traditional green‐striped shirts, bearing marigolds, wait to greet us at the entrance to the schoolyard. We run the gauntlet of women, shake hands, and receive bouquets. The old women smile out of tattooed faces, the geometric indigo designs on face and throat indicating their area of origin; while the young women are made‐up Burmese‐style, with a yellow paste made from the ground bark of the thanaka tree creating cool rounds on the cheeks and streaks on the nose. From the

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school veranda the men sound gongs and drums, while one dances wildly in circles, his longyi tucked up to free his hopping legs. They are pleased to receive foreign visitors at this school, which was recently built with funds donated by a foreign embassy, thanks to BANCAʹs facilitation.

Through discussions with villagers, I come to understand that these households are living not only on the knife‐ edge of the mountain range, squeezed between the park and neighboring villages, but some households live on the constant edge of hunger. For some, the conservation activities have had a negative impact on their household livelihoods. Many households can only yield from three to six months worth of household grain consumption from their farm plots and rely on collecting orchids for the Chinese market, or game hunting, to make up food deficits in the lean season. In the past, a good hunter could get three to four wild pig a year, each worth about 40,000 kyat (or US$ 40 ). The smaller and more common barking deer might be worth 5000 to 10,000 kyat (US $ 5 or 10), equal to a week or two worth of rice for one family. This is why the development activities, such as the Self‐Reliance Groups supported by UNDP, are so important.

Weaving represents an opportunity for Chin women to produce a high value‐added commodity based from home. Photo: J C Eames

Gathered inside the school the women tell us about their savings and loan group. Each week, each group member contributes 100 kyat to the fund, and each member may apply for a loan with the guarantee of two other group members. So far, this groupʹs fund totals 820,000 kyat two‐thirds of which was provided by UNDP as a supplement to the womensʹ own savings. Loans are a maximum of 50,000 kyat, and interest was set by the group at 4% per month. Women use these loans to buy fresh tubers which they slice and dry to sell at a profit, or to cover school and book fees at the beginning of the school year, or for health care emergencies. Seeing the success of the initial 18‐member group, a second group of 14 women formed just a few weeks before our visit, and are now saving to start their loan fund. The hardest part is the accounting, since most of the women are not literate or numerate. But they are enthusiastic, and confident in their ability to take advantage of this opportunity and to pay back their loans.

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Villagers in Natmataung are interested in growing coffee, avocado, and fruit trees, which is being supported by CARE, UNDP and BANCA with community nurseries, tools, seeds and seedlings and other inputs, and technical training. They are also learning to plant wa‐u and pyan‐u; tubers originally gathered from the forest that can be cultivated and now fetch a fair price. But agro‐forestry and other agricultural improvements are long‐term solutions, and may not provide food for the family for several years after planting. Despite the best intentions of the village committees, the conservation behaviors cannot be sustained for long without immediate help for livelihoods. One village patrol team has already lost five members, who left to seek work in Mandalay and in Malaysia.

U Uga, Chairman of the Biodiversity and Nature Conservation Association (BANCA) [second from right], reviews the state of avocado and coffee seedlings in a project nursery. Photo: J C Eames The community decision to sign the conservation agreement and to form a patrol team has caused some tension.

Some of the hunters may have joined the team more due to the social pressure than a true commitment to the concept of conservation. ʺMy wife is not so happy,” said one recently reformed hunter. ʺShe said to me, since you no longer bring home meat, you are not a man anymore!ʺ One village patrol team reported on the wife of the leader of a neighboring village for collecting orchids which caused friction between the villages. Chin resolve conflicts according to customary law, which has legal precedence over national law. According to Chin tradition, if one person insults another, the insulted party has the right to retribution and if the conflict is not resolved, the following generations could be held responsible to pay the debt of retribution. For this reason some village patrol teams are uneasy about enforcing regulations that could be taken as an insult. And for the same reason, the park warden is uneasy about the fact that some village patrol teams would like to be empowered to detain people rather than just confiscating their traps. Customary law is arbitrated by a ngʹsa, or mediator‐‐‐and luckily Forest Guard Hung Mang, a Mindat local who was seconded to the project by the Forest Department, happens to be one of these traditional mediators. BANCA Project Coordinator U Aung Kyaw says that ʹIf it werenʹt for Hung Mangʹs ability to organize the communities, we would never have been so successful.ʹ

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Up to now, only 16 of the more than 80 villages in and around the park have formed Local Conservation Groups and patrol teams. ʹIt would be best if all of the villages could participate in this programmeʺ said one village leader ʺthen they would all agree and all work in the same direction. It would be easier for us to do our jobs.ʺ With such a network of supporters, the Natmataung conservation movement is sure to spread up and down the steep slopes of the mountain ranges, offering much‐needed protection to the White‐browed Nuthatch and other irreplaceable species in this unique habitat, while securing the watershed on which the livelihoods of the local people depend.

Karin Eberhardt, Consultant

White‐browed Nuthatch Sitta victorea. Photo: Jemi and John Holmes

Long-time consultant to the Indochina Programme, development and conservation specialist Karin Eberhardt recently visited Natmataung National Park to review and consider what conservation impact BirdLife’s local conservation group activities have had. This article was commissioned as part of the Trail by media assessment.

Ed.

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Assessing key impacts of climate change on biodiversity in Vietnam Much study of climate change impacts in Vietnam has been limited to social and economic impacts, rather than environmental impacts, despite the close links between environmental degradation and long‐term economic costs, and the fact that the poorest people are often disproportionately dependent on these natural resources.

Even studies that have considered environmental impacts have concentrated on top‐down approaches, assessing sectoral impacts (e.g., on agriculture, fisheries) or ecosystem impacts (e.g., on forests, wetlands). Such large‐scale approaches are vitally important, but often miss the resolution afforded by bottom‐up approaches that study the impacts of climate change on the individual components of biodiversity that underlie all habitats and ecosystems, or on individual sites at which such biodiversity is known to occur. In this article, such a bottom‐up approach is explored by the use of first‐cut analyses and examples from existing detailed analyses from other regions of the world. This article concentrates on models that examine effects of climate change on individual species and impacts of climate change‐induced sea level rise on the most important sites for biodiversity in Vietnam.

Although mitigation remains the most critical method for tackling climate change, these models can provide important insights into which sites and species may most urgently require implementation of adaptation measures.

Assessing climate change impacts on individual species A number of methods have been developed for modeling the impacts of climate change on individual species.

The most common involve modeling the species’ current and future ‘climate envelopes’ or ‘climate spaces’ i.e., using known locations (point localities) at which a species currently occurs and assessing how those sites are defined by a number of climatic factors such as summer warmth, winter cold, and moisture availability. Although most species’ distributions are proximately defined by their food or habitat, these factors in turn often depend on habitats, which are ultimately defined by climate and soils. Thus, modeling of changing climate spaces is a useful method for obtaining a first estimate of climate change‐induced changes in species’ distributions.

Species can be prioritized for study based on factors such as economic or social value, but most important understanding their relative susceptibility to climate change. The species that are likely to be most heavily impacted by climate change include those that have small global distribution ranges (e.g., Saola Pseudoryx nghetinhensis) or are limited to islands or mountain tops, have specific niche requirements (e.g., specialized food types), rely on vulnerable habitats (e.g., coastal mudflats), have limited dispersal tendencies (e.g., Siamese Crocodile Crocodylus siamensis), are sedentary and territorial (e.g., Tiger Panthera tigris and eagles Aquila), have existing conservation threats (e.g., most primates in Vietnam), have slow reproductive rates (e.g., Asian Elephant Elephas maximus), are sensitive to human disturbance or settlement (e.g., wetland birds), are sensitive to storms or floods (e.g., small birds with open cup nests), or are long distance migrants (e.g., Black‐faced Spoonbill Platalea minor).

In Europe, models of changing climate spaces for bird species have predicted that the mean overlap of current and future distribution ranges would only be 40%, with some species’ future ranges being entirely outside those that they currently occupy. Some common and widespread species experienced relatively little change, and we can imagine that a number of similar examples would occur in Vietnam. For other species, significant northwards range changes were predicted. However, species like birds and mammals are often more mobile than the plants that comprise their habitats, and so active human habitat management may often be required to assist mobile species to modify their ranges. For example, in England, heathland habitats are now being specifically managed for Dartford Warblers Sylvia undata (a species predicted to move considerably northwards with climate change), and these birds are now already expanding their ranges northwards just as predicted. Even greater challenges may occur when natural habitat in the predicted future range of species is fragmented or non‐existent, as it is across vast areas of Vietnam. If, for example, Edwards’s Pheasant Lophura edwardsi a species globally confined to very low‐lying forests in Quang Nam, Thua Thien Hue and Quang Tri – is likely to move northwards with climate change, then it will face enormous difficulty because many such areas in northern Quang Tri and southern Quang Binh are already deforested.

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What is the susceptibility of species with small global ranges like the Saola Pseudoryx nghetinhensis to climate change? The global range of this globally threatened species, like so many others in Vietnam, is imperfectly known. We do know it is rare and confined to forest fragments surrounded by farmland and habitation. How could it disperse across such areas if forced to do so by climate change? Photo: J C Eames An even larger problem will occur for species that are confined to mountains. Many of the species that are confined to Vietnam, and can be conserved nowhere else in the world, are limited to mountains on the Da Lat Plateau or the Annamites. Such species can only move so far upslope before habitat finishes at the top of mountains. Climate space models can identify species, which are most at risk from climate change impacts, and help to predict which areas are likely to be most suitable in the future. Such fine‐scale analyses can guide conservation efforts by thus identifying which areas need particular habitat management in the future, which areas of current and future range occupation may need to be linked by corridors of habitat to allow species to move, and which montane or island species may even need physical translocation to other areas in the future.

Assessing climate change‐induced sea level rise impacts on key sites In a recent World Bank study modeling negative impacts of climate change‐induced sea level rise1, Vietnam was predicted to be one of the two worst affected developing countries worldwide. Severe impacts were predicted on human population, agricultural land, and GDP, with a large proportion of Vietnam’s most productive land predicted to be inundated. However, the study provided little insight into initial impacts of sea level rise on biodiversity, let alone knock‐on effects from increased pressure for agricultural land or living space (which admittedly are much harder to predict). Nonetheless, it is not difficult to develop an initial analysis of impacts on biodiversity of sea level rise, by modeling the same scenarios in a Geographic Information System and using official World Bank definitions of biodiversity.

1

Dasgupta, S., Laplante, B., Meisner, C., Wheeler, D. and Yan, J. (2007) The Impact of Sea Level Rise on Developing Countries: A Comparative Analysis. World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 4136, February 2007. World Bank, Washington, DC.

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The Siamese Crocodile Crocodylus siamensis has a limited dispersal ability that makes it vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Photo: J C Eames.

The World Bank defines ‘natural habitats’ as “land and water areas where the ecosystemsʹ biological communities are formed largely by native plant and animal species, and human activity has not essentially modified the areaʹs primary ecological functions”2. Further, ‘Critical Natural Habitats’ are defined as “(i) existing protected areas and areas officially proposed by governments as protected areas... and sites that maintain conditions vital for the viability of these protected areas... or (ii) sites identified on supplementary lists... Such sites may include... sites that are critical for rare, vulnerable, migratory, or endangered species.”3 For the purposes of analytical simplicity, we can thus consider Critical Natural Habitats to comprise existing and proposed protected areas and areas supporting important populations of threatened (‘endangered’), restricted‐ range, or congregatory species. Although knowledge of freshwater biodiversity in Vietnam is fragmentary, enough data exist to identify and map existing and proposed terrestrial protected areas4, and terrestrial areas supporting important populations of threatened, restricted‐range, or congregatory species, whether as Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs)5 or Important Bird Areas (IBAs; a subset of KBAs)6. Overall, in these terms, Vietnam

2 3

World Bank Operational Policy 4.04 World Bank Operational Policy 4.04

4

5

Tordoff, A. W., Tran Quoc Bao, Nguyen Duc Tu and Le Manh Hung (Eds.) (2004) Sourcebook of existing and proposed protected areas in Vietnam. Second edition. BirdLife International in Indochina and the Forest Protection Department of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Hanoi.

Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (2007) Ecosystem Profile: Indo‐Burma Biodiversity Hotspot. Indochina Region. CEPF, Washington D.C.

6

Tordoff, A. W. (Ed.) (2002) Directory of Important Bird Areas in Vietnam. BirdLife International in Indochina and the Institute of Ecology and Biological Resources, Hanoi.

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has Critical Natural Habitats at 286 sites, comprising 139 proposed or existing protected areas, 40 KBAs that are unprotected, and 107 areas that are both KBAs and protected areas.

By modeling the same range of sea level rise scenarios as in the World Bank study against maps of these Critical Natural Habitats, and identifying sites at which there may be a more or less continuous inundation of salt water from the sea, it is predicted that a 1m sea level rise may impact 78 (27% of) Critical Natural Habitats to some degree, comprising 46 (33% of) Protected Areas, 9 (23% of) KBAs, and 23 (21% of) areas that are both protected areas and KBAs. Likewise, a 5m sea level rise may impact 87 (30% of) Critical Natural Habitats to some degree, comprising 52 (37% of) Protected Areas, 10 (25% of) KBAs, and 25 (23% of) areas that are both protected areas and KBAs.

White‐browed Bush Robin Tarsiger indicus occurs between 2,000‐3,400 m in north‐west Vietnam. As an example of a species restricted to mountain tops with a specific niche requirement, in this case as an obligate insectivore, it is vulnerable to climate change. There is already a mounting body of evidence from the Neotropics that tropical forest birds are shifting their ranges up mountain slopes. In the above example there is nowhere for this species to move to because there is limited habitat available in Vietnam. Photo: J C Eames The magnitude of these potential impacts is striking – a quarter to a third of all Critical Natural Habitats in Vietnam may be impacted by sea level rise alone under climate change scenarios that are widely accepted as realistic. These areas include a large proportion of Vietnam’s existing and proposed protected areas, since they are concentrated on islands and coastal areas. It is even more remarkable that a relatively small (1 m) rise in sea level will impact almost as many Critical Natural Habitats – and almost as much area within sites – as a large rise in sea level (5 m). Clearly Vietnam’s biodiversity is facing a crisis from sea level rise, even under the most conservative climate change scenarios. It is not only coastal provinces and land managers that should be concerned – in the south, the effects of just a 1m sea level rise stretch into areas of the Mekong Delta right through Vietnam and into Cambodia, over 180km inland, and in the north, extensive limestone aquifers will ensure that effects of salination spread widely, even to areas far inland such as Van Long Nature Reserve in Ninh Binh Province.

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For Critical Natural Habitats that are already facing impacts from sea level rise, Vietnam faces very difficult choices. Firstly, these sites could be ignored, or ‘given up’, and their biodiversity and ecosystem services abandoned. Given the scale of pending problems, this may – sadly – be the most efficient solution for sites that are not irreplaceable, i.e. the species and ecosystems that they contain are found in other places that can be conserved.

Secondly, the government could put its faith in a sea defence strategy and simply build up sea walls to protect sea level rise. Unfortunately, such solutions have been proven unrealistically expensive in many countries. Finally, there is perhaps the most pragmatic option of continuing to conserve irreplaceable Critical Natural Habitats in the short‐term, while trying to find long‐term solutions. For example, while sea defence was the prevailing policy in the United Kingdom for many years, official government policy now includes ‘managed retreat’ or ‘coastal realignment’, whereby coastal land under threat is now slowly released to the sea and natural salt marshes – rather than sea walls – actively regenerated in order to create new habitats and to buffer farmland from the sea.

Habitat recreation is difficult and expensive, but few choices may remain in the long‐term unless Vietnam is willing to watch its natural resources and heritage be washed away.

Given the concentration of sea level rise impacts in the low‐lying Mekong and Red River Deltas, many of the Critical Natural Habitats that are predicted to be impacted are understandably wetlands. Freshwater areas in particular (as they will be most affected by salination from sea level rise) and wetlands in general, are a scarce but essential resource for not only biodiversity, but also for the ecosystem services they provide to humans, such as drinking water, sanitation, fish for food, and irrigation for rice fields. As always, poor people are most reliant on the natural environment and these basic ecosystem services for their livelihoods. Impacts of climate change on biodiversity, and the ecosystem services it provides, thus urgently need to be considered in plans to mitigate climate change, not only by the government and environmental organizations, but also by development organizations.

John Pilgrim Conservation Advisor BirdLife International in Indochina

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Wild birds and avian influenza AVIAN INFLUENZA IN WETLAND BIRD SPECIES Although the H5N1 AI virus has been detected across a diverse range of free‐ranging wild species (over 75 species of wild birds from 10 different avian orders), it is wetland or aquatic species that are the most frequently recorded. Birds with affinities for wetland habitats make up nearly 60 percent of the wild species infected with the H5N1 virus and also account for the greater proportion of wildlife mortalities.

Substantial loss of natural wetlands and the attraction of altered wetlands converted to intensive rice farms are factors that may be resulting in concentrating of water birds in smaller habitats, thereby increasing their density and increasing the risk of virus transmission, primarily among and between waterfowl and shorebirds that populate these habitats. As the most frequently detected wild hosts of the H5N1 virus, wetland birds represent an appropriate target for active disease surveillance. Birds such as ducks, geese, swans, gulls, shorebirds, herons, egrets, storks, rails, coots, gallinules, cormorants and grebes are common wetland species A review of these families is helpful for understanding their potential role in the spread of the H5N1 virus.

Waterfowl, are well‐studied common hosts for LPAI viruses, and the only bird group in which the viruses have been found all year round in wild populations. A list of the species and numbers of birds counted among the known wild bird fatalities due to the H5N1 virus reveals that waterfowl are, by far, the bird group from which the H5N1 HP and LP AI virus pathotypes have been most commonly recovered. Waterfowl made up the vast majority of wild birds infected during the H5N1 AI mass mortality event in China in 2005/06 and were they also the prevalent group of wild bird species infected during numerous mortality events as the virus spread from east Asia into west Asia and Europe.

H5N1 has been detected in 30 species of wildfowl including 11 wild and 19 captive species. Photo: J C Eames

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Shorebirds comprise a large and diverse avian order that also includes gulls, terns and auks. After waterfowl, shorebirds are perhaps the most common hosts of LPAI viruses, although for the species sampled, the viruses appear seasonally and have only been detected in wild shorebird populations during the northern spring and autumn. Despite the high overall frequency of LPAI viruses in some shorebirds, the H5N1 HPAI virus has thus far been detected in only one species, the Green Sandpiper Tringa ochropus. Furthermore, shorebirds do not appear to transmit or spread H5N1. Even though they share considerable geospatial and temporal overlap with waterfowl on Asian migratory routes, they have not transported the virus to Australia where they spend the southern summer in large numbers (and to where northern hemisphere breeding species of migratory Anatidae do not normally migrate in any numbers).

LPAI viruses are seasonally common in many Charadriiform species, including the gulls, and the H5N1 virus has been isolated in three gull species, including two, the Brown‐headed Gull Larus brunnicephalus and Pallas’s Gull L. ichthyaetus affected during the first wild bird outbreak in China in 2005. The similar and closely related terns Sternidae may also be a target for disease surveillance, as Common Terns Sterna hirundo were the first species known to suffer a high mortality event as the result of an HPAI infection in 1961.

H5N1 virus has been isolated in three gull species, including two, the Brown‐headed Gull Larus brunnicephalus (shown here) and Pallas’s Gull L. ichthyaetus affected during the first wild bird outbreak in China in 2005.

Photo: J C Eames Herons, egrets and storks are distributed worldwide in a variety of wetland types, but most species have affinities for freshwater and brackish habitats in tropical to temperate latitudes. Although not generally recognised as common hosts of AI viruses, the H5N1 virus has been found in at least four heron or egret species and two stork species.

Grebes are are probably the most aquatic of all the species described here. This is another group not usually recognized as a common host of AI viruses, although the H5N1 virus has been found in at least two species, the Little Grebe Tachybaptus ruficollis and the Great Crested Grebe Podiceps cristatus.

The members of the Rallidae family are perhaps the least familiar of the wetland birds described here. The family can be divided into two “natural” groups, the aquatic coots and gallinules and the more terrestrial marsh‐ dwelling rails and crakes. Species such as the widespread Coot Fulica atra and Common Moorhen Gallinula chloropus appear to be more vulnerable to the H5N1 virus, although at least one crake species has also been infected.

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Cormorants are considered occasional hosts of AI viruses, and the H5N1 virus sub‐type has been isolated in at least two species, including the widespread Great Cormorant Phalacrocorax carbo which can be found in coastal and inland wetlands throughout much of Eurasia, Africa and Australia. Interestingly, cormorants are often infected with Newcastle Disease virus Paramyxoviridae, which causes a common widespread poultry disease, despite limited or no known interaction among these groups. In its most virulent form, velogenic viscerotropic Newcastle disease in poultry, the disease can resemble HPAI clinically and require laboratory analysis to discriminate between causative agents.

Many species of raptors have been fatally affected by H5N1 virus. Although not generally considered “wetland” birds, their role as predators and scavengers of other bird species may leave raptors vulnerable to AI viruses through consumption and exposure. It is believed that raptors contract the disease through direct contact with infected tissues as they scavenge the carcasses of poultry and wild birds that have died from H5N1, or prey upon infected birds weakened by the virus.

“BRIDGE” SPECIES Several bird groups without particularly strong ties to wetland habitats, but with a high tolerance for human‐ altered habitats, have also been known to become infected fatally from H5N1. Prevalent among these are several species of songbirds or perching birds Passeriformes such as crows Corvidae, sparrows Passeridae, mynas Sturnidae and the ubiquitous feral pigeon Columba livia. Corvids, sparrows and pigeons have broad and diverse habitat preferences, but all are familiar birds that have adapted to exploit anthropogenic food sources. Their close association with humans often results in close contact with domestic poultry, especially at open poultry farms where food is readily available. Thus, these species may serve as links between wild birds in natural habitats and domestic poultry, acting as a “bridge” in the transmission of AI viruses from poultry to wildlife or vice versa.

Potential “bridge” species warrant specific surveillance and monitoring efforts at HPAI poultry outbreaks and wildlife mortality events to determine their potential for contracting the disease and possible role in transmitting the virus to or from wild habitats.

MIGRATORY BIRDS AND SPREAD OF THE H5N1 VIRUS Many bird species travel long distances between their breeding grounds and non‐breeding areas. Waterfowl are perhaps the most familiar of these seasonal migrants, but for many northern hemisphere breeding bird species, including shorebirds, songbirds, raptors and many others, at least a portion of, if not the entire population makes seasonal migrations. As natural reservoirs or known hosts for AI viruses, the movements of these species can play an important role in the maintenance and spread of LPAI viruses and may also have a role in the spread of the H5N1 virus.

While the role of some migratory species in the propagation and spread of strains of LPAI has been long established, their role in the spread of the H5N1 HPAI virus is less clear. During the early H5N1 HPAI outbreaks in domestic poultry in South‐East Asia in 2003/04, there was no strong evidence that wild birds could become infected, then move long distances and shed the virus as they moved. During this period, the spread of the virus through domestic poultry, including the domesticated Mallard Duck Anas platyrhynchos, was mostly attributed to movement of animals through trade, and most cases of H5N1 in wild birds coincided with nearby poultry outbreaks. Wet markets and trade involving caged wild birds are mechanisms for disease spread over short, medium or long distances. Raptors and passerines are popular species commonly trafficked in the international bird market (both legal and illicit). In fact, in 2004, raptors smuggled into Belgium were the first H5N1 HPAI infected birds detected in Europe.

However, the situation changed when the H5N1 AI virus spread into western Asia and Europe in 2005/06. Small localised wildlife cases and outbreaks were recorded in several countries where stringent poultry bio security measures were in place. Likely because of the bio security and hygienic measures, nominal spill over of the virus into commercial poultry operations occurred. The discoveries of sick, moribund and dead migratory birds infected with the H5N1 AI virus in scattered locations across western Europe suggested incursion of the disease via wildlife movements, hypothesized as abnormal local movements in response to severe cold weather. Studies reporting the virus in apparently healthy migratory birds are limited, but do suggest the possibility that wildlife

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movements may serve as a mechanism in the introduction of the virus, with husbandry and poultry commercialization more responsible for disease spread. However, it has yet to be demonstrated that infected wild birds made long distance movements concurrently shedding the H5N1 virus during long distance movements.

More information is needed to understand the role of migratory birds in this context.

REFERENCES AND INFORMATION SOURCES Boere, G.C. and Stroud, D.A. 2006. The flyway concept: what is is and what it isn’t. In: G.C. Boere, C.A. Galbraith and D.A. Stroud, eds. Waterbirds around the world. pp. 40‐47. The Stationary Office, Edinburgh, UK (also available at http://www.jncc.gov.uk/PDF/ pub07_waterbirds_part1_flywayconcept.pdf) FAO. Avian Influenza website (available at http://www.fao.org/avianflu/en/index.html).

Ramsar Convention Manual 1997. Available at http://www.ramsar.org/.

United States Geological Survey (USGS) National Wildlife Health Center (NWHC). Corporate website (available at http://www.nwhc.usgs.gov/).

World Health Organization (WHO). Corporate website (available at http://www.who. int/csr/disease/avian_influenza).

World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE). Corporate website (available at http:// www.oie.int/eng/info/en_influenza.htm).

Austin, J.E. and Miller, M.R. 1995. Northern Pintail Anas acuta. In A. Poole, ed. The Birds of North America Online, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, USA. (available at http:// bna.birds.cornell.edu/bna/species/163doi:bna.163).

Veen, J., Yurlov, A.K., Delany, S.N., Mihantiev, A.I., Selivanova, M.A. and Boere, G.C. 2005. An atlas of movements of Southwest Siberian waterbirds. Wetlands International, Wageningen, The Netherlands. (also available at http://www.wetlands.org/publication. aspx?id=c1831ef9‐8e19‐46ef‐9ccf‐e0fd59068df0).

Scott, D.A. and Rose, P.M. 1996. Atlas of anatidae populations in Africa and Western Eurasia. Wetlands International Publication No. 41, Wetlands International, Wageningen, The Netherlands. (also available at http://www.wetlands.org/publication. aspx?id=792563ec‐1b86‐4f80‐b5f9‐170d59f6c406).

Miyabayashi, Y. and Mundkur, T. 1999. Atlas of key sites for Anatidae in the East Asian flyway. Wetlands International ‐ Japan, Tokyo, and Wetlands International ‐ Asia Pacific, Kuala Lumpur. (available at www.jawgp.org/anet/aaa1999/aaaendx.htm).

This feature article is an abridged and edited version of chapter two in; FAO. 2007. Wild Birds and Avian Influenza: an introduction to applied field research and disease sampling techniques. Edited by D.

Whitworth, S.H. Newman, T. Mundkur and P. Harris. FAO Animal Production and Health Manual, No. 5.

Rome. (also available at www.fao.org/avianflu). It is reproduced here with the full permission of FAO. This FAO manual was produced with the support and cooperation of BirdLife International.

Ed.

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Regional news

BirdLife Myanmar Appeal Rebuild livelihoods, protect the environment Appeal for support from the BirdLife Partnership to the local communities around IBAs affected by cyclone Nargis On 2 May 2008 tropical cyclone Nargis hit the coast of Myanmar and devastated large parts of the Irrawaddy delta. It is believed that at least 78,000 people have died as a result and more than 50,000 people are still missing.

Environmental damage has not been yet estimated but it is likely to be huge.

As the Myanmar government is increasingly allowing international aid to enter the country and to assist the estimated 2.4 million victims of the cyclone, there is an opportunity for BirdLife has to support the local communities around IBAs as part of a long term conservation programme.

The BirdLife Partnership provided helpful support to local communities around IBAs in previous catastrophes such as the Pakistan earthquake and the recent Asian Tsunami.

The goal of BirdLife Myanmar Appeal is to support our BirdLife Affiliate organization in Myanmar, BANCA (Biodiversity and Nature Conservation Association) in helping to re‐build livelihoods through promoting conservation and the sustainable use of natural resources in key IBAs affected by the cyclone. This will remain a challenge beyond the endpoint of the current humanitarian crisis. BANCA is currently supporting the community in the Meinmahla‐ Kyun Wildlife Sanctuary, a protected area, severely hit by the Nargis Cyclone but where, probably thanks to the belt of pristine mangrove forest, the small village has not been wiped out like in nearby areas.

BANCA, closely supported by the BirdLife Indochina Programme, already works to promote sustainable natural resource use at selected Important Bird Areas (IBAs). They also work to improve our knowledge of IBAs and the status of globally threatened species. This has resulted in the down listing of the Gurney’s Pitta and the recent discovery of a globally important population of the Spoon‐billed Sandpiper. However, our knowledge of IBAs in Myanmar remains inadequate in general and poor in the Irrawaddy Delta, the most affected area by thye cyclone.

We are therefore now appealing to the Partnership for financial support to BANCA, in order to; •

Develop initiatives linking biodiversity conservation and livelihoods within selected cyclone‐hit communities at IBAs in the Irrawaddy Delta;

•

Identify all IBAs in the Irrawaddy Delta, and elsewhere and work with local communities towards their sustainable future management.

This is an internal appeal within the BirdLife Partnership and it aims to offer the opportunity to BirdLife Partners to support BANCA in their attempt to support and engage the local communities in the affected area. All donations in United States Dollars will be gratefully received and may be made directly to the following account: Account name: BirdLife International Account number: 3294021 (USD) Bank: ANZ Bank Hanoi Bank’s address: 14 Le Thai To Street, Hanoi, Vietnam Swift code: ANZBVNVX Thank you in advance for your support.

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Impact of Cyclone Nargis on Meinmahla Kyun Wildlife Sanctuary, Myanmar In the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis few reports have yet emerged documenting the impact of the storm on biodiversity in the Irrawaddy Delta. The cyclone occurred during the latter stages of the northward spring wader migration so we could expect shorebirds to have been affected. U Uga Chairman of the Biodiversity and Nature Conservation Association has sent the following report.

“I was able to visit Bogale Township in the Irrawaddy Division as part of ongoing relief works along with my intimate friends. Meinmahla‐Kyun Wildlife Sanctuary is the only protected area, severely hit by the Nargis Cyclone. That protected area is an island (13,700 ha) with mangroves primarily constituted for conservation of Saltwater Crocodiles Crocodylus porosus.

There were many villages around that protected area and during this Nargis Cyclone there were many human deaths, and cattle deaths in addition to the disappearance of many villages. Many dead people were stranded on Meinmahla‐Kyun Island. However, very fortunately, all 20 families with 70 family members, including two years and a six months old girl, stationed at guard posts on Meinmahla‐Kyun Wildlife Sanctuary were saved and there were no human deaths [there] at all. Now many people in Bogale have noticed the conservation value of mangroves in Meinmahla‐Kyun Wildlife Sanctuary. The above mentioned 20 families and 50 families from nearby disappeared villages have been assisted by our relief team with rice, old clothes and basic medicines.”

Saltwater Crocodile kills alleged illegal logger in Meinmahla Kyun Wildlife Sanctuary, Myanmar YANGON, Myanmar ‐ A crocodile attacked and killed a man who was under arrest for alleged illegal logging in Myanmar, the countryʹs state‐run newspaper reported Sunday. Myint Zaw was being transported by forest rangers in a boat in the Ayeywarwaddy river delta when the crocodile knocked him out of the boat and killed him, the Myanmar‐language Kyemon daily reported.

Myint Zaw and three other men were arrested last month for possession of mangrove trees believed to have been illegally cut from Meinmahla Kyun Wildlife Sanctuary, southwest of the countryʹs biggest city, Yangon, the paper said. The men were being transferred to detention when the attack happened March 10, the paper said. No other details were available.

The wildlife reserve was established in 1986 and is inhabited by endangered Saltwater Crocodiles Crocodylus porosus that live in the mangrove swamps. The reserve, which is about 53 square miles in size, includes a programme to breed and repopulate the area with crocodiles.

Associated Press 20 April 2008

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Collared Laughingthrush in Vietnam bird trade

Collared Laughingthrush Garrulax yersini is considered globally Endangered. This hasn’t stopped it entering the domestic bird trade in Vietnam. This individual was apparently photographed at Christmas 2006 in the Da Lat area was offered for sale at www.aquabird.com.vn.

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Vietnam now a hub of illegal timber trade Vietnam has become a hub for processing huge quantities of unlawfully logged timber from across Indochina, threatening some of the last intact forests in the region, a detailed investigation has revealed.

Undercover investigations by the UK‐based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) and Indonesian NGO Telapak have discovered how Vietnam’s booming economy and demand for cheap furniture in the West is driving rapid deforestation throughout the Mekong river region. Much of the illegally imported wood is made into furniture for export to garden centres and merchants in the UK. Field investigations in Vietnam and neighboring Laos, including secret filming and undercover visits to furniture factories, have demonstrated that although some countries like Indonesia have cracked down on the illegal timber trade, criminal networks have now shifted their attention to looting the vanishing forests of Laos. This illicit trade is in direct contravention of laws in Laos banning the export of logs and sawn timber and EIA/Telapak are calling for urgent international action.

Investigators visited numerous Vietnamese furniture factories and found the majority to be using logs from Laos.

In the Vietnamese port of Vinh, they witnessed piles of huge logs from Laos awaiting sale. At one border crossing on one occasion alone, 45 trucks laden with logs were filmed lining up to cross the Laos border into Vietnam. The report estimates at least 500,000 cubic metres of logs are moved in this way every year.

Since the 1990s, Vietnam has taken steps to protect to conserve its remaining forests while at the same time, massively expanding its wooden furniture production.

Vietnam has an unenviable track record in using stolen timber. Past investigations have revealed it laundering illegal timber from both Cambodia and Indonesia. The plundering of Laos’ forests involves high‐level corruption and bribery and it is not just Vietnam, which is exploiting its neighbor; Thai and Singapore traders are also cashing in. Posing as investors, EIA/Telapak investigators met one Thai businessman who bragged of paying bribes to senior Laos military officials to secure timber worth potentially half a billion dollars.

“The cost of such unfettered greed is borne by poor rural communities in Laos who are dependent on the forests for their traditional livelihoods,” said EIAʹs head of Forests Campaign, Julian Newman. He said the local people gain virtually nothing from this trade, with corrupt Laos officials and businesses in Vietnam and Thailand, the profiteers. The report concludes that to some extent the dynamic growth of Vietnam’s furniture industry is driven by the demand of end markets like Europe and the US. “The ultimate responsibility for this dire state of affairs rests with the consumer markets with import wood products made from stolen timber,” said Julian.

“Until these states clean up their act and shut their markets to illegal wood products, the loss of precious tropical forests will continue unabated.”

EIA/Telapak are calling for: better enforcement by the timber‐producing and processing countries and new laws banning the import of products and timber derived from illegal logging in the EU and US.

IEA/Telepak report, 19 March 2008

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Successful turtle and python rescue along the CambodiaThai Border On Monday, April 28, the Forestry Administrationʹs ʺWildlife Rapid Rescue Teamʺ (WRRT) confiscated 418.5 kilograms of live turtles and pythons during an operation in Battambang Town, Battambang Province, Cambodia.

The WRRT mobile unit, made up of Forestry Administration Officers, Royal Gendarmes, received information that widespread cross‐border wildlife trafficking was occurring in Poipet on the Thai border. Acting on this information, the WRRT mobile unit, led by Forestry Administration Officer / Deputy WRRT Chief, Mr. Prum Nol intercepted a pick‐up truck crossing from Thailand to Poipet. The WRRT mobile unit stopped the pick‐up truck in Battambang town at 7:25 AM and rescued 68 Asian Box Turtles Cuora spp., 7 Black Marsh Turtles Siebenrockiella crassicollis , 175 Malayan Snail‐eating Turtles Malayemys subtrijuga, 12 Yellow Headed Temple Turtles Hieremys annandalii (threatened species), 2 Red Eared Slider Turtles Trachemys scripta (a species not native to South‐East Asia), 11 Reticulated Pythons Python reticulatus and 13 Burmese Pythons Python molurus .

Yellow Headed Temple Turtles are of particular cultural significance in Cambodian folklore and legends. In stone carvings on the walls of Angkorian temples, they are depicted as divine creatures of royalty; yet their numbers steadily decrease each year due to habitat loss and the illegal wildlife trade. During the operation, a new Chevrolet pick‐up truck with RCAF license plates was confiscated. Mr. Hong Try, (age 32), a military lieutenant from one of the border protection battalions in the area is being questioned in connection with the transport of wildlife.

Initial information suggest that most of the animals confiscated had been illegally collected in Pursat, Battambang, and Banteay Meanchey Provinces and had been moved to a large‐scale holding facility in Thailand before eventually being shipped to Vietnam through Cambodia. These animals (except the non‐native Red Eared Sliders) will be released in suitable habitats by the Forestry Administration. The Forestry Administration collaborating with Wildlife Alliance, various government agencies, and communities are making significant impacts on a multi‐ million dollar illegal wildlife trade in Cambodia as various trade routes and wildlife stock‐pile locations have been exposed. The release of these species back to the wild, especially the threatened Yellow Headed Temple Turtle, is of significant conservation importance and will assist in maintaining their already fragile populations in Cambodia.

Adam T. Starr Wildlife Alliance Cambodia Program Press Release 30 April 2008

Swinhoe’s Turtle Rafetus swinhoei rediscovered in Vietnam A giant turtle that was thought to have been extinct in the wild has been discovered in Vietnam, according to a group of US researchers. The scientists, from Cleveland Zoo, say they discovered a solitary creature in a lake in the north of the country. The team has spent three years searching for the species, called Swinhoeʹs giant turtle Rafetus swinhoei. Correspondents warn that it is difficult to verify the existence of a species based on a single sighting. And some experts have cast doubt on the find, suggesting the creature could be a member of a much more common, similar‐looking species. However, the zoo believes the discovery to be ʺincredibly importantʺ. ʺThe Swinhoeʹs turtle is one of the most critically endangered species of turtle in the world,ʺ Doug Hendrie, the Vietnam‐based co‐coordinator of the US zooʹs Asian Turtle Programme, said in a statement. ʺThis species has legendary status among the people of Vietnam, so this is perhaps an opportunity for the legend to live on.ʺ Swinhoeʹs turtles grow up to 1m long and can live to be 100 years old. Just three other members of the species are thought to be alive in zoos.

BBC news 17 April 2008

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Avian influenza H5N1 and the wild bird trade in Hanoi Both the wildlife trade and emerging diseases pose significant threats to the conservation of global biodiversity.

In Vietnam avian influenza H5N1 has caused serious problems for both the poultry industry and the human population. It has also had a severe impact on wild birds and other wildlife in the country. However, it is possible that the threat of avian influenza H5N1 could be used to aid conservation, by helping to control the trade in wild birds.

A recent study shows that there has been a decline in the number of birds being sold in Hanoi compared to two previous surveys from 2000 and 2003. This decline has been caused by the enforcement of Law 169/2005/QD UBND which was introduced by the government in 2005 to prevent the spread of avian influenza H5N1 and includes a section banning the movement and sale of wild and ornamental birds in cities. This huge decrease shows that avian influenza could be used as a method for controlling the bird trade. However, in Hanoi the bird‐ sellers themselves associated virtually no risk of catching H5N1 from handling their birds, showing that the change has been brought about simply by the increased level of enforcement associated with the outbreaks of H5N1. Although there has been a decline, the trade is still continuing and if the number of outbreaks of H5N1 continues to decrease, so will the level of enforcement which would then cause the trade to increase again.

Therefore, the only way to ensure that this change in the trade becomes permanent would be to continue enforcing the law to the same extent that it was during the main outbreaks of H5N1.

The above text is the abstract from the dissertation submitted to the University of East Anglia, Norwich,U.K. for the degree of Master of Sciences in Applied Ecology and Conservation 2007 by Francesca Brooks-Moizer. Permission to reproduce it here was requested.

Ed.

Mapping H5N1 highly avian influenza risk in South-East Asia The highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 virus that emerged in southern China in the mid‐1990s has in recent years evolved into the first HPAI panzootic. In many countries where the virus was detected, the virus was successfully controlled, whereas other countries face periodic reoccurrence despite significant control efforts.

A central question is to understand the factors favoring the continuing reoccurrence of the virus. The abundance of domestic ducks, in particular free‐grazing ducks feeding in intensive rice cropping areas, has been identified as one such risk factor based on separate studies carried out in Thailand and Vietnam. In addition, recent extensive progress was made in the spatial prediction of rice cropping intensity obtained through satellite imagery processing. This article analyses the statistical association between the recorded HPAI H5N1 virus presence and a set of five key environmental variables comprising elevation, human population, chicken numbers, duck numbers, and rice cropping intensity for three synchronous epidemic waves in Thailand and Vietnam. A consistent pattern emerges suggesting risk to be associated with duck abundance, human population, and rice cropping intensity in contrast to a relatively low association with chicken numbers. A statistical risk model based on the second epidemic wave data in Thailand is found to maintain its predictive power when extrapolated to Vietnam, which supports its application to other countries with similar agro‐ecological conditions such as Laos or Cambodia. The model’s potential application to mapping HPAI H5N1 disease risk in Indonesia is discussed.

Marius Gilbert, Xiangming Xiao, Dirk U. Pfeiffer, M. Epprecht, Stephen Boles, Christina Czarnecki, Prasit Chaitaweesub, Wantanee Kalpravidh, Phan Q. Minh, M. J. Otte, Vincent Martin, and Jan Slingenbergh PNAS March 25, 2008 vol. 105 no. 12 4769–4774 www.pnas.org_cgi_doi_10.1073_pnas.0710581105

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Myanmar biofuel policy a debacle: Report A plan by Myanamr’s ruling military for large‐scale growing of a promising but little‐tested biofuel crop has turned into an agricultural debacle, activists linked with the exile‐based opposition alleged in a report on Thursday. The 48‐page report, ʺBiofuel by Decree: Unmasking Burmaʹs Bio‐energy Fiasco,ʺ was produced by the Ethnic Community Development Forum, a self‐described alliance of seven community development organizations from Myanmar. Though not directly political, the groups are all associated with the exile‐based opposition to Myanmar’s military government. The fiercely critical report, which says the biofuel policy hurts an already ailing agriculture industry, comes as biofuels draw intense scrutiny over whether their benefits in replacing petroleum fuels offset the resources they take from food production.

The forum said the report is based on government documents and press accounts, as well as 131 interviews carried out in all seven states of Myanmar between November 2006 and April 2006. ʺA draconian campaign by Myanmarʹs military to grow 8 million acres of the Jatropha curcas tree for biofuel production is resulting in forced labor and land confiscation throughout the country, while evidence of crop failure and mismanagement expose the program as a fiasco,ʺ alleges the report. It recounts how the leader of the junta, Snr‐Gen Than Shwe, in December 2005 publicly ordered the campaign to plant the jatropha crop better known as “physic nut.” The five‐year plan was to plant the crop across 202,000 hectares of each state and division in the country, a total of 3,237,000 hectares an area roughly the size of Belgium. The report charges that ʺfarmers, civil servants, teachers, schoolchildren, nurses and prisoners have been forced to purchase seeds, fulfill planting quotas and establish biofuel plantations in service to the ʹnational cause.ʺʹ ʺThey must plant the trees along roadsides, in housing, school and hospital compounds, in cemeteries and religious grounds, and on lands formerly producing rice,ʺ it says.

It alleges that people ʺhave been fined, beaten, and arrested for not participating,ʺ and that food security is being threatened because physic nut is being planted on land usually used for stable crops. The crop has promise as a biofuel, with greater yields of oil per hectare than other biofuels and one‐fifth the carbon emissions. But poor management has doomed efforts to use it in Burma, where the yield so far appears to have been too low to be of much use, the report says. Some 800 refugees who fled to Thailand from Myanamr’s Shan State have even cited the program as the reason for fleeing their country, the report says. ʺIt will not be successful,ʺ said one farmer quoted in the report. ʺYou see, the soldiers carry guns. They donʹt know anything about agriculture.ʺ The UNʹs Food and Agriculture Organization has suggested biofuel crops may be causing shortages of food staples and rises in food prices. An e‐mailed request for comment sent to the Myanmar government spokesperson was not answered before release of the report. However, in January 2006, according to the report, Agriculture Minister Col Aung Thaung said the production of physic nut for biodiesel was the only way Myanmar could cope with a chronic oil shortage. Myanmar in the past few years has become a major producer of natural gas, but lacks the infrastructure to make efficient use of it and instead exports it for desperately needed foreign reserves.

Grant Peck, Associated Press

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A new species of Goniurosaurus gecko from Cat Ba Island, Vietnam A new species of the gekkonid genus Goniurosaurus has been recently described from Cat Ba Island, Hai Phong, northern Vietnam 1. G. catbaensis sp. n. is, by its gracile body and limbs, the thin, posteriorly protracted nuchal loop, the three (or four) thin immaculate dorsal body bands between limb insertions, without dark spotting and with dark, narrow border surrounding the body bands, the lack of postrostral (internasal) scales, the presence of a greatly enlarged row of supraorbital tubercles, the outer surface of the upper eyelid being composed of granular scales of about the same size of those on top of head and with a longish row of 6–9 enlarged tubercles, granular body scales, with 8–11 granular scales surrounding the dorsal tubercles, deep axillary pockets, claws being sheathed by four scales, and 16–21 precloacal pores. The new taxon is known only from Cat Ba Island and is the eleventh Goniurosaurus species known and the fourth known species from Vietnam. The authors provide the first data on its natural history and a key to the currently recognized Goniurosaurus species.

Portrait of the adult male holotype of Goniurosaurus catbaensis sp. n. (IEBR A.0717) from Cat Ba Island, Hai Phong, Vietnam. Photograph by Thomas Ziegler.

Ziegler, T., Nguyen Trang Truong, Schmitz, A., Stenke, R., and Rosler, H. 2008 Zootaxa 1771: 16–30. www.mapress.com/zootaxa/ 1

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A new species of Stachyris from the Sino-Vietnamese border Zhou Fang and Jiang Aiwu of the College of Animal Sciences and Technology, Guangxi University, Nanning, China have recently described a new species of babbler they have named Stachyris nonggangensis, the Nonggang Babbler1. Nonggang Natural Reserve is located in the Sino‐Vietnamese border region at 22°13′–22°34′N, 106°42′– 107°05′E, 18 km south‐east of the Vietnamese border. On 21 January 2006, they trapped two individuals.

Subsequent investigation showed that the specimens belonged to a previously undescribed species, closely related to the Sooty Babbler Stachyris herberti.

Top: A lateral comparison of the Nonggnang Babbler Stachyris nonggangensis (above) and the Sooty Babbler Stachyris herberti (below). The white chevron‐shaped throat markings of Stachyris nonggangensis can be seen in the photograph below. Photos: Zhou Fang and Jiang Aiwu

Zhou Fang and Jiang Aiwu 2008 A New Species of Babbler (Timaliidae: Stachyris) from the Sino‐Vietnamese Border Region of China. The Auk 125(2):420–424, 2008

1

It is inconceivable that this species does not occur in either Lang Son or Cao Bang provinces in Vietnam, since the type locality lies only 18 km from the Sino-Vietnamese border.

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Conservation needs of the dugong Dugong dugon in Cambodia and Phu Quoc Island, Vietnam Research was recently conducted to assess the location of population groups and conservation issues affecting dugongs Dugong dugon along the eastern Gulf of Thailand off Cambodia and Phu Quoc Island, Vietnam.

Interviews in fishing communities in 2002 and 2004 along the Cambodian coast revealed that dugongs are sporadically found in fishing nets and their body parts are sold for a relatively large profit. During 4 days of aerial surveys in Cambodia in 2004 the authors saw no dugongs. They interviewed villagers in Phu Quoc Island, in 2002 and learnt that dugongs are regularly found and hunted. In both countries the authors recommend that legislation addressing threatened species be strengthened and enforced. In collaboration with the Cambodian and Vietnamese governments and NGOs, they propose the exploration of alternative nondestructive fishing methods and the initiation of an education campaign based on conservation of marine wildlife and the nearshore environment. National and transboundary management and community‐based conservation are required in conjunction with strategies to address overfishing and poverty.

Hines, H., Kanjana Adulyanukosol, Phay Somany, Leng Sam Ath, Cox, N., Potchana Boonyanate and Nguyen Xuan Hoa 2008 Oryx Vol. 42. (1): 113‐121.

Seventy Irrawaddy Dolphins remain on Mekong River in Cambodia Cambodia’s only freshwater dolphin is the Irrawaddy river dolphin Orcaella brevirostris found in the Mekong River. To clarify the abundance status of this critically endangered subpopulation, mark and recapture photo‐ identification surveys were conducted in the low water months of April and May 2007, from the 17th to the 25th of April and the 21st to the 29th of May. These surveys were conducted by boat on the Mekong River, along the 190 km stretch of river extending from Kratie to the southern boarder of Laos. A total search effort of 139 hours and 32 minutes was conducted. Dolphins were observed and photographed for a total of 41 hrs and 01 minute. A total of 61 dolphins were identified. The MARK statistical programme, using a closed population model, produced a total abundance estimate of 71 (95% CI = 66‐86) dolphins as at end May 2007.

Dove, V., Dove, D., Trujillo, F. and Zanre, R. 2008. Abundance estimation of the Mekong Irrawaddy dolphin Orcaella brevirostris based on mark and recapture analysis of photoidentified individuals. WWF Cambodia Technical Report.

Three of the remaining 70 Irrawaddy Dolphins Orcaella brevirostris in the Cambodian Mekong River. Photo: J C Eames

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BirdLife International in Indochina

Important Bird Areas News Chinese and Vietnamese dam projects in Cambodia threaten Srepok and Sesan river systems IBAs , protected areas and ADB BCI pilot site In the attached file we have compiled publicly available information regarding the three hydro power projects most immediately affecting the Eastern Plains Biodiversity Conservation Initiative (BCI) Pilot Site. Although that information is still rather scant, it still raises grave concerns regarding impacts on the BCI Pilot Site.

Any impact on the Eastern Plains BCI pilot site mentioned below is on top of impacts from the cascade of seven (!) hydro power dams in the Vietnamese portion of the Srepok river (see ʺEnvironmental Impact Assessment on the Cambodian Side of the Srepok River due to Hydropower Development in Vietnamʺ, final report prepared by SWECO Grøner, in association with Norwegian Institute for Water Research, EVIORO‐DEV, ENS Consult, November 2006) Two dams, now in their pre‐feasibility stage (viz. Lower Srepok 3 and Srepok 4), will directly affect two BCI core areas (Lomphat Wildlife Sanctuary [Ministry of Environment] and Mondulkiri Protected Forest [Forestry Administration]) by submerging [significant] areas. Lower Srepok 3 will submerge a very large area in Lomphat Wildlife Sanctaury, while Srepok 4 will submerge an area in Mondulkiri Protected Forest where the Forestry Administration plans an eco‐lodge with support from WWF; both dams negatively influence sustainable financing options. See map on following page.

Although both dams fail to satisfy both thresholds as formulated in the JICA Master Plan Study of Hydropower Development in Cambodia (November 2007) the Ministry of Industry, Mining, and Energy (MIME) signed a memorandum with Guangxi Guiguan Electric Power Co., Ltd., a large Chinese energy company, on 2 June 2008.

Construction of the third dam, the combined Lower Sesan 2 and Lower Srepok 2 dams, will start this year, and come in operation in 2014‐15. This 480 MW hydro power dam requires a US$552 million investment, and will be constructed by Electricity Vietnam, which signed a memorandum with MIME on 26 February 2008. Though this dam seems not to submerge any core area, resettlement of at least four and perhaps eight villages may affect Lomphat Wildlife Sanctuary. The dam will certainly block free‐flow of the Srepok Rver (note that Irrawaddy Dolphins have been observed upstream of the dam site).

Bas van Helvoort WWF Cambodia Programme

The above information is taken from an email sent by Bas Van Helvort to Javid Mir GMS Environmental Operations Centre on 24 June 2008. This follows my raising the issue with Javid Mir and the implementing agencies in Hanoi. What will ADB do? BirdLife views this as a major test of the credibility of this project.

Ed.

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BirdLife International in Indochina

At last Javan Rhinos to get their own road: Surfaced road to be built through Cat Loc sector of Cat Tien National Park According to a recent interview with Luong Van Ngu the vice director of Lam Dong department of Environment and Natural Recourses published in Tai Nguyen Moi Truong1, Lam Dong province has submitted a plan for a 18.3 km road from ʺTien Hoang to Dong Nai Thuongʺ of which 4.5 km will go through the core area of Cat Tien National Park (Cat Loc is not named specifically but since the proposed road is in Cat Tien District, Lam Dong province, it must refer to Cat Loc) the rest of which will go through the buffer zone. Mr. Ngu informs us that the road is only a minor road, which is expected to carry no more than 100 motorbikes per day, facilitating inter‐commune communication, and its construction will assist the national park patrol the protected area more thoroughly(!) On 15 April the appraisal committee established by MoNRE met in Hanoi approved the environmental impact assessment, although the report did not name the authors.

1

Tai Nguyen Moi Truong, 24 April 2008

Nguyen Duc Tu BirdLife International Vietnam Programme

The route of the road to be upgraded through Cat Loc photographed in June 2007. Photo: J C Eames

BirdLife totally opposes the construction of this (or any road) road through the Cat Loc sector of Cat Tien National Park. The upgrading of this road will lead to increased disturbance of habitat along the route. The likelihood that Javan rhinos will ever re-appear east of Village 5 will be reduced to zero if the road is upgraded. Links between the good habitat to the west to very good habitat in the State Forest Enterprise to south-east of Village 5 will also be weakened further by an upgraded road.

BirdLife believes that the boundary around Village 5 should be clearly demarcated and the MARD and Lam Dong Provincial authorities (not only the Cat Tien National Park staff) should inform the people of Village 5 clearly (in meetings and in official documents provided to each household) that there shall be no further expansion of the Village 5 territory. If this is not done and Lam Dong and MARD do not document Village 5 territory for once and for all, we can expect this village to grow further and reduce the conservation value of the land within the national park to the east of Village 5. Ideally Lam Dong and MARD would not allow any new households to establish themselves in the Village 5 enclave and newly wedded couples should move-out of the enclave to areas outside the park (with a premium from Government ideally). In that manner Village 5 will eventually disappear.

Ed.

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BirdLife International in Indochina

Rarest of the rare Threat categories change for 23 Indochinese bird species: Gurney’s Pitta down listed to Endangered During 2007‐2008, the status of all 9,990 species of bird recognized by BirdLife International was checked against the IUCN Red List criteria. This led to 166 species having their status actively reviewed and discussed in the Globally Threatened Bird discussion forums on BirdLifeʹs website, resulting in the IUCN Red List category being revised for a number of these. In addition, a number of taxonomic changes were incorporated.

The IUCN Red List category for 107 species was revised in May 2008 for the 2008 IUCN Red List. An explanation of the category codes and ʹReason for changeʹ terms follows the scientific name for each of the 23 species occurring in Indochina listed below. For the Indochina region the following species have changed category or have been listed for the first time because of taxonomic changes: Baerʹs Pochard Aythya baeri VU EN Genuine (recent) Spoon‐billed Sandpiper Eurynorhynchus pygmeus EN CR Genuine (recent) Gurneyʹs Pitta Pitta gurneyi CR EN Knowledge Collared Crow Corvus torquatus LC NT Knowledge Russet Bush‐warbler Bradypterus mandelli NR LC Taxonomy (newly split) White‐throated Wren=babbler Rimator pasquieri, NR LC Taxonomy (newly split) Pale‐throated Wren‐babbler Spelaeornis kinneari, NR LC Taxonomy (newly split) Grey‐bellied Wren‐babbler Spelaeornis reptatus NR LC Taxonomy (newly split) Chin Hills Wren‐babbler Spelaeornis oatesi NR LC Taxonomy (newly split) Chevron‐breasted or Cachar Wedge‐billed Babbler Sphenocichla roberti NR NT Taxonomy (newly split) Cambodian Laughingthrush Garrulax ferrarius NR NT Taxonomy (newly split) Rufous‐cheeked Laughingthrush Garrulax castanotis NR NT Taxonomy (newly split) Orange‐breasted Laughingthrush Garrulax annamensis NR LC Taxonomy (newly split) Assam Laughingthrush Garrulax chrysopterus NR NT Taxonomy (newly split) Silver‐eared Laughingthrush Garrulax melanostigma NR LC Taxonomy (newly split) Vietnamese Cutia Cutia legalleni NR NT Taxonomy (newly split) Collared Babbler Gampsorhynchus toruatus NR LC Taxonomy (newly split) Black‐crowned Fulvetta Alcippe klossi NR LC Taxonomy (newly split) Black‐browed Fulvetta Alcippe grotei NR LC Taxonomy (newly split) Black‐headed Sibia Heterophasia desgodinsi, NR LC Taxonomy (newly split) Indochinese Yuhina Yuhina torqueola NR LC Taxonomy (newly split) Black‐headed Parrotbill Paradoxornis margaritae NR NT Taxonomy (newly split) Yellow‐breasted Bunting Emberiza aureola NT VU Knowledge

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Grey‐bellied Wren‐babbler Spelaeornis reptatus (below) and Chevron‐breasted Babbler Sphenocichla roberti (above) have both been recently recorded during BirdLife/BANCA expeditions to northern Myanmar. Photos: J C Eames

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Project updates Gurney’s Pitta research in Tanintharyi Division, Myanmar Research on Gurney’s Pitta Pitta gurneyi has been undertaken as part of BirdLife and BANCAs attempts to have Lenya National Park established in southern Tanintharyi Division. This work has recently been undertaken as part of the Darwin funded project described below by Dr. Paul Donald.

In 2007 research was undertaken from 21st March to 27th May 2007 at the Htaungpru Reserve Forest in Taninthayi township and Ngawun Reserve Forest in Bokepyin township. From the results of that research the field team were quite certain that Gurney’s Pitta could not be found above 200 or on a very steep terrain. In 2008 we continued our research in Bokepyin township and at a new location, Kawthaung township (see map). The specific objectives of the 2008 research were to collect information on the population and distribution of Gurney’s Pitta in southern Tanintharyi Division and to collect information on Gurney’s Pitta habitat.

Among 29 line transects completed during the field season Gurney’s Pitta was only confirmed from eight. It was observed that these eight transects were situated between the elevation of 0‐150 m. During the survey almost all transects where Gurney’s Pittas were observed were located in public forest land and not in Reserved Forests. The reason for this was that only limited assess was given to Reserve Forests during the study and accordingly only public forests close to the Dawe–Kawthaung road could be visited (see map).

Thura Win Htun, Sein Myo Aung and Sa Myo Zaw Biodiversity And Nature Conservation Association

It is very unfortunate that the field team was not granted access to Ngawun and Lenya Reserve Forests during the 2008 field season. The analysis of the data by Dr. Paul Donald and the preparation of a journal paper on the status and distribution of the species is ongoing.

Ed.

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Gurney’s Pitta research and conservation in Thailand and Myanmar This Darwin Initiative‐funded project began in January 2005 and will terminate in September 2008. In this article Project Leader Dr. Paul Donald of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds reports on project progress to‐date.

The project is a joint initiative of Bird Conservation Society of Thailand (BCST), the Biodiversity and Nature Conservation Association (BANCA, Myanmar), BirdLife International in Indochina, the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation (DNPWPC, Thailand), the Forest Restoration Research Unit (FORRU; the University of Chiang Mai, Thailand), the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust. Further details of the project can be found at http://www.bcst.or.th/eng/project/ gp_info1.htm.

Gurney’s Pitta Pitta gurneyi is a lowland forest bird species confined to peninsular Thailand and extreme southern Myanmar. It is currently listed by IUCN as Endangered, because of its very small and rapidly declining population at the only known site in Thailand. This represents a slight improvement on its previous status of Critically Endangered, resulting from the discovery of large populations in Myanmar and the project’s success in stemming the decline in Thailand. The production and agreement of a Species Recovery Plan in Thailand in 2002, quickly followed by the species’ rediscovery in Tanintharyi Division, southern Myanmar, in 2003, renewed hopes that the species could be saved from extinction, after two decades in which successive conservation attempts had failed to do more than slow the seemingly unstoppable decline. The current project aims to fulfill these hopes by supporting key actions from the recovery plan in Thailand (particularly those relating to research, reforestation and community development) and by undertaking research on the newly discovered population in Myanmar and feeding the results of this research into ongoing efforts to secure protected area status for lowland forests in southern Myanmar. At the same time, the project aims to use the opportunity of working with conservationists in Thailand and Myanmar to build their capacity, particularly in terms of scientific research.

Relationships between all project partners have continued to develop well over the last year, and for the first time the political situation has allowed partner organizations in Thailand and Myanmar to work together. In February 2008, the lead Burmese researcher spent some time at the Gurney’s Pitta site in southern Thailand working with Thai researchers. A further boost to the project has been the very strong cooperation between project staff and the new Head of the Wildlife Sanctuary in Thailand, who has proved to be extremely sympathetic to the aims of the project and very proactive in supporting it. The BirdLife Partner in Thailand, BCST, has grown in stature and confidence as a result of their involvement in this project and is now starting a number of other conservation initiatives with support from RSPB. Indeed, BCST was in February 2008 awarded a large sum of money by the Thai Government to initiate a new conservation project near Bangkok. As a direct result of the current project and the support it has received through it from RSPB, BCST has developed from a small group of volunteers with no executive staff to a growing organization with eight permanent staff. Furthermore, the statutory Thai conservation authorities now regard BCST as an important contact, and it is very encouraging to see BCST being increasingly consulted by the Department of National Parks on a growing range of issues. Indeed, BCST now financially support some of DNP’s research on Gurney’s Pitta. Aside from the immediate benefits to Gurney’s Pitta conservation, this growth in the stature of BCST is likely to be one of the most important legacies of the project. Also as a direct result of collaboration in this project, RSPB is now working with the Forest Restoration Research Unit (FORRU) of Chiang Mai University on other forest restoration projects in South‐East Asia, particularly in Sumatra. This is a new and important relationship, given RSPB’s recent involvement in managing large areas of forest, and one would not have evolved were it not for the current project. The presence of a FORRU stand at the Bangkok Bird Fair was a welcome development. Another welcome development has been the recent involvement of Walailuk University (Nakron Sri Thammarat) in reforestation work in southern Thailand.

As this is considerable closer to the site than Chiang Mai University, this provides welcome extra support at the site and it is hoped this collaboration develops further.

Development of the Burmese partner has been more difficult, largely because of rapid staff turnover and a general lack of capacity in the country to undertake research work. Furthermore, political difficulties and the recent humanitarian disaster in the country caused by Cyclone Nargis have made recent progress very difficult and mean that the project is unlikely to fulfill all its aims in that country. Despite this, a very successful field season in The Babbler June 2008 – 32 –

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early 2008 has led to the collection of sufficient data to be able to achieve the research objectives. The project has further strengthened links between BANCA, the Burmese partner, and the BirdLife Indochina Programme, which is now working to support sustainable development in areas affected by the cyclone. Continuing strong links between RSPB and the Oriental Bird Club led to the very welcome development that OBC will provide financial support to the tree nursery established by the project in Thailand during the current financial year. The stronger links brought about directly by the project, in particular between RSPB and FORRU, between BCST and the Department of National Parks and between BANCA and the BirdLife Indochina Project, but more generally between all project partners, has been an extremely important outcome and one that will bring major benefits in the future.

The data collection phase of the project is now complete, although future monitoring will be carried out. Because of problems identified in previous reports, the dissemination phase is not yet complete, hence the recent successful application to Darwin for a 6‐month, no‐cost extension. The most significant achievement in 2007‐8 was the completion of field surveys, under extremely difficult conditions, in southern Myanmar. Data were collected from 180 widely spaced points throughout the species’ possible range in southern Myanmar, bringing the total number of points visited to nearly 400. These data are currently being used to produce maps of predicted range extent, which will feed directly into ongoing initiatives to extend proposed national park boundaries to include the major centres of Gurney’s Pitta population. In addition, comparative measurements of habitat were collected in Thailand and Myanmar, yielding the very interesting result that the habitats used by the two populations differ greatly in structure, and therefore that the species might be able to use a wider range of habitats than previously supposed. This is encouraging, as it means that re‐creation of suitable habitats for this species might be easier than was suspected. In Thailand, a major advance has been the development of a GIS‐based system that overlays the distribution of Gurney’s Pittas on recent satellite imagery to allow a more strategic approach to conserving the remaining forest and to underpin ongoing reforestation efforts. Particularly exciting was the discovery by this system of an area of surviving forest that has not previously been surveyed and which might hold previously unknown birds. The system is already being used to target reforestation to areas that link existing populations.

All data collected by the project have been collated, translated and checked.

Emergency measures are in place to prevent the extinction of the species in Thailand should the population drop below five pairs. As the population remains well above this level, and as the area of potentially suitable habitat has been stabilized, the emergency measures proposed, which included captive breeding and artificial food supplementation, have not been required. However, holding pens have been constructed should this become necessary. These are currently being used to house captive pittas of other species for radio‐tracking purposes. As last year, the system of nature trails will be closed to local people and visitors during the breeding season to reduce disturbance to nesting birds.

The capacity for forest restoration in the species’ Thai range continues to grow. The tree nursery established by the project continues to employ two full‐time and one part‐time staff (since the end of Darwin project funding in April 2008, this is being funded by the Oriental Bird Club but further funds will be required to sustain this work beyond 2008). A new employee of the nursery has a diploma in horticulture and is member of the local community. He has developed very well as a nursery technician and has displayed a remarkable teaching ability, clearly enjoying sharing his new knowledge and skills with visiting students and school children. The involvement and interest of local people is essential to the aims of this project. In addition, a PhD student from Walailuk University (Nakron Sri Thammarat), Ms. Panitnard is having a major input into this project. A former field officer from FORRU‐CMU, Ms Panitnard has excellent experience in forest restoration. She has started making monthly visits to the site to help with management of staff, set work schedules and check on data collection. In addition, she will be establishing experiments on direct seeding at the site (comparing performance of trees established by direct seeding with conventional nursery‐raised trees) as part of her PhD program. This will generate useful additional information for the forest restoration strategy for the area. Through this link with Walailuk University (WU), we have also been able to involve the WU Conservation Club in this project. About 13 students joined a field training program at the site in March 2008, helping to collect phenology data for that month and organizing (labeling and hardening off) trees ready for planting in May. The students subsequently joined the planting event in May 2008. Developing this link with WU will make the project easier to manage (compared with FORRU‐CMU staff flying down from the north), as well as developing highly qualified and

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motivated students as potential future staff for the project. The tree nursery built at the local community centre at the entrance to the WS HQ in Y1 continues to function well. It serves 4 main purposes i) production of trees for experimental plantings; ii) production of trees for planting by other organizations; iii) generation of data on germination and seedling growth and iv) acting as an education facility for local people to build capacity for tree planting in the local community and raise awareness of the benefits of forest restoration. At the nursery, germination experiments have been carried out on 97 local forest tree species and completed on 44. Seedling growth experiments have been carried out on 36 species. The nursery has produced approximately 12,000 seedlings over the past growing season. Trees in excess of those required for project field trials are being donated to various local tree‐planting events. Specimens of young seedlings are now also being collected from the nursery to act as a reference collection for support of surveys of natural forest regeneration in the future. A study of the phenology of 68 local forest tree species (1 to 8 individuals each, depending on availability) is continuing, with data collection having proceeded for more than two years for most species. The primary objective of this work is to determine when each species flowers and fruits to optimize seed collection times.

Cherdsak Kuaraksa and Dr. Steve Elliott (FORRU) worked on‐site in November 2007 to monitor the trees planted in the 2006 and 2007 plots, review nursery data and tree voucher specimens collected and continue capacity building of the Krabi staff. In March 2008 Dr. Steve Elliott worked on‐site with Ms Panitnard Tunjai to develop a monthly checklist for quality control of data collection and management, which Ms Panitnard will manage from now on. Nursery experiments were reviewed. Progress with tree performance in the 2006 and 2007 plots was inspected and FORRU staff worked with the Wildlife Sanctuary Office to select an area for planting in May 2008.

They inspected the site with officers from the Wildlife Sanctuary and project staff. They also initiated discussions with the local village headman concerning the involvement of villagers in planting and care of the site, and also ran a two‐day field course for WU students on phenology data collection and seed collection and prepared 1,000 trees for the planting event. In May 2008, Mr. Cherdsak Kuaraksa and 3 members of the FORRU‐CMU team travelled to Krabi to join Ms Panitnard and the Krabi team in the site preparation, planting and initial monitoring of 1,000 trees. Taxonomic botanist, Mr. J. F. Maxwell, continued working at CMU herbarium to i) ensure all trees being studied in this project are correctly identified and ii) to identify as many tree species as possible that comprise the forest habitat of Gurney’s Pitta. About 100 specimens were transported from the Krabi nursery to FORRU‐CMU during 2007/8, where they are currently undergoing identification and mounting for storage at the CMU herbarium. In addition to voucher specimens of adult trees, FORRU are now also collecting seedling specimens of known ages from the nursery germination experiments in order to eventually compiling a seedling identification handbook, similar to the one already printed for northern Thailand. This will help with future survey work to determine the extent of natural forest regeneration in degraded forest sites.

Maintenance and monitoring of tree performance continued in the plots planted in 2006 and 2007. An additional 1,000 trees were planted in 2 rai to expand the trial plot system in the reserved forest area in May 2008. The most remarkable result was with the Accelerated Natural Regeneration (ANR) plots planted in May 2007. In this site (in the reserved forest area), we tested the effects of clearing weeds, applying cardboard mulch and fertilizer on tree seedlings and sapling already growing on‐site. In addition, we inter‐planted the natural regeneration with shade‐ tolerant climax for tree species from the nursery. The photographs in the Appendix show the remarkable recovery of these sites, raising hopes that degraded land can rapidly be returned to habitat suitable for Gurney’s Pitta.

The wealth of research and experience gained during the project, from field trials and from research in the tree nursery, will be collated into a printed strategy for the restoration of habitat within the range of the Gurney’s Pitta in southern Thailand before the end of the project in September 2008. The expertise generated within local communities and forestry staff will ensure that sufficient capacity exists to implement this strategy, though further funding will be necessary.

Data collection in Myanmar was completed in March 2008, and data on bird distribution and habitat use are now available for nearly 400 points spread across the likely range of the species. These data are currently being analyzed to assess the likely range and population size of the species. These results will feed directly into other conservation initiatives that aim to extend proposed national park boundaries to encompass important centres of population for Gurney’s Pitta. However, the original aim of producing a stakeholder‐agreed conservation strategy is unlikely to be achieved within the life of the current project because of political instability in the country and because of the humanitarian crisis caused by Cyclone Nargis. Both are likely to preclude the The Babbler June 2008 – 34 –

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involvement of sufficiently senior Government staff to make such an effort worthwhile. However, conservation recommendations will be published in the scientific literature, and the long‐term involvement of the BirdLife Indochina Programme in Myanmar will ensure that the results continue to be used.

Further training of the staff of the tree nursery and associated forestry staff continues, and was given a boost by the recent involvement of research staff from Walailuk University. RSPB and the BirdLife Indochina Programme continue to provide scientific and institutional support to BCST and BANCA respectively, and the Oriental Bird Club have stepped in to cover the costs of running reforestation efforts in southern Thailand after the end of Darwin funding in April 2008. Capacity for Thai conservationists to undertake further conservation work on Gurney’s Pitta in Thailand is therefore high. In Myanmar, recent political unrest and humanitarian disaster has not allowed the development of capacity of conservation workers, though long‐term support to BANCA from the BirdLife Indochina Project will overcome this in time.

Knowledge of Gurney’s Pitta numbers, distribution and ecological needs across its range is being provided to stakeholders. This output has already been largely met in Thailand, although the production of scientific papers has been delayed for reasons explained above. The results from research in Thailand are already being used in the conservation of the species there. For example, a new GIS‐based conservation tool developed by the local Wildlife Sanctuary, a major stakeholder, incorporates the results of the project and is being used to guide forest protection activities. Results of research on habitat use are being used to guide forest regeneration strategies. In Myanmar, sufficient data have now been collected to meet data requirements and this will be distributed to key stakeholders before the end of the project.

Measures to prevent the extinction of Gurney’s Pitta in Thailand are in place but it is hoped they will not need to be deployed. The population in southern Thailand remains well above the level at which actions under this output are necessary, though captive breeding is being considered by DNPWPC as a possible method to boost the wild population and so compensate for low productivity. Should this be required, a holding pen has now been constructed.

A strategy for Gurney’s Pitta habitat restoration across the species’ former range in southern Thailand is being developed and agreed and this output will be fully completed before the end of the project. The growing capacity generated by the project and the recent involvement of a local university mean that not only will the strategy be prepared, but also that sufficient experience and capacity will exist to implement and monitor the strategy.

A significant assumption in the original log frame was that the political situation in Myanmar would permit the production of a conservation strategy for Myanmar. Unfortunately recent political unrest, and the humanitarian disaster of Cyclone Nargis mean that the original multi‐stakeholder strategy is unlikely to be achieved during the project. However, sufficient data have been collected to feed into other ongoing conservation strategies, such as BirdLife’s efforts to guide the designation of the Lenya National Park, though this again has been severely affected by political instability. While the production of stakeholder‐agreed strategy lies beyond the end of the life of this project, the data collected will be used to develop conservation recommendations that will form the basis of further conservation efforts for this species.

The capacity of Thai and Myanmar conservationists to undertake further conservation is increased has been achieved, as evidence by the growth of work by BCST into other areas. For example, BCST were recently awarded a large grant by the Thai Government to continue work on the Inner Gulf of Thailand. At the start of the project, BCST would not have had the capacity or confidence to apply for such funding. This is a major and significant output of the current project. In Myanmar, BANCA have become involved in other projects, such as surveys of vultures, using the experience and equipment provided by the current project.

The project is well on course to meeting or exceeding all project outputs and so to meeting the overall project purpose. The measurable project purpose indicator, “All activities in Gurney’s Pitta Species Recovery Plan in Thailand requiring external expertise initiated by end of project” has already been met or exceeded, in that a number of conservation outputs not listed in the Recovery Plan have also started. While the ultimate success of efforts to save the species and its lowland forest habitat in southern Thailand will depend largely on political will, the project has provided NGOs and Government authorities with all the technical expertise it needs to achieve this, and has further encouraged the will to do so. To this extent, the project has exceeded all original

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expectations. Unfortunately, the original assumption that “The political situation in Myanmar permits development of strategy” was not met. The measurable indicator for progress in Myanmar, “Project proposals developed and submitted for all activities in Species Recovery Plan in Myanmar” will no longer serve, as it is clear that because of political and humanitarian problems in the country, an agreed multi‐level stakeholder Species Recovery Plan as originally envisaged will be impossible to complete within the life of the project. We therefore suggest a revised Purpose indicator of “Research results are being used in ongoing conservation assessments in Myanmar”. To an extent, this has already been met, as the recent down listing of Gurney’s Pitta from Critically Endangered to Endangered was based largely on the results of the project. However, the last few months of the project will aim to meet this indicator more fully by further analyses and publication of the full set of results.

Dr. Paul Donald Project Leader, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds

Assessing the status and distribution of the Endangered Whiteeared Night-heron in Vietnam White‐eared Night‐heron Gorsachius magnificus is listed as globally Endangered because it appears to have a very small, fragmented population that is undergoing a continuing decline. This species is known mainly from widely scattered records in south‐east China. In Vietnam, after 25 years without records, the species was believed to be possibly extinct until a bird was observed in 2001 in Bac Kan Province.

To help understanding and enhancement conservation for this species, from January to April 2008, BirdLife International Vietnam Programme in collaboration with Vietnam Birdwatching Club and the National Natural Museum, Vietnam undertook a project entitled Assessing the status and distribution of the Endangered White‐eared Night‐heron in Vietnam. The project consisted of two main component, namely, (i) awareness raising on the importance of White‐eared Night Heron conservation, and (ii) field surveys to check the status of this species at potential sites. A poster was designed and distributed in the potential distribution range of the species to draw to the attention of local people and the local authorities the conservation of this species. The subsequent field surveys were then carried out to check the status of the species and interviews with local people conducted to raise public awareness of the importance of this extremely rare and magnificent species.

In total, 33 days field work were made at Xuan Lac and Ba Be (Ba Be National Park, Bac Kan Province), Luc Son (Tay Yen Tu Nature Reserve, Bac Giang Province), Ky Thuong Nature Reserve (Quang Ninh Province), and Dong Ruong (Phu Canh Nature Reserve, Hoa Binh Province). A total of 136 species of bird were recorded during the surveys. Most notable were White‐eared Night Herons, which were heard in Ban O, Xuan Lac and seen in Coc Toc, Ba Be on 4 and 5 March and 10 March 2008 respectively.

Results from the field survey highlight the importance of Ba Be/Xuan Lac area. The site meets one more criterion to be recognized as a Ramsar Site (Criterion 2). Therefore, there is a need to encourage the provincial and local authorities, as well as, Vietnam’s Ramsar Administrative Authority to further steps to designate this site in next Ramsar Convention implementation period. In the near future, BirdLife will consider the possibilities to support the Ba Be National Park manager to seek funding to prepare a species action plan for the White‐eared Night Heron and improved management of the site focusing on the areas that support suitable habitat for the species.

David Walsh, Tran Thanh Tu and Nguyen Duc Tu BirdLife International Vietnam Programme

Unfortunately the BirdLife team were denied access to Na Hang Nature Reserve. Had they been granted access perhaps they would have found the species there? See following report.

Ed.

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White-eared Night Heron photographed at Na Hang Nature Reserve

Juvenile White‐eared Night Heron Gorshacius magnificus. Photo: Dr. Nguyen Cu.

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These two photographs of a juvenile White-eared Night Heron Gorshacius magnificus are from a series taken by Dr. Nguyen Cu. The bird was apparently caught “swimming” by a fisherwoman in the Gam reservoir, which has been formed by the dam blocking the Nang and Gam Rivers in Na Hang Nature Reserve, on or about 5 May 2008. The photographs below were taken on 3 or 20 June 2008. These dates indicate that the bird must have been a nestling when taken and can’t have been in the water long before being recovered. The description as provided by the woman of how the bird was taken is not therefore necessarily accurate. We understand there is now much logging around the reservoir (as foreseen by BirdLife) and it must be a possibility that the tree containing the nest was felled and the nestlings fell into the water, from where this individual was recovered. We understand that it is now being cared for by the fisherwomen. What became of its siblings and the adults remains unknown. We certainly hope that this bird will continue to survive and hope to eventually publish photographs of it in adult plumage.

These photographs are important because there are few, if any published photographs of this Endangered species and we believe these are the first published photographs of a juvenile. This record is significant because it constitutes the first confirmed record from Na Hang Nature Reserve.

Ed.

Juvenile White‐eared Night Heron Gorshacius magnificus. Photo: Dr. Nguyen Cu.

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BirdLife International in Indochina

Traditional forest resource use by local communities, and the impacts of establishment of Chu Yang Sin National Park Established in 1998, the Chu Yang Sin National Park (CYSNP) is located in Krong Bong and Lak districts, 60 km southeast of Buon Ma Thuot town in Dak Lak Province, Vietnam. The effects of the establishment on local communities were unknown. My report includes an assessment of the traditional forest resource use of some selected local communities living adjacent to the Chu Yang Sin National Park (CYSNP), as well as an overview of what extent the existence of the Park has had an impact, negative or positive, on the daily lives of the same communities. The assessment was made after comparing data from interviews and focus group discussions with local people and authorities using participatory rapid appraisal tools.

The study revealed that the year of the park’s establishment, 1998, does not mark a change in the fortunes of local people. Rather, other milestones have had a more marked impact on the living conditions of the people, such as the upheavals during war time and the introduction of various government programmes. Indeed the existence of CYSNP appears to have had has no considerable negative impact on the livelihood conditions of the Ede and M’nong communities.

The Ede and M’nong communities and the CYSNP have a common interest in protecting the park; in addition, thanks to contracts on forest protection and production, local people get a valuable income from forest land.

Instead, the major threats to the park come from the continued immigration by H’mong peoples from northern Vietnam destroying the forest and increasing the competition for land, in particular good quality of land, the continued trade in wildlife and logs, by mainly Kinh people, and the unclear message given by continued development of the national park for hydropower generation and construction of roads. The current lack of good quality land experienced by most Ede and M’nong people is related to events, which began prior to the existence of the CYSNP. Most important was that land ownership was unclear to migrants, who viewed fallow land on a rotational cycle as unused.

In my view the World Bank policies on Indigenous Peoples and Involuntary Resettlement should not apply in relation to the H’mong migrants, since this ethnic group does not have a collective attachment or ancestral territories in the project area. It is recommended that this revised reading of the World Bank policy be applied in the project area. My study also recommends that the national park strive to develop further the common interest between CYSNP and the Ede and M’nong communities in forest protection, particularly through the creation of village level participatory working groups, help the Ede and M’nong communities to increase their area of productive land and set up a plan to stop the migration of H’mong ethnic groups.

Eva Lindskog, consultant sociologist

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Conservation ecology of the Bengal Florican in Cambodia The Critically Endangered Bengal Florican Houbaropsis bengalensis is the rarest bustard species in the world. Little is currently known about this unique species and research is urgently required to enable effective conservation measures to be implemented. In Cambodia, the Florican are found in the alluvial grasslands surrounding the Tonle Sap Lake. These grasslands are of great importance for biodiversity, supporting more than two thirds of the world’s remaining Bengal Florican as well as key populations of 11 other globally threatened bird species.

The Florican is under immediate threat of extinction, with 28% of its grassland habitat lost to intensive farming between January 2005 and March 2007. As a result, only 294 adult males may now remain in Cambodia (out of probably fewer than 500 left in the world). A third of the male display areas are now protected by new ‘Integrated Farming and Biodiversity Areas’ (IFBAs), which also support traditional farming and livelihoods of local communities.

Previous research by Tom Gray at the University of East Anglia, in collaboration with the Wildlife Conservation Society Cambodia and BirdLife International Cambodia Programmes has focused on male breeding season habitat requirements. A new 3‐year PhD research project being conducted by Charlotte Packman with the above organizations began last October. This study is now looking to find out where the Floricans move to in the non‐ breeding season and what their habitat requirements are there. Female nesting ecology and habitat selection is also being investigated. During March of this year, 11 individuals were caught in Kampong Thom Province, 8 were fitted with radio transmitters and 3 with satellite transmitters. Tracking of these birds will shed light on their movements away from the grassland breeding areas once the rainy season begins and the grasslands flood.

It is crucial that the non‐breeding season range is established so that these areas can be protected, helping to ensure the future of this species.

Charlotte Packman University of East Anglia

Lotty and her team experiment with a new type of net in the Baray grasslands. Photo: J C Eames

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Searching for the Critically Endangered White-eyed Rivermartin in Cambodia White‐eyed River Martin Pseudochelidon sirintarae is probably the most poorly known bird in mainland Asia. It was discovered in January 1968 in central Thailand. Even the precise location, birds were first collected remains unclear but seems likely to have been at, or near, Bung (Lake) Boraphet. Further birds were collected up to 1971, but after that the species effectively disappeared, despite searches in 1979, 1980, 1981, and 1988, with subsequent reported sightings only in 1978 and 1980, and a report of a bird trapped by locals in 1986. Bung Boraphet is artificial, and thus essentially nothing is known of the true natural habitat, range, or ecology of the species. Its closest relative, the African River‐martin Pseudochelidon eurystomina, nests colonially in sandbar burrows on large rivers in the Congo and feeds over forests and grasslands. The larger eyes and bill of White‐eyed River Martin suggest different ecology, perhaps including a crepuscular or nocturnal nature. It has also been suggested that it may nest in tree holes or caves. Virtually all that is known about this species is that it must be extremely rare and – given its rapid disappearance – likely under high threat of extinction. Hirundininae at Bung Boraphet are under severe pressure from bird trappers. An urgent need thus exists to find the breeding and (if the species is migratory, as has been supposed) non‐breeding grounds of the species, and implement conservation action. To date, few such searches have been attempted owing to the complete lack of knowledge (searches in northern Thailand in 1969 and northern Laos in 1996 were unsuccessful), but the longer searches are put off the less likely they are to be successful.

In an article entitled “investigating a possible sighting of White‐eyed River Martin Pseudochelidon sirintarae” Doug Judell claimed that Wayne McCallum saw a group of White‐eyed River Martins at Sre Ambel area in Koh Kong province, Cambodia in March 2004. Then in mid 2004 he and Wayne conducted a field trip to Wayne’s previous sighting but they both could not reach that place because they did not have enough time to make it on that day and Doug had other work to be completed. Therefore, Doug and Wayne decided to return home. In March 2006 Doug went to Sre Ambel again with an NGO worker who Wayne had suggested he contact and visited the exact place where Wayneʹs possible sighting occurred.. No White‐eyed River Martins were observed during Doug’s second trip. However, they interviewed a farmer on whose land the sighting had taken place. The farmer remembered Wayne and claimed to be familiar with the species that Wayne had seen, stating that he saw it every year in March and April just after he cut his one‐hectare reed bed. When Doug Judell asked him if he had ever noticed the white rump and he said he could almost never see it as they flew too fast when they were catching insects and when perched on poles in the stream the white rump was not visible. Following Doug’s report and relevant documentation on this species I developed a proposal and budget to Birdfair/RSPB to conduct a research for this species in the Sre Ambel area, an area with very little search effort to date, relatively large amounts of remaining forest habitat, and relatively low population density and disturbance (the Sre Ambel area is also notable for supporting one of the few remaining south‐east Asian populations of Mangrove Terrapin Batagur baska, a species very affected by human overexploitation).

Two separate visits were made to the Sre Ambel area in Koh Kong province, Cambodia. The first covering only two days (14‐16 March 2008) was undertaken simply so that Wayne McCallum could show me the exact place where he had previously had a possible sighting of the White‐eyed River Martin. The second trip (9‐11 April) was designed to coincide with the end of the dry season when water levels in all Cambodian rivers would be sufficiently low enough to expose any sand‐bars which might possibly provide suitable breeding habitat for the species. The searches were conducted along the rivers by speedboat, and the location of the possible sighting, accessed by motorbikes and on foot.

No White‐eyed River Martins were observed or any credible sightings reported during the search periods. The only bird species of conservation concern recorded during the searches was the globally Vulnerable Lesser Adjutant Leptoptilos javanicus and Pale‐capped Pigeon Columba punicea whilst credible reports of Sarus Crane Grus antigone sharpii were received from an informant at one site. The reports of swallow‐like birds received from local informants most likely refer to Brown‐backed Needletails Hirundopus giganteus which we observed as they had described.

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The exact spot where Wayne MacCallum believed he saw a White‐eyed River Martin. The water body appears stagnant and too narrow to support sand bars. Beyond the screen of trees lies agricultural land and scattered settlement. Photo: J C Eames The Prek Stung where Wayne MacCallum said he saw a single White‐eyed River Martin sitting on a post in the Pongrul River seems an unlikely place for a river martin because it is a narrow, slow moving river with no sand bars. It is located in degraded habitat and is disturbed by humans. One could reasonably expect White‐eyed River Martins to inhabit a larger river with sand bars and lower levels of degradation and disturbance. Although only Wayne MacCallum knows what he saw we do not believe White‐eyed River Martin occurs at this site. All the other rivers visited during these searches show a strong tidal influence. None had sandbars exposed in mid channel although we observed sandbars along the banks in places. Degraded mangrove and riverine forest exists along their banks in most places but away from the rivers there has been extensive recent clearance of forest. I would like to clarify that Wayne MacCallum told me during the search that he was a single bird of this species not a group as in Doug Judell’s earlier report. He observed this bird around 40 seconds sitting on the post in the river by using his small binoculars.

Seng Kim Hout Forestry Administration

We hope that this short search now clarifies the situation surrounding the occurrence of this species at this location. We believe that no further searches are warranted in this area. We believe that future searches in Cambodia would be better directed along the main channel of the Mekong or the Srepok, Sekong or Sesan Rivers which are very large rivers with numerous large exposed sand bars.

Ed.

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Publications Gap analysis of protected areas coverage in the ASEAN countries. BirdLife International and IUCN‐WCPA South‐East Asia (2007) BirdLife International, Cambridge, UK.7 Since the Fifth World Parks Congress in Durban, South Africa, in 2003, a number of analyses have been undertaken of the comprehensiveness of the world’s protected area network in protecting biodiversity, and gaps in coverage. These analyses have been made possible by not only advances in conservation planning science, but also the growing availability of digital data sets on the distribution of species and protected areas. Building on the work of BirdLife, Conservation International, and the Critical Ecosystems Partnership Fund to identify ‘Key Biodiversity Areas’ (KBAs) and ‘Important Bird Areas’ (IBAs) across the ASEAN region, this new publication from BirdLife aimed to provide a much more detailed and useful analysis by refocusing analyses from a global to regional level, and from using data on species’ overall distribution ranges to data on the actual sites that are most important for species of conservation concern (i.e., KBAs). The use of site‐scale data was also complemented by the use of large‐scale ecoregions developed by WWF. As protected areas in South‐East Asia are increasingly isolated and beleaguered conservation outposts in a sea of intensive agriculture and urbanization, this new analysis, and the opportunity to engage national governments in improving the coverage of their protected area systems, is extremely welcome.

The analytical techniques used for assessing comprehensiveness of protected area coverage of KBAs follow the latest best practice, even using methodology still in press at the time of the study1. However, they are simple enough, and for the most part well enough explained (although full details would have been welcome as an appendix, for those wishing to repeat the analysis elsewhere or in the future with new data), to be understood by decision makers in national governments who do not have science backgrounds. Unfortunately the second analysis, of coverage of ecoregions and biounits, pales in sophistication and utility, merely assessing the percentage protected area coverage of each ecoregion without taking into account the relative priority or size of different ecoregions. For example, most people in conservation in this region would argue that the Indochina mangroves ecoregion (ranked priority 1 in this study) is a lower priority for establishment of new protected areas than either the lowland or montane forests of Borneo (ranked priority 3 and 5, respectively), despite the latter having a greater percentage already under protection, because these latter ecoregions each contain a higher number of threatened species, and absolute number and percentage of endemic species.

Of course, such debates about exact methodologies can waste a lot of time that could be better spent on conservation on the ground. It is ultimately more important to review the conclusions and recommendations that are drawn from varying methods, and prioritize commonalities. This, sadly, is where this report wholly fails to deliver. Despite the stated aim of the study – and the essence of the various presented analyses – being to identify representation gaps, i.e. to pinpoint the highest priority gap sites that need to be included in protected area systems, the recommendations do not address such gaps at all. It is only by digging through a six‐page appendix that one can start to understand where gaps were found. With far more limited information, back in 1999, a much more lucid gap analysis was conducted for Vietnam, resulting in clear recommendations for future protected area establishment by habitat type, ecoregion, and elevation2. By not clearly pinpointing priority sites for future protected area establishment, this new study wastes the significantly increased resolution offered by new KBA data.

Instead, recommendations from this study are almost entirely the bland, generic, ineffectual recommendations that one reads in any policy document – ‘capacity building’, ‘increased cooperation’, ‘awareness raising’, and their

7

Although dated 2007, this publication appears to have only been released and publicized in May 2008.

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kin. To pick on Vietnam, although it is not alone in this region in having a protected areas system in crisis, are these really higher priorities than increasing government funding for protected area staff and management activities beyond subsistence levels, preventing an explosion of roads, mines and hydroelectric dams from being built within the protected area system, or establishing a stand‐alone protected areas authority with real power?

Tragically, it appears that this study does not deliver as promised largely because of a failure to employ the level of stakeholder participation for which the BirdLife International partnership is usually renowned. Not only were some key government agencies apparently not involved (notably the Forestry Administration of Cambodia which manages a significant proportion of the national protected land area), but only two of the eight national BirdLife partners, affiliates, and country programmes in the ASEAN region were involved in any way. The idea that protected area authorities would return to their countries and carry out gap analyses on their own is currently sadly unrealistic. Thus, without even involving its own internal partners and their knowledgeable colleagues on the ground, BirdLife has wasted this valuable opportunity to make the kind of specific recommendations on site protection or management changes, which may have stimulated real change.

John Pilgrim Conservation Advisor BirdLife International in Indochina

Langhammer, P. F., Bakarr, M. I., Bennun, L. A., Brooks, T. M., Clay, R. P., Darwall, W., De Silva, N., Edgar, G. J., Eken, G., Fishpool, L. D. C., Fonseca, G. A. B. d., Foster, M. N., Knox, D. H., Matiku, P., Radford, E. A., Rodrigues, A. S. L., Salaman, P., Sechrest, W. and Tordoff, A. W. (2007) Identification and Gap Analysis of Key Biodiversity Areas: Targets for Comprehensive Protected Area Systems. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland.

1

Wege, D. C., Long, A. J., Mai Ky Vinh, Vu Van Dung and Eames, J. C. (1999) Expanding the protected areas network in Vietnam for the 21st Century: An analysis of current system with recommendations for equitable expansion. BirdLife International Vietnam Programme, Hanoi.

2

Andrew W. Tordoff , Tim Appleton, Jonathan C. Eames, Karin Eberhardt, Htin Hla, Khin Ma Ma Thwin, Sao Myo Zaw, Saw Moses and Sein Myo Aung

Buchanan, G. M., Butchart, S. H. M., Dutson, G., Pilgrim, J. D., Steininger, M. K., Bishop, K. D. and Mayaux, P. (2008) Using remote sensing to inform conservation status assessment: Estimates of recent deforestation rates on New Britain and the impacts upon endemic birds. Biological Conservation 141: 56‐66.

Remote sensing is increasingly used by policy‐makers and conservationists to identify conservation priorities and changes in land cover. This is particularly important in the biodiverse tropics, where there are often few field data. Conservation action is often directed towards areas containing globally threatened species, but there have been few attempts to improve assessments of species’ extinction risk through remote sensing. Here, in a novel approach we use deforestation estimates, measured through satellite imagery, to assess the conservation status of an entire endemic avifauna, based on IUCN Red List criteria. The island of New Britain, east of New Guinea, is of very high global conservation importance, and home to 37 endemic or restricted‐range bird species. Analysis suggests 12% of forest cover was lost between 1989 and 2000, including over 20% of forest less than 100m altitude, with substantial areas cleared for commercial oil palm plantations. Application of the IUCN Red List criteria to these new data on area of remaining forest and rates of deforestation indicates that many species are more threatened than previously realized, with the total number of threatened or near threatened species increasing from 12 to 21. Thus, this study highlights the urgency of establishing and effectively managing protected areas in suitable lowland forests of New Britain. More broadly, it demonstrates another potential of remote sensing to assist strategic conservation decisions.

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Hoffmann, M., Kormos, C. F., Mittermeier, R. A., Martin, V. G. and Pilgrim, J. D. (2007) The Role for Wilderness in Biodiversity Conservation. International Journal of Wilderness Special Issue (May): 38‐40.

This study evaluates the value of wilderness for biodiversity conservation. It concludes that wilderness provides essential ecosystem services for all of humanity, but that wilderness preservation cannot serve as a surrogate for biodiversity conservation, because it does not correlated with the pattern of distribution of biodiversity, threat, and human influence. The study clarifies that if our aim, as conservationists, is the persistence of global biodiversity, our sights must remain firmly targeted on those regions characterized by high threat and high biodiversity value, like Indochina. To do otherwise would result in the irreversible loss of large swathes of global biodiversity. Such a strategy, however, should be complemented by proactive interventions in wilderness regions that are also important for biodiversity conservation, given that these regions will meet both biodiversity and wilderness objectives. Finally, within such regions, any land protected will not suffice. Rather, it is necessary to adhere to a systematic conservation‐planning framework to determine which sites will together respond to threatening processes and minimize biodiversity loss.

Reviews A Guide to the Mammals of China Edited by Andrew T Smith and Yan Xie 2008 576 pages, 83 colour illus., 572 maps.

Princeton University Press ISBN‐13: 9780691099842 Chinaʹs stunning diversity of natural habitats ‐ from parched deserts to lush tropical forests is home to more than 10 percent of the worldʹs mammal species. ʺA Guide to the Mammals of Chinaʺ is the most comprehensive guide to all 556 species of mammals found in China.

An up‐to‐date distribution map accompanies each species account, and colour plates illustrate a majority of species. Written by a team of leading specialists, including Professor Wang Sung who provides a history of Chinese mammalogy, ʺA Guide to the Mammals of Chinaʺ is the ideal reference for researchers and a delight for anyone interested in Chinaʹs rich mammal fauna. High‐quality colour plates accompany the detailed text. This title is organized taxonomically for easy reference and includes an extensive bibliography.

NHBS

The Birds of the Bangkok Area Philip Round and Dana Gardner 2008 226 pages, illus, colour plates. White Lotus, Bangkok ISBN‐13: 9789744801098 Birds of the Bangkok Area is the most thorough account ever published of the avifauna of Thailandʹs Lower Central Plain (Lower Chao Phraya Delta).

Comprehensively listing all birds found, 237 species are treated in full biological detail, and illustrated.

This book highlights the Bangkok areaʹs surviving freshwater and coastal habitats, Thailandʹs most important and extensive wetlands, of continued international conservation significance despite their proximity to a mega‐city.

Drawing widely on historical and contemporary sources, the book describes how changing land use has affected the bird fauna, identifies shortcomings in national conservation policy, and outlines conservation needs. The text is augmented by 48 colour plates, a detailed map and gazetteer of all localities mentioned in the text, and a list of key bird watching sites.

NHBS The Babbler June 2008 – 45 –

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Cycads of Vietnam Roy Osborn, Ken D Hill, Hiep T Nguyen and Loc Phan Ke 2007 116 pages, illus, colour photos, tabs, maps. ISBN‐13: 9780646464459 Only fairly recently has Vietnam become recognised as a country of enormous biological diversity. This is true not only in its fauna but also in its flora. New discoveries have revealed an abundance of cycads ‐ fascinating plants now known to occupy a key position in plant evolution.

Vietnamʹs cycads, many of which have been named only in the last 10‐15 years, occupy a variety of specialized habitats. Some are obligate beach‐dwellers, some live only in the northern mountains, some occur on small offshore islands, while some grow in tiny crevices on near‐vertical limestone cliffs. Many are found in areas of spectacular natural beauty. Vietnamʹs cycads are as diverse in their morphology as they are in their habitats. Some have a tree‐like form reaching 12 m in height while others are bonsai‐like dwarfs. Some have strange swollen ʺelephantʹs footʺ trunks. Some have pinnate leaves reaching 4.5 m in length while others have multiple leaf bifurcations.

In ʺCycads of Vietnamʺ, each of the 27 species is described in detail with line drawings, maps and numerous photographs illustrating points of interest. This book is commended to cycad hobbyists, nurserymen, researchers, students, conservation officials and those with a general interest in plant evolution and matters botanical.

NHBS

Eco‐authoritarian conservation and ethnic conflict in Burma. Noam, Z., ʺEco‐authoritarian conservation and ethnic conflict in Burmaʺ, Policy Matters: Conservation and Human Rights, 15: 2007 “This paper explores ethical and practical challenges faced by international conservation organizations working in Burma with the Burmese military regime (State Peace and Development Council, or SPDC) within the context of political and military conflict. The paper discusses why and how the Burmese junta attempts to exploit large‐ scale conservation projects by international NGOs not for the aims of conservation, but for purposes of state building and militarization. It also describes how international conservationists are required to comply with the dictatorship’s strict measures on engagement, ending up in “conservation‐military alliances”. With the aid of international conservation organizations, the military state gains control of politically disputed indigenous territory and the natural resources contained therein. The Hukawng Valley Tiger Reserve supported by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) is a case in A spot of eco‐authoritarian conservation point. Meanwhile, grassroots environmentalism is taking hold in and conflict planning between Vietnam ethnic areas, although largely unnoticed by secular donors, and Myanmar in Natmataung National conservationists and researchers. I argue that “eco‐authoritarianism” Park. Photo: J C Eames is not the answer for successful biodiversity conservation. Ethically and socially based solutions such as “selective environmental engagement” should rather be employed to protect Burma’s environment and the people that rely upon it for their livelihoods. These solutions present a more appropriate, nuanced and just way for international conservationists to engage with Burma.”

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I welcome any dialogue on the topic of how to promote successful biodiversity conservation in Myanmar. I take issue with the central premise, however and have noted a number of inaccuracies, which I feel undermine the author's case and reveal his political affiliations.

The central pillar of Noam's argument is that INGOs, in advocating for protected area establishment, help advance the Myanmar government's agenda which includes (according to him) securing control of land and natural resources belonging to ethnic minorities. Clearly it's the role of any army to secure the territory and borders of the state. Conservationists are not naive. For me he fails to argue his case convincingly because his evidence is scant and relates to only a couple of case studies, most notably the Hukawng Valley, where WCS take much of the brunt of his criticism.

The paper could have been strengthened had he put it in a regional context at least. For example, the constraints placed on INGOS in Myanmar are not significantly different from those in other countries in Asia such as Vietnam.

He also fails to point-out that whilst the government's record on sustainable management of its natural resources is poor, in areas controlled by "cease-fire groups" (insurgent militias by a more politically correct name) the situation is often much worse. I base this on my own observations of how the Kachin Independence Army manages its forests (basically letting the Chinese logging companies have a free hand).

The forests of north-eastern Kachin State have now been devastated as a result.

The depth of his research (and his own bias) is also revealed by his failure to mention the good work of the BirdLife/BANCA/Care/UNDP Local Conservation Group around Natmataung National Park. Here we have operated "at will" with local ethnic people with the encouragement and support of all levels of government. This is a shame because he advocates the kind of approach we have taken at this site.

There is little mention of BirdLife but he does cite our Myanmar; Investment Opportunities for Biodiversity report we published jointly with CEPF and UNDP in 2005. He criticizes BirdLife for "having consulted, with few, if any Burmese working on environment issues based inside Burma." On the title page of this report we list the authors (including 2 Burmese) and the 63 contributors of which 30 are Burmese. The author also points out BirdLife did not consult with Burmese environmentalists based outside the country.

No we did not. However, I believe our consultations inside Myanmar were wide ranging, all inclusive, basically we invited everyone we knew of who works in the environment sector including INGOS, local NGOs, government agencies and the diplomatic and donor community. Attendance from all sectors was good I am pleased to say. In addition we had launch workshops in Yangon and Bangkok.

Later he claims that BirdLife is "pushing" the NBSAP process in Myanmar. He flatters us because I would love to have this chance! I attended the NBSAP launch workshop and I recall there being around 200-300 people present, amongst which included many Burmese colleagues from local civil society. U Uga (BANCA Chairman) has been working as a consultant and facilitator on this project and made a presentation at this meeting on behalf of the Smithsonian Institution. So again his reporting is inaccurate at best. Finally, I note on the running header that this paper was prepared for or with the support of IUCN.

Ed. Wild birds and avian influenza: An introduction to applied field research and disease sampling techniques. FAO Animal Production and Health Manual No. 5 The highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 strain has spread from domestic poultry to a large number of species of free‐ranging wild birds, including non‐ migratory birds and migratory birds that can travel thousands of kilometres each year. The regular contact and interaction between poultry and wild birds has increased the urgency of understanding wild bird diseases and the transmission mechanisms that exist between the poultry and wild bird sectors, with a particular emphasis on avian influenza. Monitoring techniques, surveillance, habitat use and migration patterns are all important aspects of wildlife and disease ecology that need to be better understood to gain insights into disease transmission between these sectors. This manual contains chapters on the basic ecology of avian influenza and wild birds, capture and marking techniques (ringing, colour marking and satellite telemetry), disease sampling procedures, and field survey and monitoring procedures.

Available in PDF format at; http://www.fao.org/docrep/010/a1521e/a1521e00.htm The Babbler June 2008 – 47 –

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Handbook of the Birds of the World. Volume 12: Picathartes to Tits and Chickadees. 2007 del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A. and Christie, D. A. (eds). Barcelona. Lynx Edicions. ISBN 84‐96553‐42‐2.

If you already have the eleven volumes that precede this 816‐page tome, you may be wondering where you will fit the other five volumes that will complete the set. Imagine, however, if you had to accommodate a staggering 2,640 volumes on your bookshelves! This is the number that would be needed if HBW was to have covered all the birds that had ever existed on the planet (in similar detail), estimated to have been 1,634,000 since the first recognized genus, Archaeopteryx, first appeared some 150 million years ago. This is something I gleaned from the informative and incredibly interesting Foreword to HBW12, an essay on Fossil Birds by K.J. Caley. The chapter traces the evolution of birds from dinosaurs, and provides an insight into the on‐going controversy over what really was the first ʺrealʺ bird. The essay provides an overview of what we know about the various families of birds from the fossil record. Clearly, there is a huge amount we donʹt know, but what we do makes great reading, and the Foreword is packed with interesting facts.

For example, the planetʹs avifauna was once dominated by what are known as the ʺopposite birdsʺ, a sister group to a lineage of modern birds that diversified to occupy all the niches that modern birds occupy today. Hence the Enantiornithes and other toothed birds dominated the planet throughout the later Cretaceous (97‐65 million years ago), but then died out, whilst the ancestors of modern birds radiated and become dominant between 65 and 56 million years ago. Recent fossil and molecular studies suggest that the oldest ʺmodernʺ birds are the ratites (flightless birds), with rheas the oldest and the now extinct moas of New Zealand the next offshoot, though this is by no means settled and it may be that the kiwis and moas are in fact older. Whilst the fossil record is very incomplete, especially for smaller species and the passerines (which all have similar skeletons), the study of those fossils we have provides a fantastic insight into the birds that once inhabited our planet. Imagine, for example, encountering Aepyornis maximus in the forests of Madagascar, a bird some 3 m high, and weighed up to 450 kg (the Ostrich weighs a mere 100‐130 kg). Or imagine sea watching off the coast of California some 23 million years ago and glimpsing a passing Osteodontornis, a pelagic pelican‐like bird with a wingspan of 5.5‐6 metres! Even bigger, however, were the vulture‐like ʺteratornsʺ that inhabited Argentina 5‐10 million years ago, with wingspans of up to 6.8 metres, the largest known flying birds to have ever lived.

The Foreword of HBW12 is full of facts about such creatures, and very well worth reading. And whilst one comes away with the feeling that so many incredible birds are already extinct, our planet still harbours a fantastic array of extant birds, as the remainder of this book will show. A significant number of todayʹs birds, nevertheless, face the prospect of extinction driven by human activities, rather than evolutionary change, and we should not let this slip from our minds.

HBW12 covers a diverse group of bird families, but the great majority of the birds documented in this volume are to be found in Asia, Australasia and the Pacific, or in Africa. The only New World birds included are eleven species of tit (Paridae), and the Wrentit Chaemaea fasciata of the western USA, which has recently been shown to be a babbler. Indeed, a large proportion of the book is devoted to the babblers (Timaliidae), with 309 species of 872 taxa in 84 genera covered in 222 pages. The other families treated by HBW12 are all much smaller, these being the Picathartidae (Picathartes), Paradoxornithidae (Parrotbills), Pomatostomidae (Australasian Babblers), Orthonychidae (Logrunners), Eupetidae (Jewel‐babblers and allies), Pachycephalidae (Whistlers), Petroicidae (Australasian Robins), Maluridae (Fairywrens), Dasyornithidae (Bristlebirds), Acanthizidae (Thornbills), Epthianuridae (Australian Chats), Neosittidae (Sittellas), Climacteridae (Australasian Treecreepers), and the Paridae (Tits and Chickadees). The last of these families, the Paridae, have representative all across the Holarctic, unlike the other families treated.

The recent spate of phylogenetic studies has transformed our understanding of the affinities of many passerines.

When I took up birding, no one would probably have disputed that Sylvia warblers of Eurasia and Africa were warblers, but now, some 35 years later, they are babblers (though not included in HBW12). Such studies are

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changing the face of avian taxonomy so rapidly, and often so radically, that I personally find it hard to keep up with all the changes. Most of the books on birds that I possess are taxonomically out of date and here HBW becomes a useful reference for cross‐checking, for example, on whether there are one or two species of miniature babbler (Micromacronus) in the Philippines (two, in fact), or on the most recent thinking on the log runners Orthonyx of the Australasian region (also two species now). For this reason, I have restricted this review to an overview of some of the taxonomic changes that I spotted. It goes without saying that other aspects of the book, such as the depth of coverage, the introductory family chapters and the quality of the photos are all outstanding, as with previous volumes of HBW.

Crossleyʹs Babbler or Madagascar Groundhunter Mystacornis crossleyi. Babbler, vanga or something completely different? Photo: J C Eames

Whilst predominantly an Asian family, the babblers presently include a great diversity of African taxa, such as Illadopsis, Dapple‐throat Areanator orostruthus, Spot‐throat Modulatriz stictigula, Grey‐chested Kakamega Kakamega poliothorax, the two rockjumpers Chaetops spp., and Madagascar Groundhunter Mystacornis crossleyi (ʺCrossleyʹs Babblerʺ), the Bush Blackcap Lioptilus nigricapillus of southern Africa, Juniper Babbler (or Abyssinian Catbird) Parophasma galinieri, and Principe Flycatcher‐babbler Horizorhinus dohrni. It should be emphasized, however, that there are still a number of species included within the treatment adopted by HBW which may not actually be babblers: the Timaliidae has, it seems, long been considered as a ʺtaxonomic dustbinʺ, into which species of uncertain affinities have been thrown.

Hence some of the species included in this volume are almost certainly not babblers, and are likely to move elsewhere as taxonomic studies proceed.

The Pteruthius shrike‐babblers and White‐bellied Erpornis are two such Asian examples. Such studies have already shown us, for example, that the Rail Babbler Eupetes macrocerus of South‐east Asia is not, after all, a babbler, and it is now a member of the Eupetidae, or Jewel‐Babblers, as are the strange Blue‐capped Ifrit (Ifriti kowaldi) and the two species of Melampitta of the New Guinea highlands, and the four Psophodes spp.; two Wedgebills and two (Australian) whipbirds. The Australasian babblers are also no longer treated as members of the Timaliidae, but are in their own family, the Pomatostomidae.

Looking at various field guides on my bookshelves, I find that the taxonomy and species limits of the babblers has changed very dramatically. This is largely thanks to the careful work of Nigel Collar and Craig Robson, the authors of this important chapter of HBW12. Collar (2006) provides much of the science that has led to the many changes in babbler taxonomy found within HBW12, but to see all the changes, there is no alternative single reference than HBW. Hence, for birders keen on Asia, this really is a volume of HBW not to miss. Going through the text on babblers I found many unfamiliar names and species. Some examples; White‐headed Babbler is now two species, the northern White‐hooded Babbler (Gampsorhynchus rufulus) and southern Collared Babbler (G. torquatus); Black‐crowned Fulvetta Pseudominla klossi (previously Alcippe) of south Vietnam is separated from Rufous‐winged Fulvetta (P. castaneiceps); several new wren babblers are now recognized from the north‐eastern India region, so that we now have Naga Wren‐babbler Spelaeornis chocolatinus, Pale‐throated Wren‐babbler S. kinneari, Grey‐bellied Wren‐babbler S. reptatus, Chin Hills Wren‐babbler S. oatesi, Rusty‐throated Wren‐babbler S. badeigularis, and Rufous‐throated Wren‐babbler S. caudatus. The wonderfully named Wedge‐billed Wren‐babbler is now two species, Black‐breasted Babbler Sphenocichla humei and Chevron‐breasted Babbler S. roberti; the secretive Raborʹs Wren‐babbler of the Philippines is split into two species, in a new genus aptly named after Craig Robson; Rusty‐headed Babbler Robsonius rabori and Grey‐banded Babbler R. sorsogonensis. Jabouilleia is now included in Rimator, and there are now four species in this genus of long‐billed wren‐babblers; one distributed from NE India to Yunnan (Long‐billed Wren‐babbler Rimator malacoptilus), one endemic to northern Vietnam (White‐throated Wren‐babbler R. pasquieri), another endemic to Sumatra (R. albostiratus), and finally, Indochinese

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Wren‐babbler (previously known as Short‐tailed Scimitar‐babbler) R. danjoui, which includes the recently described Jaboueilleia naungmengesnis from northern Myanmar (Rappole et al. 2005) as a subspecies.

Amongst the laughingthrushes, which were previously mostly in the genus Garrulax, there are many taxonomic changes, in particular in the number of genera, which has increased to 11, most of which are unfamiliar. Another unfamiliar babbler I came across was the Chinese Bush‐dweller Rhopophilus pekinensis, which under a previous, more familiar name, Chinese Hill Warbler, was once thought to be more closely related to the cisticolas. Finally, on babblers, it was pleasing to see that the most recently discovered babbler, the marvelous Bugun Liocichla Liocichla bugunorum (Athreya 2006) made it into this volume of HBW. The majority of the birds in this volume, apart from the babblers and tits, are from the Australasian region. Some of the species in this region represent the some of the most complex examples of geographical variation in the avian world, and for these, species limits is by no means clear. The Golden Whistler Pachycephala pectoralis, distributed from Java to the Solomons, to Australia and even the remote Norfolk Island, has 59 recognized races, of which 19 are illustrated in HBW (Plate 33). Studies have already shown that some of the taxa originally placed with this species are in fact good species in their own right, such as the mangrove‐inhabiting Black‐tailed Whistler P. melanura.

The final family treated in HBW12 is that of the tits (Paridae). A study published in 2005 (Gill et al. 2005), showed that the tits comprise of many more genera than Parus, the genus in which most had previously been placed.

Hence in HBW we find some unfamiliar tit genera, such as Baeolophus in North America, Poecile, and Cyanistes.

Parus is now a predominantly African genus. One overdue change adopted by HBW is the recognition of the ʺblueʺ tits in the Canary Islands as a good species, Canary Blue Tit Cyanistes teneriffe.

Frank Lambert www.worldtwitch.com

References Athreya, R. 2006. A new species of Liocichla (Aves: Timaliidae) from Eaglenest Wildlife Sanctuary, Arunachal Pradesh, India. Indian Birds 2: 82‐94.

Collar, N.J. 2006. A partial revision of the Asian babblers (Timaliidae). Forktail 22: 85‐112.

Gill, F.B., Slikas, B and Sheldon, F.H. 2005. Phylogeny of titmice (Paridae): II. Species relationships based on sequences of the mitocondrial cytochrome‐b gene. Auk 122: 121‐143.

Rappole, J.H., Renner, S.C., Nay Myo Shwe and Sweet, P.R. 2005. A new species of scimitar‐babbler (Timaliidae: Jabouilleia) from the sub‐Himalayan region of Myanmar. Auk 122: 1064‐1069.

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Sach Do Viet Nam 2007 Anon. Hanoi. Nha Xuat Ban Khoa Hoc Tu Nhien Va Cong Nghe On 26 June 2008 the Vietnamese Academy of Science and Technology in collaboration with IUCN launched the latest edition of Vietnam’s Red Data Books and Red List. Vietnam became a state member of the IUCN in 1993, and as a member of this organization, the Government of Vietnam is obligated to have “as one of its central purposes the achievement of IUCN’s mission” and, as such, has a responsibility to adopt the IUCN Red List and prepare the Red Lists at a national level.

The first series of Vietnam’s Red Data Books was prepared in 1992, which dealt with animals and a second volume on plants appeared in 1996.

Because listing of threatened species was still in its infancy, these early Vietnamese assessments were modeled on the India Red Data Book. In the 2000‐2004 period, the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment (MoSTE, which has now become the Ministry of Science and Technology) commissioned the Vietnamese Academy of Science and Technology to compile new Red Data Books that more closely followed IUCNs 1994 guidelines. Although the current volumes were finished two years ago they are only now being published. They therefore could have followed the more rigorous and standardized global system applicable at national levels which were developed more recently. This was a missed opportunity.

In total, the three volumes of the new red data books list 94 mammal species, 76 bird species, 40 reptile species, 14 amphibian species, 89 fish species, 105 invertebrate species, 442 vascular plant species, 13 algae species and 7 fungi species. In comparison with the first version, number of the threatened species is increased from 721 species to 880 species. Throughout the country, populations of both terrestrial and aquatic wild species have decreased.

The population sizes of many species are assessed as being in the low hundreds with reduction rates of 20‐50% annually. The list includes many species which are not considered globally threatened but rather Least Concern

by IUCN including Sambar Cervus unicolor and Black‐billed Magpie Pica pica.

Nguyen Duc Tu BirdLife International Vietnam Programme

I am not aware of any consultation process that was conducted with the participation of international conservation NGOs in Vietnam for the preparation of these volumes. Had we been invited we could have ensured this as a much better publication. After all, I don’t think it would be immodest of BirdLife to claim some expertise in the area of writing and publishing bird red data books. A member of BirdLife staff does appear as a contributor but his institution is given as his previous state employer he left many years ago.

Perhaps there was a process by which species were identified for inclusion but it is not clear to me what this involved? Certainly in the earlier edition, bird species seem to have been included on the basis of having colorful plumage. Thankfully this does not appear to have been a criterion this time around, so we have lost several colorful kingfishers and broadbills, although I noted a marvelous illustration of a Banded Broadbill under the heading for Fairy Pitta.

The quality of the publication is once more abysmal: It is badly edited, includes inaccurate and unsubstantiated information on a range of species, many of which are clearly not threatened nationally, let alone globally. Some species are included although there is no evidence that they have ever occurred in Vietnam, such as the Asian tapir (see From the archives below). The line drawings are generally very poor and the colour separation is bad. In addition, I found numerous photographs and illustrations reproduced, including those belonging to BirdLife and myself, for which permission to reproduce them had not been requested. There are many other illustrations and photographs that are incorrectly credited. Overall, a slight improvement on the first edition but it could have been so, so much better.

Ed.

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Staff news During this second quarter of 2008 our driver in Cambodia Sok Phally left us after four years of service and was replaced by Nop Thy. There have been several personnel changes in our ADB BCI project, most notably the appointment of Dr. Swen Renner as Sub‐regional Monitoring Expert, who replaces John Pilgrim who will take on another appointment within the programme in due course. Ou Chouly leaves us to begin a Phd and Supreeda Tangprasertsri, or 'Note' will leave us shortly. We wish all departing staff every success with their future endeavors and welcome the newcomers.

Charlotte Packman Charlotte is currently working on her PhD research in the Environmental Sciences Department of the University of East Anglia, UK. Previously Charlotte completed her BSc in Ecology at Durham University, followed by a Master’s degree at the University of East Anglia in Applied Ecology and Conservation. Her Master’s thesis ‘Restored Islands: refuges for avian exotics?’ was carried out on a small islet off of the coast of Mauritius. Charlotte has also led a three‐month coral reef survey expedition to the Philippines and been involved in turtle monitoring in Costa Rica and bird ringing, white‐ clawed crayfish research and otter survey work in the UK.

Lotty is not strictly speaking a member of staff but the research project on which he works forms part of collaboration between BirdLife and the University of East Anglia, and we are supporting her research costs.

Ed.

Swen Renner Dr. Swen Renner joined the BirdLife team in June taking over John Pilgrim’s management of the Asia Development Bank’s Biodiversity Conservation Corridors Initiative project. Prior to this Swen worked on bird biogeography in northern Kachin State, Myanmar, which has resulted in the description of several new taxa. He also was involved in the Global Taxonomy Initiative, a cross‐cutting theme of the Convention on Biological Diversity, to promote taxonomic work for conservation worldwide.

Swen has had a passion for conservation and birds since his childhood, which he has expressed as a birdwatcher and by leading conservation youth groups to raise awareness of conservation issues. He likes to watch birds in forests and especially in nature reserves in the tropics, but also in the Wadden Sea. Swen was educated in ecology and conservation as well as biodiversity research at the Museum Koenig in Bonn, the University of Stuttgart‐Hohenheim and the University of Göttingen in Germany. Swen is Research Associate at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in Washington, D.C., and in addition to his new role at BirdLife will continue to pursue his biogeographic research in and around Kachin State.

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From the archives The historical status of the Asian Tapir Tapirus indicus in Indochina, outside of Myanmar and Thailand remains ambiguous1 but on balance seems unlikely to have ever occurred. In his 1939 book Mes Chasses au Laos Guy Cheminaud includes a chapter on the tapir. Whilst admitting that he did not actually see a tapir, he claims to have seen signs on two occasions in Laos. He also gives basic details of a male tapir shot by a professional Laotian hunters on the right bank of the Mekong in the environs of “Bassac” during 1902. In his book Cheminaud includes two illustrations by Ernest Schratz; the first shows a tapir strung‐up and flayed in a village, whilst the second illustrates a tapir sitting down. Whilst the first illustration could have been drawn from the imagination, the sitting tapir was clearly drawn by someone familiar with the species, as my accompanying photograph of a captive tapir sitting in the same manner at Twycross Zoo Leicestershire, UK shows. Such a drawing is of course no proof whatsoever for the existence of tapirs in Laos and the pictures are not relevant for evaluating Cheminaud’s records, as the artist may have quite simply drawn a captive animal from life in a French zoo or copied a photograph. Also, I have not been able to trace any evidence that Ernest Schratz ever visited Laos. Together these illustrations are not proof of the existence of the species in Laos. It is though, an example of how unsubstantiated records can enter and cloud the literature. There is also an account of the Asian Tapir in the latest edition of the Vietnam red data book published in 2007, and reviewed in this issue of The Babbler, even though there is no specimen record from Vietnam.

Ed.

Duckworth, J. W. and Hedges, S. 1998 Tracking Tigers: A review of the status of Tiger, Asian Elephant, Gaur and Banteng in Vietnam, Lao, Cambodia and Yunnan (China), with recommendations for future conservation action. Hanoi.

WWF Indochina Programme.

1

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