4th IAF Bulletin April 2005
| Posted
on Oct 11, 2005 |
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IAF News Bulletin April 2005 RON HARTLEY, ZIMBABWE “It is with a very heavy heart that I must inform you that Ron Hartley died, tragically, in his home in Franschoek, in the Western Cape on Tuesday, 5th April. Ron was a colossus in Southern African falconry and one of my oldest and dearest friends. We shall miss him greatly. I wonder if you would be so good as to notify other IAF members, as many knew him either personally or by repute. Condolences can be sent to his widow at hartleydm@telkomsa.net.
Adrian Lombard.”
“It with great sorrow that I learned of the tragic passing away of Ron Hartley on 5th April 2005. Ron Hartley moved to South Africa last year and had recently taken a full time position in there with The Peregrine Fund. Ron was the main representative of IAF from Zimbabwe and indeed all of southern Africa. At his school in Zimbabwe he introduced hundreds of boys to falconry at an appropriately named school, Falcon College. Ron was one of the finest examples of the falconer/raptor conservationist ever to come from our ranks. His friendship and sound advice will be greatly missed. Ron was one of God's own true gentlemen. A great loss to the international falconry community. I would like to extend the condolences of the falconry community to Ron's family, colleagues and friends.
Patrick Morel
Dr. Givi Chovogadze, IAF Delegate for Georgia sadly died last week.
Givi had been a founder member of Saqartvelos Bazierta Asotsiatsia, the
Georgian Falconer’s Association and was President for the last thirty
years. He promoted, popularized and revived the centuries old Georgian
falconry tradition and brought Georgia into IAF.
CIC GENERAL ASSEMBLY 2005
For the General Assembly the IAF’s team was completed by Frank Bond and Robert Kenward who was attending on behalf of the IUCN Specialist Group. Robert was guest speaker in the Opening Session of the GA on 12th on the subject of “Sustainable Use”. Also contributing to the symposium were Col. Kent Carnie of The Falconry Archives and Dr. Nick Fox.
In the meeting of CIC’s Falconry and Birds of Prey Conservation Commission (FC) on 13th , the outgoing Chairman, Peter Sapara, gave his last report and Patrick Morel, Dr. Igor Tavcar and Prof. Dr. Monika Reiterer (a German Historian specializing in Hunting and Falconry History) were elected as vice-presidents of the Commission. Jose-Manuel spoke about a future action plan of CIC’s Falconry Commission involving: · A continuation of the support of the tree nesting peregrines and possible cooperation with the Polish neighbouring project. · A survey on the current status of falconers/hunters relationships using the IAF/CIC networks for the purpose. · Support to programs concerning falconry prey species (houbara, partridges and North American grouse species). · Development and support of a UNESCO project aiming the proclamation of falconry as a Masterpiece of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
Several meetings were held during our stay on how to further proceed with the UNESCO project among the concerned parties: UAE as submitting country, IAF, CIC, The Falconry Archives and Falconry Heritage Trust. The work will be continued in the coming weeks first to clarify with UNESCO how to better match their requirements under the criteria set in their program for the proclamations. Quite likely this will begin with a Memo of Understanding among all concerned parties to be produced and hopefully signed very soon.
Dieter Schramm was re elected as CIC’s President and our colleague Majid Al Mansouri was elected as one of the CIC’s vice-presidents. In the same closing session on the16th IAF’s own Jose-Manuel Rodriguez Villa was elected as President of the Falconry Commission.
CIC and IAF
EUROPEAN ACTION PLAN FOR THE SAKER Christian de Coune, representing IAF, and János Tóth, representing the Hungarian Falconers Club attended a two day Workshop for the Conservation of the Saker in its European Range, held in Csakvar (Hungary) 11-13 February 2005 with the cooperation of the Hungarian Government and with funds from the Slovak Government, BirdLife and its Hungarian partner. Note: the Bern Convention had entrusted to BirdLife International the working out of an action plan for the conservation of the European population of the Saker Falcon. In all 34 specialists from 11 different countries attended the event.
IAF’s aim was to avoid undue criticisms against falconry and to obtain some sort of a statement about sustainable use of raptors for falconry. The results were very positive. The Chairman of the Workshop, Szabolcs Nagy, in his opening declaration expressed the wish of a cooperation between conservation and falconers
The workshop analysed the current situation of the Saker in its European range, recorded possible threats and causes of decline and conservation measures were considered. A draft action plan will be compiled and distributed to the participants for possible corrections, it will then be submitted to the governments of the countries party to the Bern Convention and ultimately adopted by the Standing Committee of the Bern Convention in November or December.
A more comprehensive report of this workshop can be seen in the IAF Newsletter to be sent out shortly, but in summary the figure of 478-598 breeding pairs was recorded from questionnaires sent to the European countries in the breeding range. The threats recorded were (in decreasing importance): habitat loss, reduced prey base, illegal trade, disturbance, electrocution and shooting. János Tóth objected to the statement that Arabs pay high prices for eyasses and complained about the very negative impact of press articles quoting irrealistic prices paid for falcons, which encourages irresponsible people to take young from nests believing that they will sell them. János obtained assurances that a statement will be added about “misinformation on high prices of falconry birds”. Both Christian and János insist on the negligible impact of falconry on the decline of the saker; the chairman says that the discussion will be opened on that topic and that he wanted no unreliable data introduced into the Action Plan.
Hybrids were also discussed in the Csakvar Workshop. Nick Williams said that in the UK no breeding case of hybrids in the wild has been proven ; he pointed out that falconers make every possible effort to avoid losing their birds. Christian stated that hybrids do not constitute a conservation problem, merely a philosophic or aesthetic one. The probability of loss is low, and the survival rate in the wild must be low too so the probability of escapees mating with wild birds is even more unlikely ; natural hybridisation exists in the wild, for instance between Aquila clanga and A.pomarina and still the latter species has a favourable conservation status in Europe. Slovakia says that there is one proven case of a hybrid breeding with a Saker, it produced one young in four years. V. Galushin said that hybrids reduce the demand for wild birds. There was not sufficient time during this workshop to go deeper into the topic of hybrids so it was decided to set up a working group and prepare a strategic document within 2 years after the adoption of this Action Plan. It was agreed that the IAF would be involved in the said working group. Christian proposed a statement be included saying that properly regulated falconry should pose no threat to the conservation of the species ; it was accepted. He also proposed a statement about sustainable harvest, it was not rejected.
IAF’s participation in BirdLife’s Workshop on the European Saker was a good opportunity for introducing the IAF, showing its involvement in conservation and offering explanations on falconry when the need arose. BirdLife deserves our sincere thanks for their openmindedness.
UNESCO
IAF 2005 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
IAF 2006 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
Gary Timbrell |