Bird conservation should not be the concern of forest officials, environmentalists and ornithological societies alone. It should draw the attention and participation of the common man.
A
workshop on ‘Bird Monitoring in Kerala — a citizen science initiative’,
held at the Centre for Wildlife Studies of Kerala Agricultural
University’s College of Forestry recently, called for prioritising bird
conservation outside the protected area network, which included
sanctuaries, national parks and reserved forests.
Experts
who spoke at the workshop said people should take an active interest in
bird monitoring, public advocacy and protecting birds of concern.
The
workshop planned activities such as survey of heronries, the breeding
places of water birds and pelagic birds to understand the birds of the
oceans and the open sea.
The heronry survey will be
carried out during monsoon when heronries are active. The pelagic bird
survey will be the first of its kind in the country. It will be carried
out every alternate month in the nine coastal regions of Kerala.
“A Common Bird Monitoring programme (CBMP), conducted as part of this initiative, recorded 61,222 birds of 280 species.
In all, 319 birdwatchers participated in it and submitted 1,122 checklists.
This
is the first time that such a comprehensive and State-wide exercise has
been carried out,” said P.O. Nameer, coordinator of the workshop.
An additional CBMP, involving students and the general public, is likely to be conducted between September 11 and 14.
A
few nature-lovers have been involved in a bird monitoring programme
conducted since January 2014 with the support of the Social Forestry
wing of the Forest Department. The primary objective of the initiative
has been documentation of bird diversity outside reserved forests and
protected areas. The activities included Common Bird Monitoring, Wetland
Bird Monitoring, and Pelagic or Oceanic Bird Monitoring.
0 comments:
Post a Comment