Guest guest Posted December 30, 2002 Report Share Posted December 30, 2002 ***************************Advertisement*************************** eCentral - Your Entertainment Guide http://www.star-ecentral.com ***************************************************************** This message was forwarded to you by yitzeling. Comment from sender: This article is from thestar.com.my URL: http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2002/12/24/features/liwaterbird & \ sec=features ________________________ Tuesday, December 24, 2002 On the trail of waterbirds By TAN CHENG LI COME mid-January, Hymeir Kamarudin will be heading to the Timah Tasoh Dam and rice fields in Perlis for a spot of birdwatching. This time, however, his mission will not merely be to expand his list of bird sightings. He aims to do his share for conservation. He will be among 1,000 birdwatchers participating in the annual Asian Waterbird Census (AWC) which always takes place in the second and third weeks of January. The event will see birdwatchers in 22 countries stretching from Pakistan to Japan, South-East Asia and Australasia stationed at their chosen wetland sites to record the species and population of waterbirds found there. “I do it not just because I enjoy bird-watching but because I am contributing to a bigger project,” says Hymeir, who will be doing his third waterbird census next year. The AWC is led by conservation group Wetlands International and was first conducted in 1987. It is part of the International Waterbird Census, a monitoring programme that is conducted in Europe, Africa, as well as North and South America. The AWC is a unique effort as it relies on volunteers for the task at hand. Since funds are hard to come by in conservation work and there are countless sites to survey, it certainly is logical to rope in birdwatchers to the cause. The reason behind the census is obvious. It tells us the species found in each site and country, and their numbers. From here, the global population of waterbirds can be extrapolated and changing trends can be noted. Waterbirds are associated with natural or manmade wetland areas such as lakes, rivers, swamps, marshes, estuaries, mudflats, seas, and even oxidation ponds. Some 150 species of waterbirds are found in peninsular Malaysia. Some are residents while some are migrants which breed in temperate regions as far north as the Arctic and Mongolia and come here only in winter. Information obtained through the AWC also helps identify Important Bird Areas (IBA) which should be protected, according to AWC co-ordinator David Li. (The IBA are places critical for the conservation of birds and for the long-term viability of naturally-occurring bird populations.) “And by encouraging volunteers to go out and observe waterbirds, the census raises interest in waterbirds and wetlands, thereby promoting their conservation,” says Li. Ideally, the census should be carried out globally on the same day to avoid double-counting. For instance, one plover may be feeding along the coast of Perak one day and in Selangor the day after.. However, that kind of timing is near impossible; thus Wetlands International is contented with sightings made on any day during the two-week period from Jan 11 to 26. Surveys can be in open seas, bays, straits, estuaries, tidal mudflats, salt pans, brackish or saline lakes, lagoons, rivers, streams, canals, freshwater marshes and lakes, ponds, reservoirs, barrages, mining pools, fish and shrimp ponds, mangrove, nipah forest, rice fields and artificial ash ponds & #8211; simply put, just about any wetlands, either natural or manmade. In Malaysia, completed survey forms are collated and analysed by the Malaysian Nature Society (MNS), which is the country co-ordinator. Li describes this year & #8217;s AWC as very successful as count records came from 283 sites in 14 countries. Malaysia contributed data on 25 wetland sites, thanks to 39 enthusiastic volunteers. They tallied almost 19,000 waterbirds from 72 species. Fifty-five percent of the numbers were shorebirds followed by herons and egrets (24%), gulls and terns (18%) and the remaining 3% were darters, grebes, storks, geese, ducks, rails and gallinules. For the dedicated birdwatchers, hours spent under the scorching sun with eyes glued to binoculars and telescopes were not wasted. They returned with plenty of important field notes. They discovered the first breeding colony of little egrets in the country at the Malim Nawar mining pools in Perak and the largest congregation of lesser adjutant storks in a single area at Parit Jawa in Johor. High numbers of Oriental darters were seen at the Kinabatangan region in Sabah, raising hopes for this species which is believed to be extinct in the peninsula. An unusually large congregation of brown-headed gulls, migrants from China and the Himalayas, were also noted along the coastlines of Matang in Perak. The sighting of many migratory species as well as five globally threatened waterbirds & #8211; the Nordmann & #8217;s greenshank, spoon-billed sandpiper, Chinese egret, Storm & #8217;s stork and lesser adjutant & #8211; confirms the country & #8217;s wetlands as waterbird havens. “Malaysia is an important country for waterbird conservation in the region as its landscape covers various types of wetland habitat, ranging from nutrient-rich mudflats to man-made tin-mining pools,” says Yeap Chin Aik, the AWC co-ordinator for Malaysia. “These habitats play a crucial role in providing a safe refuge for waterbirds to breed, roost and refuel.” Furthermore, he adds, Malaysia is on the migratory flight path of many shorebird species. These birds breed in the temperate regions but fly southwards to the tropics in autumn and winter. Dwindling wetlands Despite their crucial ecological function, however, much of the country & #8217;s wetlands are threatened by human activities such as land reclaimation, agriculture and aquaculture. “Many waterbird species depend exclusively on wetlands for survival. Destruction of these habitats will spell doom for waterbirds,” warns Yeap, a scientific officer of the MNS. That scenario is highly plausible. Already, four species of waterbirds are considered locally extinct: the Oriental darter, black-headed ibis and white-winged wood duck in the peninsula and the white-shouldered ibis in Sarawak. Birdlife International has placed six waterbird species under the “threatened” category for Malaysia: Storm & #8217;s stork, lesser adjutant stork, milky stork, Nordmann & #8217;s greenshank, Chinese egret and spoon-billed sandpiper. (The first three are resident species and the others are migrants which come here only when it is winter in temperate countries.) These species are threatened throughout their range as their habitats are lost to development. Take, for instance, the rare Storm & #8217;s stork. Twenty years ago, birdwatcher Dr Chan Ah Lak spotted several pairs at the mining pools in Kamunting, Perak. The pools are gone today and in their place is the Bukit Jana Golf Course. Such losses lend weight to efforts such as the AWC. Information culled from surveys will be useful in waterbird and wetland conservation initiatives. This is because it is not just the waterbirds that are monitored. Since waterbirds are indicators of the health of their habitats, the census also tracks the status and conditions of wetlands. “Volunteers don & #8217;t just count birds. They have to fill a second survey form requiring information on the habitat, such as the vegetation, whether the area is protected or not, the surrounding development, possible pollution sources and threats,” says Li, who is waterbird conservation officer at Wetlands International (Asia regional office). Yeap says birdwatchers are encouraged to visit the same sites every year so that long-term data is collected and comparisons can be made. “For instance, we now know that lesser adjutant storks number no more than 250, mainly concentrated in Johor.” Volunteers who faithfully surveyed sites year after year have contributed crucial knowledge. “Since the census was started in the late 1980s, we & #8217;ve come to know of a lot of hotspots for migratory waterbirds and sites which host endangered species,” says Yeap. For example, the Bako-Buntal Bay in Sarawak was selected as an Important Bird Area after AWC surveys showed that the area hosts over 3,000 migratory waterbirds each day, especially shorebirds, egrets and terns. Such information helps decision-makers identify sites for designation as “wetlands of international importance” under the Ramsar Convention, a global treaty on wetlands conservation. To qualify as a Ramsar site, an area must host over 20,000 waterbirds, or over 1% of the global population of a waterbird species or host endangered species. Statistics obtained through the AWC are used in the Waterbird Population Estimate, a report which Wetlands International has produced every three years since 1994 for the secretariat of the Ramsar Convention. The report estimates the numbers and population trends of 840 species of waterbirds worldwide. Lack of coverage But much remains unknown for many species. The number of survey sites is still small and concentrated on the peninsular west coast because that & #8217;s where the majority of birdwatchers are, particularly in Perak and Selangor. “There are no survey sites in Kelantan, Terengganu and Pahang because there are no volunteers in these states,” laments Yeap. The situation is worse in East Malaysia where only two sites in Sabah and four in Sarawak are assessed. With natural wetlands stretching almost four million ha & #8211; or 10% of the country & #8217;s total land area & #8211; plus other man-made wetlands, there is much to cover. Although priority is given to the country & #8217;s 70 Important Bird Areas, volunteers are free to choose any site and, inevitably, they are usually the accessible ones. As a result, only a handful of the Important Bird Areas are studied. “If more people join the waterbird survey and we cover more sites, we will get a more accurate picture,” asserts Yeap. To expand the survey coverage, he hopes to rope in the Department of Wildlife and National Parks in the AWC. In fact, when the AWC was started in 1987, the effort was conducted by the Asian Wetlands Bureau (now renamed Wetlands International) together with the department. The MNS took over as country co-ordinator only in 1999. Amateur birdwatchers should not refrain from joining the AWC. “People think they must reach a certain level of expertise in bird-watching to participate in the AWC but that & #8217;s not true. We don & #8217;t expect you to know all the species but as long as you can identify some species with certainty, you can join the survey. You have to start somewhere and pick up the skills as you go along,” Yeap says encouragingly. “Each individual & #8217;s effort may be small but collectively, it will add to a bigger picture.” Hymeir agrees. “The areas I & #8217;m looking at are not very rich in waterbirds when compared to others such as the mining ponds of Perak but my observations show that migratory birds stop in Perlis and Kedah before they go to the southern parts of the country or even to Sumatra. It fills a gap in information.” The Asian Waterbird Census needs all the help it can get. To participate, contact Yeap Chin Aik at the Malaysian Nature Society (03-22879422 / <a href= " natsoc " >natsoc</a> ). To learn more about the census, go to <a href= " http://www.wetlands.org/iwc/awc/awcmain.html " target= " _blank " >www.wetlands.org/iwc/awc/awcmain.html</a> . <p> ________________________ Your one-stop information portal: The Star Online http://thestar.com.my http://biz.thestar.com.my http://classifieds.thestar.com.my http://cards.thestar.com.my http://search.thestar.com.my http://star-motoring.com http://star-space.com http://star-jobs.com http://star-ecentral.com http://star-techcentral.com 1995-2002 Star Publications (Malaysia) Bhd. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of Star Publications is prohibited. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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