What’s behind hundreds of vulture deaths in Guinea-Bissau. And what can be done
More
than 2,000 critically
endangered Hooded Vultures are reported to have died in Guinea-Bissau since
2019. They were deliberately poisoned with an agricultural pesticide. These
killings are the largest incident of mass vulture deaths in the world. Dr
Beckie Garbett explains why people are targeting the vultures and what must be
done to stop it.
How big is the vulture population in the region?
There are
six resident vulture species in West Africa: the Palm-nut Vulture, White-backed
Vulture, Ruppell’s Vulture, Hooded Vulture, White-headed Vulture and
Lappet-faced Vulture. All but the Palm-nut Vulture are either endangered or
critically endangered due to populations being decimated by human activities,
mainly poisoning. Some species have declined by as
much as 97% in recent years. Some of the largest declines have
occurred even within protected areas.
It’s not
known exactly how many vultures there are in West Africa, but some countries
are certainly regional strongholds, meaning that they hold a significant
proportion of the entire species’ population. For example, Guinea-Bissau holds
important global populations of Hooded and White-backed Vultures. Both
are critically endangered species.
Why are vultures being poisoned in Guinea-Bissau and does it happen often?
The
information we have has come from field teams, led
by a national NGO – the Organisation for the Defence and Development
of Wetlands in Guinea-Bissau. They report that over 2,000 vultures have died in
the various incidents across Guinea-Bissau since 2019. Many of the dead
vultures were beheaded, which suggests that the body parts were harvested for
‘medicinal’ or belief-based purposes.
Belief-based
use is essentially traditional
or superstitious use of wildlife products, in this case vulture body parts.
These beliefs about medicinal or magical qualities are not founded on evidence.
Belief-based use of wildlife is a practice that is prevalent in
West Africa.
Photo by JOHN WESSELS/AFP via Getty Images |
In each
case of poisoning, hundreds or thousands of
vultures can be wiped out in one go. These recent incidents however are some of
the worst I’ve seen.
What does it mean for the species as a whole in the region?
The
poisoning incident in Guinea-Bissau represents a loss of around 5% of
the estimated national population of Hooded Vultures, which represents 22% of
the entire global population. Losses of this magnitude of a species already on
the brink of extinction are unfathomable. It’s a huge setback for conservation
efforts across Africa, and severely threatens the persistence of regional
populations of this species.
Hooded
Vultures aren’t the only species at risk in West Africa. Other endangered and
critically endangered species such as Lappet-faced Vultures and White-backed
Vultures are also regularly found in
trade markets across the region.
Almost
all African vulture species are in steep decline. To save them, poisoning for
any purpose has to stop.
What can be done to put a stop to it?
There are
a few steps that must be taken: raise awareness, involve the community and deal
with the method of poisoning.
In
Guinea-Bissau, BirdLife – a global partnership dedicated to the conservation of
birds – is supporting the roll-out of an Emergency
Action Plan in response to the recent poisoning incidents through a
national partner organisation. This aims to gather circumstantial information
and mortality data through social surveys. It will also raise awareness of the
vulture killings and impacts of wildlife poisoning.
But there
are only limited resources and Guinea-Bissau is politically unstable. This
means that responsive actions are limited, but hopefully can be developed with
additional support from NGOs such as BirdLife and other International Agencies.
For
instance, in Nigeria, BirdLife is working
with its national partner, the Nigerian Conservation Foundation, to
address the same threat: belief-based use and illegal trade of vultures. They
work with traditional healers’ associations, hunters and traders of wildlife
products to advocate for the use of plant-based alternatives to vultures. They
also support law enforcement agencies in dealing with illegal trade. This has
proven to be a very
successful approach. Getting buy-in from key people involved in the
sourcing, sales and use of vultures and wildlife products in general is
essential for making a meaningful and sustainable impact.
With
regard to tackling the method of killing – poisoning – ongoing work by
conservation NGOs, such as Nature Kenya (BirdLife Partner in Kenya), has
established a
model that can be rolled out into other areas. This involves creating
anti-poisoning networks within local communities to rapidly detect and respond
to poisoning incidents in poison hotspot areas. The response protocol
streamlines responses from multiple stakeholders, as well as providing
guidelines for preservation and collection of forensic evidence in order to
facilitate identification of substances used in poisonings and aid apprehension
and prosecution of offenders of wildlife crimes.
In
addition to the protocol, in January 2019, the Kenyan government amended the
2013 Kenyan Wildlife Act to make wildlife poisoning a standalone crime
punishable with a fine of about $50,000 or five years in prison.
In Kenya,
vulture poisoning is being increasingly detected and mitigated because of this
model. The Kenya Wildlife Service has officially mainstreamed the wildlife
poisoning response protocol into its operations policy.
Addressing
the complex threats to African vultures requires a multi-pronged approach that
has integrated local-level actions at its core.
AGM
Source
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire