INTENSIVE
FAUNA SURVEYING OF CENTRAL SYRIAN DESERT (2000-04)
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During period 2000-04, biologist
Gianluca Serra served a UN-FAO Italy-funded conservation project in the central
Syrian desert, aimed at assisting the Syrian Ministry of Agriculture and
Agrarian Reform (MAAR) in initiating biodiversity conservation in the country
through development of the first operational protected area (al talila protected
area), steppe habitat rehabilitation and raising the ecological awareness
locally. The project FAO/DGCS Italian Cooperation project (GCP/SYR/009/ITA), based in the millenary oasis of
Palmyra, has been in operation between 1996 and 2004. Duty of Dr Serra was to
detect and document the key naturalistic and biodiversity values of the central
Syrian desert – through carrying out a long-term fauna and reconnaissance
survey – in order to develop the al talila protected area in terms of
management and ecotourism potential.
While in-service training a team of MAAR
staff, local hunters and indigenous nomads (Bedouins), a number of new and
interesting fauna species were detected and discovered, like for instance:
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1 new species
of beetle (Coleoptera, Aphodidae) (Della Casa, in prepar.)
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1 new
butterfly record Papilio demoleus (Beniamini et al. 2007)
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1 new snake
record (Black Cobra Walterinnesia aegyptia: Sindaco et al. 2006)
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9 globally
threatened bird species and 21 potential new bird records for Syria (Serra et
al. 2005 a & b)
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2 new mammal
records (Serra et al. 2007).
The surveying efforts culminated in the
discovery in April 2002 of a surviving relict colony of Northern Bald Ibis (NBI) Geronticus eremita
(Serra 2003), quoted by BirdLife International
as “arguably the most significant orthithological discovery in the last 30
years anywhere in the Middle East” (Bowden et al., 2002). This extensive
desert survey also paved the road to
another ornithological discovery of international relevance, taken place in
eastern Syria in February 2007 Murdoch and Serra 2006): the long-sought
staging grounds of the Critically Endangered Sociable Lapwing (Vanellus gregarius),
finally found by a Dutch-Syrian team leaded by Remco Hofland (see related BirdLife International news).
CAPACITY
BUILDING OF LOCAL COMMUNITY (2000-04)
While enthusiastically leading the above
mentioned long-term fauna survey, day by day, Serra was able to build the
naturalistic & conservation capacity of some selected local people (MAAR
staff, hunters and indigenous pastoralists). By “infecting” them with the germ
of the passion for nature, the ecological awareness and naturalistic
appreciation of these people has flourished and raised significantly: slowly
they started to realize that they were becoming the first Syrian trained and
certified conservationists and eco-guides - and that also the responsibility on
their shoulders was growing…
A publication titled
“From Indifference to Awareness” (Serra et
al. 2003 b) was published by the UN-FAO with the aim of describing the
raising of the ecological awareness among the local community through the
implementation of the project. A total of 7-10 indigenous and local people were
involved in the conservation field work, with the aim of in-service train them
as birdwatching and eco-guides and conservationists, and also to teach them the
English language. Gradually, they have become highly motivated and skilled in
bird field identification and fluent in English. One of them, among the most
authoritative hunters of Palmyra, was converted into a passionate birdwatching
guide and a fervent anti-hunting campaigner nationally. This work experience
with local community was defined “an example of good practice in conservation”
by the Dana Declaration
Standing Committee and the World Alliance of Mobile Indigenous Peoples
(WAMIP).
Despite the MAAR/FAO/DGCS project
termination in spring 2004, Serra personally and voluntarily kept the
commitment of trying to help the local people in setting up a small-scale
birdwatching and eco-tourism cooperative in Palmyra, through raising funds,
creating specific web pages (see: http://www.andrewsi.freeserve.co.uk/birding-in-syria.htm,
http://www.guidedbirding.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/Profiles/syria.htm), and also by directly and continuously
putting them in contact with foreign eco-tourists and birdwatchers. The dream
of the eco-guiding cooperative did not work out (due to internal conflicts),
but since 2005 2 of these people, Ahmed Khaled Abdallah (from the beni
khaled tribe), and Adeeb Assaed (the ex Palmyra hunter) have finally
started to earn a living out of guiding eco-tourists and birdwatchers in the
desert. While Mahmdud Scheisch Abdallah and Ghazy al Qaim have become the first
Syrian trained and certified protected area rangers of MAAR: they are now
veterans of the yearly implementation of the ibis protection program.
These pioneers from Palmyra are most
probably the first people in Syria making a living out from nature
conservation: they have shown, and they are showing every day to all the other
desert dwellers, that not only hunting wildlife is profitable but also
protecting and appreciating it can be profitable as well (a quite innovative
idea locally!): the main difference being that the first practice is
unsustainable in the short and medium term (wildlife in the Syrian desert has
been already extensively extirpated) while the second practice is sustainable
and helps the desert ecosystem being alive in the benefit of future
generations. The fact is that the livelihood of most of the people living in
the Syrian desert is still predominantly based on the natural resources and
ecological services (e.g. the pastures for the livestock, shrubs for firewood,
water for irrigation and drinking etc.).
N. BALD IBIS CONSERVATION SAGA
(2002-08)
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The successful decoding of the
traditional naturalistic knowledge of the Bedouin nomads, crucial to discover
the NBI relict colony of Palmyra (Serra et al. 2003), triggered an
interesting international debate about the need to include this type of
knowledge in the scientific naturalistic surveying and research (Blair
2005). In particular, it was the “confession” by a Palmyra hunter
about the killing of an ibis in the late 1990s which draw the attention of
Serra on the chance that the ornithological literature might have been wrong
in listing the NBI as extinct from Syria since long time ago. The sketch to
the left, drawn by a young nomad shepherd in March 2002, triggered a systematic
and relentless search across the Palmyra desert, yielding the relict colony
one month later. |
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NBI can be regarded
as an keystone species of the Syrian al badia, not only culturally
but also ecologically. In the past this bird species certainly used to
play an important ecological role within the Syrian steppe land: being a
relentless insectivore, it was probably key in controlling the insect
populations of the steppe, and in so doing maintaining the ecological health
and productivity of the pastures on which the nomads rely on for their
livelihoods. Interestingly, MAAR recognized the beneficial role of the ibises
for agriculture in decree n. 28 issued in 1967.
The last NBI
survivors of Palmyra are a flagship (and a stark symbol) of the dramatic
and still on-going desertification of the Syrian steppe ecosystem which
affects in first place the indigenous mobile people, whose livelihoods completely
rely on its natural resources– the same resources also key for the survival
of ibises: cultural and biodiversity heritage of the Syrian desert are both
critically endangered due to a complex cocktail of problems ultimately
reflected in the current over-grazing of pastures, uncontrolled and extensive
uprooting of shrubs as firewood and uncontrolled (& illegal) hunting. The ibis protection
program, in operation in the Palmyra desert since the year of the discovery
(2002), have involved the traditional indigenous people (i.e. Bedouins
pastoralists from amur tribe) and Palmyra hunters (Bowden et al. 2002,
Serra et al. 2003 b), receiving international acknowledgements
at the 2004 Bangkok IUCN World Conservation Congress. The awareness on the
global/national importance of these birds has been steadily raising in the
country since 2002. A 400-Km² Ibis Protected Area (IPA) was
established by MAAR in spring 2004 (Serra 2002). The
inauguration by H.E. Mrs Asma al-Assad, the Syrian First Lady, of a
photo-exhibition in Damascus in October 2006 (“Syrian
al Badia: a cultural and natural heritage under threat”, see
invitation cards below) clearly indicated that the issue has became of national
relevance in the country. |
photo by J. Crisalli |
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The primary problem to the survival of
this invaluable NBI colony is that adults are still decreasing steadily (from
7 in 2002 to 4 returned in early 2006) while fledged young, migrating to their
unknown wintering grounds in July, seemed to not reappear the following years
at the Syrian breeding grounds. An ibis protection program against
hunting and disturbance has been implemented successfully during period 2002-2004
(MAAR/FAO/DGCS) and 2006-07 (MAAR/BirdLife/RSPB) (Serra and Peske
2006 b).
Differently from the Moroccan ibises,
which are living in resident colonies, the Syrian ibis survivors are migratory:
a behavior that makes them (genetically) unique globally, but also very
vulnerable from a conservation point of view. The protection program appeared
to be not sufficient: the fact is that the creature should be protected also in
the rest of its unknown range. The only way to discover the rest of the
distribution range of this species was to trap and tag with a satellite transmitter
one or more birds.
Following a determined advocacy campaign
in Syria during the winter 2005-06, which even prompted the direct interest
and support from H.E. the Syrian First Lady, as already mentioned, a field
mission was implemented in 2006 which succeeded in trapping and tagging three
adult ibises: the migratory route and the wintering grounds of the NBI colony
was therefore unveiled during July-August 2006, and followed on-line by bird
enthusiasts from all over the world (thanks to a web page prepared by RSPB): the ibises flew
southward over 3000 Km to reach a remote site on the Ethiopian highlands, at an
altitude of about 2700 m asl, where they spent almost 6 months.
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map by J. Lindsell |
A preliminary survey (RSPB, National
Geographic, Ethiopian Wildlife and Natural History Society), conducted in the
Ethiopian wintering grounds in November 2006 (Serra et al. 2007), found
only the four adults in place, evidencing that 1st year young and
sub-adults winter separately in a still unknown site. Another 2 expeditions
were carried out in November 2008 and January 2009 (in the framework of an
IUCN/DGCS NBI project, Serra et al. in prepar.). These 3 field visits
showed that the adult NBIs entirely rely on pastureland and that no immediate
threat is present at the wintering site.
Sightings of NBIs on the Ethiopian
highlands were not uncommon in the past: some of these records are as early as
from the nineteenth century (Welch and Welch 2004). Interestingly, the two most
recent records of NBIs in the region (Eritrea in 1994, and Ethiopia highlands
in 1977) are from sites where the tagged birds have passed by during the past
winter. The 3 tagged ibises returned to their Syrian breeding grounds in
February 2007, using a partly different route. One of the four adults (the
untagged one) was lost during the return migration, evidencing that there are
threats in place along the migration route.
Recently released NBI International Action Plan (Jimenez Armesto et al. 2006), and
the NBI National Action Plan for Syria that will be hopefully soon prepared,
must be implemented as a matter of urgency before it is too late. From the
survey done in Ethiopia wintering grounds, it appears clear that if we want to
save the eastern population, in the years to come we have to focus on the
breeding grounds in Syria and on the migratory route along Arabia peninsula.
Known threats at breeding grounds in Syria are reduced BUT still present.
Moreover, socio-economic issues should not be neglected: in fact, the indigenous local community living at
the NBI breeding grounds in Syria live on a subsistence economy and their
livelihoods depend on the unsustainable over-exploitation of natural resources
due to a complex array of reasons independent from their will.
IPA and its indigenous local community
(mainly from amur tribe) hold a good potential for promoting the
revitalization of the traditional customary pasture management system known as hema system.
Once (and if/when) secured the survival of this globally valuable and unique
piece of Middle Eastern biodiversity, responsible ecotourism in the Palmyra
area could become a mean to promote sustainable development and raise much
needed ecological awareness locally. Potential for ecotourism in the Palmyra
desert has been recently assessed, through an initiative by BirdLife
International, and a feasibility study has been produced (Serra 2007).
photo by M.S. Abdallah
Due to the successful protection efforts
of past years (2002-04; 2006-07), the natural recruitment of the colony,
not recorded in years 2002-04 (Serra 2005) revitalized starting from 2004:
since then a total of 8 sub-adults have returned to the colony (2004-07),
partially compensating the loss of adults in past years (Serra and Peske, 2006
b, Serra et al. 2009). A semi-captive population of about 20 pairs of NBIs,
most likely belonging to the same genetic stock of Syrian relict colony, are
kept by Doga Dernegi (BirdLife partner in Turkey) in the village of Birecik
(Southern Anatolia), not far from the Syrian border.
Despite a number of technical and
conservation concerns still unresolved (IAGNBI 2004), there is growing
consensus among the IUCN’s International Advisory Group on Northern Bald Ibis (IAGNBI)
that the Syrian colony could be soon supplemented and reinforced with
Turkish individuals, mainly with the aim of reducing in-breeding risks: a
feasibility study is in preparation (Fritz et al,, In prep.). This
project stands now at an exciting turning point: it could be the last
chapter of the long-term decline of NBIs in the Middle East OR the beginning
of a spectacular (almost miraculous)
recovery plan.
Restoring a viable population of NBI in
Arabia and Eastern Africa, starting from the last surviving wild birds of
Palmyra, could turn to become a world-class conservation achievement. Similarly
ambitious conservation projects have been attempted on mainland only in the USA
so far (e.g. restocking of California Condor and Sandhill Crane).
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photo by
M.S. Abdallah |
photo by M.S. Abdallah |
Following protection successes of 2006
and 2007, a significant setback occurred in 2008, when the ibis colony failed
the breeding (similarly to 2005) under a BirdLife/RSPB assistance project – 4
chicks died suddenly disappearing from their nests due to unclear reasons most
probably linked to the reduced protection levels compared to previous years.
The planned trapping and satellite tagging of young birds also failed.
At the same time an IUCN pilot
initiative - funded by DGCS (and partly by the Nederlands and Finnish embassies
in Damascus), aimed at developing the IPA, started in autumn 2008. A
socio-economic and anthropological survey was carried out in December 2008 and two
expeditions at ibis wintering grounds in Ethiopia have been
implemented during November 2008 – January 2009. Searches for adult ibises on
the Ethiopia highlands and for young on Djibouti coast were also carried out in
the framework of the IUCN project, with no detections.
Meanwhile, in spring 2008, a new
institution has taken over the responsibility of ibis protection and IPA
management: the Desert Commission, headed by Eng. Mr. Ali Hamoud. A new
era of fruitful cooperation with this news institution is expected with key
support from IUCN and BirdLife.
by G. Serra (January 2009)
photos by G. Serra (except differently
indicated)
MEDIA COVERAGE
(2002-07)
1.
Press
releases:
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BBC World. 2002. “Endangered bird
delights conservationists’
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The Guardian. 2002. “Lost colony
revives hopes for rare ibis’
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The Daily Telegraph. 2002. “Colony of rare bald ibis
found”
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Royal Wings. 2002. “Fly away home”
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Syria Times. 2004. “Palmyra’s rare ibises on the verge of
extinction”
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Corriere della Sera. 2005. “Ibis, un volo verso il mistero”
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BBC World, 2006. “Rare Middle East bald ibis tagged”
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BBC World. 2006. “Winter home
find cheers twitchers”
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Science. 2006. “Eye on the ibis”
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The Guardian. 2006. “Ibis sighted in Ethiopia for first
time since 1970s”
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Science Daily. 2006.
“Tagging success boosts hopes for Arabian Phoenix”
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La Repubblica – Firenze.
2006 “Una vita per l’ibis eremita”
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Syria Today. 2007.
“The Punks of Palmyra”
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BirdLife
International. 2007. “Come home to Palmyra”
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National Geographic magazine – Expeditions, In
preparation. NG Grantee: Ibis Rising
3. National Geographic web site. 2007.
“Extinct Ibis found in Middle East”. 5-min on-line video.
"If today is a typical day on planet Earth, we will lose 116
square miles of rainforest, or about an acre a second. We will lose another 72
square miles to encroaching deserts, as a result of human mismanagement and
overpopulation. We will lose 40 to 100 species, and no one knows whether the
number is 40 or 100. Today the human population will increase by 250,000. And
today we will add 2,700 tons of chlorofluorocarbons to the atmosphere and 15
million tons of carbon. Tonight the Earth will be a little hotter, its waters
more acidic, and the fabric of life more threadbare."
...... David Orr (1991)
REFERENCES
Blair
M. 2005. Editorial. Sandgrouse 27(1): 2.
Aharoni, J. 1928.
Der Waldrapp – Comatibus eremita (L.). Der Ornithologische Beobachter,
26, 58–60.
Aharoni, J. 1929.
Zur brutbiologie von Comatibus comata Bp. (Geronticus
eremita L.). Beitrage zur
Fortpflanzungsbiologie der
Vogel, 5: 17–19.
Benyamini, D., Serra, G. and
Bruschini, C. 2007. Papilio demoleus in Palmyra, Syria. A new migrant to the Middle East. Bulletin
of the Is. Lepidopterists Society, 24(2): in print.
Bowden,
C.G.R., Aghnaj, A., Smith, K.W. & Ribi, M. 2003. The status and recent breeding performance of
the last known wild population of northern bald ibis Geronticus eremita, on the Atlantic coast of Morocco. Ibis 145: 419-431
Fritz J., Boehm C., Pfistermuller R.,
Kotrschal K. In prep. Supplementation scenarios for Northern Bald Ibis colony of Palmyra.
IAGNBI 2004.
Statement for conservation priorities for the Northern Bald Ibis. IUCN’s International Advisory Group for
Northern Bald Ibis (IAGNBI) Newsletter n. 3, 2004: 5-6.
Jimenez Armesto, M.J., Boehm, C. &
Bowden, C. (Compilers). 2006. International Single Species Action Plan for the
Conservation of the Northern Bald Ibis Geronticus eremita. AEWA
Technical Series No. 10. Bonn, Germany.
Lindsell J., Serra G., Abdallah M.S., al
Qaim G. and L. Peske. In print. Satellite Tracking Reveals the Migration
Route and Wintering Area of the Middle Eastern Population of Northern Bald
Ibis. Oryx 196 (2).
Safriel, U.N.
1980. Notes on the extinct
population of the northern bald ibis Geronticus eremita in the Syrian
desert. Ibis, 122: 82–88.
Serra G. 2002. Proposal for an action plan to protect
wildlife of Palmyrean desertic steppe. FAO report project GCP/SYR/009/ITA
prepared upon request of Syrian Ministry of Environment, available at FAO
Representation in Damascus Syria.
Serra G. 2005.
Time running out for Syrian ibises. World Birdwatch (BirdLife International
magazine), 27(4): 9.
Serra G., Abdallah
M., Abdallah A., Al Qaim G., Fayed T., Assaed A., Williamson D. 2003 a. Discovery of a
relict breeding colony of Northern Bald Ibis Geronticus eremita in
Syria: still in time to save the eastern population ? Oryx, 38 (1): 1-7.
Serra G., Abdallah M., Assaed A., Al Qaim G.,
Abdallah A. 2005 a. A long-term bird survey of central Syrian
desert (2000-2003) – Part 1. Sandgrouse, 27(1): 9-23.
Serra G., Al Qaim G., Abdallah M., Kanani A., Assaed A.K. 2005 b. A long-term bird
survey of central Syrian desert (2000-2003) – Part 2. Sandgrouse, 27(2): 104-125.
Serra G. and L. Peske. 2006
a. Coordinating protection efforts of breeding N. Bald Ibises Geronticus
eremita in Palmyra (Syria) and trapping / satellite tagging 3 individuals. Internal
Report. BirdLife International / Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.
Serra G. and L. Peske. 2006 b. Northern Bald Ibis conservations efforts in Syria 2002-06: results and
lessons learned. Proceedings of a workshop organized by
International Advisory Group on Northern Bald Ibis (IAGNBI), held in Andalusia
in September 2006.
Serra G., Peske L.,
Wondafrash M. 2007. Preliminary survey of Middle Eastern Northern Bald Ibises
at their recently discovered wintering grounds in Ethiopian highlands. Internal Report. BirdLife
International / Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.
Serra G., Peske L.,
Abdallah M.S., al Qaim G., Kanani A. 2009. Breeding ecology of the last oriental N.
Bald Ibises in the Syria desert. Journal of Ornithology.
Welch G. and
Welch H. 2004. Movements of
the eastern population of Northern Bald Ibis Geronticus eremita in the Middle East. IAGNBI newsletter, 3: 66-72.
Last updated on 4
January 2009