Most threatened birds of the world would gain in a more continuous flow of visitors to see these. The more threatened the bird, the more it would gain from an increased flow of birders to come and see the same. The money generated through small entrance fees to conservation units would support local conservation projects. One could easily imagine the creation of general ecotourism income locally in terms of providing basic services of transport, guides, horses, porters, food, shelter, etc even in the most remote areas.
Newly discovered or rediscovered birds needs extra initial attention. There for the score for these is higher than the most critically threatened birds, but there is a time limit for these scores.
Only very rarely would world birders be a problem for the species...and in the cases where disturbance may have negative impact, the bird watching could easily be channeled in a way to minimize these effects and still allow for the generation of funds through visiting birders. If the conservation guidelines are set so no visits can be allowed for any what-so-ever reason these must be followed. If you break any rules to see a species, do not follow the set guidelines or sneak into a strict reserve, you should not count these points in your expedition birding list. The whole purpose behind this game is that it should be a benefit for the threatened birds – not a threat.
Complicated? Well, it is really quite straight-forward. Below folow ta summery of the rules. You can find the complete list of Expedition Birding birds on www.birding-peru.com (just follow the links to files). There you find also a more detailed description of the rules and how they work on olde records.
The following score system should be seen as the bird’s need of conservation attention. The score system has been somewhat modified from the original proposal!
10 points: Discovery of a new species, rediscovery of a generally thought or suspected to be extinct species (this also includes species like Ivory-billed Woodpecker) or species without sightings the last 50 years.
8 points. Update of rules. Runner-up expedition to bird yet to be described. 8 points countable until the new species is published. There is a risk that a bird in this category will prove not to be a good species and consequently the points will be lost. On the other hand the information collected by runner-up expeditions can help the discoverers to get the description going.
7 points: Update of rules: being member of runner-up expeditions to see an already described bird in the 10 point category. To achieve the points in this category there is 5 year limit after the publication including the end of the calendar year. Thus a species published as new to science in February 2000 will be accountable until the end of 2005. Thus during 2004 you may count species described as new to science in 1999. From 2005 the 7 point rule will change to only embrace a period of 4 years (4 years is a more reasonable period, the above 5 years from this year should be seen as way to catch-up). For rediscovered species – the period counts from the first sighting if this has been widely known. If kept a secret until publication considerably later, the period starts from the publication date and will include the full last calendar year. If a species does not generate much traffic of birder during the first four-five years, the four next runner-up expeditions can count the 7 points. All those that plan and endure an expedition the same year as nr 4 can also count 7 points.
5 points: RDB - Critically Threatened or providing data for Data Deficient birds that changes their status in forth coming Red Data Book volumes.
3 points: RDB - Endangered
2 points: Red Data Book - Vulnerable
Undoubtedly getting the World Birders to focus on threatened birds would be an
asset for bird conservation, both their skills in ID and collecting valuable ecological data, as well as spreading eco-tourism dollars to where it is most needed.
1 point: Endemic Bird Area (Statterfield et al) species and Near Threatened species regardless if they are endemic or not. Simple observation of Data
Deficient birds.
Happy Expedition Birding Everyone
Soon I will provide a list of the species that were described or rediscovered the last five years, so that you can plan your upcoming expeditions accordingly. It would be nice to see more people picking up this practice. It will ultimately be very good to the birds.
Saludos
Gunnar Engblom, Lima, Peru.
Great idea Gunnar. Don't know that I fit into the World Birder category but I do like the idea. The more we can channel funds to support threatened birds and their habitats to local conservation efforts the more the local people will see these birds as a resource to be protected and valued.