| The monthly e-Bulletin supplements SPECIES, SSC’s published newsletter, and aims to keep staff, members and the wider IUCN network up-to-date with news and announcements from the Species Survival Commission. Previous issues are available to download in the archives.
In this issue:
News
BIG HOPES FOR ENDANGERED ASIAN ELEPHANTS
SAVING THE PRIDE OF AFRICA: AFRICAN GOVERNMENTS PULL TOGETHER TO CONSERVE THEIR LIONS
Profiles
THE TURTLE SURVIVAL ALLIANCE
LARGE PREDATOR RESEARCH PROGRAMME FOR THE SHASHE LIMPOPO REGION – SSC CAT SPECIALIST GROUP PROJECT OF THE MONTH
Announcements and Meetings
KEITH ELTRINGHAM
JOHN BEHLER
SPECIES PROGRAMME STAFF ADDITIONS
NEW SSC PALM SPECIALIST GROUP WEBSITE
Publications
THE GROWING INFLUENCE OF THE IUCN RED LIST
BIG HOPES FOR ENDANGERED ASIAN ELEPHANTS
The first ever meeting of all 13 Asian elephant range states addressed the serious threats facing the continent’s largest mammal. Once a symbol of a unique and sacred relationship between nature and man, the Asian elephant is now threatened with extinction. Just over 5% of the species’ habitat remains today, and its population has declined over the past half century to an estimated 30,000–50,000 animals in the wild. To address the main threats to the survival of the Asian elephant, the 13 countries which still have wild populations came together for the first time in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 24–26 January 2006. The meeting, convened by the Government of Malaysia, was facilitated by IUCN through SSC. Full story: www.iucn.org/en/news/archive/2006/01/27_pr_asian_elephant.htm
SAVING THE PRIDE OF AFRICA: AFRICAN GOVERNMENTS PULL TOGETHER TO CONSERVE THEIR LIONS
A new strategy to save the ‘King of the Beasts’ – the African Lion – in Eastern and Southern Africa was agreed at the conclusion of a workshop convened by IUCN and the Wildlife Conservation Society in Johannesburg, South Africa. The meeting concluded that the reduction in the lion’s wild prey base, human-lion conflicts and habitat degradation are the major reasons for declining lion populations and need to be addressed. Full story: www.iucn.org/en/news/archive/2006/01/13_pr_lion.htm
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THE TURTLE SURVIVAL ALLIANCE
Freshwater turtles are heavily exploited for food, and in some cases medicine, particularly in Southeast Asia and China, where harvesting levels are unsustainably high and include protected and trade regulated species. Many species are now threatened with extinction because of this. In the face of this rapid decline, SSC’s Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Specialist Group helped create the Turtle Survival Alliance (TSA) in 2001. This SSC Task Force aims to build a network of linked captive management and breeding programmes known as Assurance Colonies. It has forged new and unique partnerships with zoos and aquariums, universities, private breeders and serious hobbyists to help it achieve this task. The TSA is the latest group to be featured in SSC’s ‘Taking Action’ profiles: www.iucn.org/themes/ssc/sgprofiles/tsasg.htm
LARGE PREDATOR RESEARCH PROGRAMME FOR THE SHASHE LIMPOPO REGION – SSC CAT SPECIALIST GROUP PROJECT OF THE MONTH
The Shashe Limpopo Predator Research Group (S-LPRG) was formed in recognition that that the populations of six predator species (lion, leopard, cheetah, wild dog, spotted hyaena and brown hyaena) occurs across the borders of the three countries that share the Shashe Limpopo river confluence (Botswana, South Africa and Zimbabwe) and that is a need for cross-border collaboration. S-LPRG, the latest project to be featured on the SSC Cat Specialist Group website (www.catsg.org) is collecting and collating data on the status, distribution, movement patterns and hotspots of human-predator conflict.
| Announcements and Meetings |
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KEITH ELTRINGHAM
Keith Eltringham, who died on 19 January was for many years Chair of the SSC Hippo Specialist Group. He had more than 30 years’ involvement in the SSC, and most of his former graduate students are now SSC members. He had a distinguished career with the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust and the Institute for Tropical Ecology in Uganda from the late 1950s to the early 1970s, and then spent over 30 years as a lecturer in wildlife ecology at the University of Cambridge. He was much loved as a teacher and advisor, and his influence now extends worldwide through his former students. He is survived by his wife Sue, and his two daughters, to whom SSC extends its sincere sympathies.
JOHN BEHLER
John L. Behler, former Chair of the SSC Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Specialist Group, passed away at the end of January. His passing is a great loss to turtle conservation, to his many friends and colleagues, and to his wife and family. John worked as Curator of Herpetology for the Bronx Zoo at the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society and was a member of several SSC Specialist Groups for many years. Among his notable achievements was helping to call global attention to the Asian turtle crisis, as well as promoting turtle conservation efforts in Madagascar and the US.
SPECIES PROGRAMME STAFF ADDITIONS
Michael Hoffmann , a South African national, has joined the Species Programme at the Biodiversity Assessment Unit in Washington DC. Prior to joining IUCN, Mike spent three years based in the Center for Applied Biodiversity Science at Conservation International, where he used information on global species distributions and IUCN Red List status to help inform CI’s global conservation priorities.
Julie Griffin is the new Species Programme intern based at IUCN headquarters. Julie has a degree in environmental science and policy from Duke University (US) and two years’ experience with Project WILD, leading wilderness initiatives and training. She is bilingual - English and French, and has a good knowledge of Italian, Spanish and Portuguese.
Vineet Katariya has joined the Species Programme working in the Cambridge, UK office. She has a dual role, working both on Species Information Service (SIS) technical support and using her extensive GIS skills to help SIS organise all the spatial data generated from (and needed for) species assessments.
NEW SSC PALM SPECIALIST GROUP WEBSITE
The SSC Palm Specialist Group has a new website which provides a wealth of information designed to boost the conservation and sustainable use of palms, which occur in a wide range of ecosystems and habitats. Palms are often keystone species upon which entire ecosystems depend. Take a look at: www.fairchildgarden.org/psg/index.html
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THE GROWING INFLUENCE OF THE IUCN RED LIST
Two articles published recently in peer-reviewed journals cite the importance of the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species for conservation. The first, published in Trends in Ecology and Evolution ( Vol. 21 No.2 February 2006) highlights how the Red List, in conjunction with the comprehensive data compiled to support it, has become an increasingly powerful tool for conservation planning, management, monitoring and decision making. T he second paper, An Evaluation of Threatened Species Categorization Systems Used on the American Continent published in Conservation Biology, ( Vol. 20, No. 1, 14–27) evaluated 25 systems from 20 countries and concludes that “the current World Conservation Union system is the most suitable for assessing species extinction risk".
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If you would like more information on any of the items included in this issue or wish to submit an item to future issues, please contact Andrew McMullin (mcmullina iucn.org
h); tel: +41 (0)22 999 0153. |
