 Dave Gandy
Hutton's Shearwaters: One of the three new grants will map a global network of Marine Protected Areas by helping to compile and analyse what is known about the distribution of marine biodiversity.
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Charity foundation supports BirdLife's global vision
22-12-2008
The Aage V. Jensen Charity Foundation has recently approved three BirdLife projects for grants totalling €1,139,589 ($1,600,000) over three years.
"It is very reassuring during this time of economic uncertainty, to have the continued financial support of a donor like the Aage V. Jensen Charity Foundation", said Caroline Pridham, who as Programme Development Manager for BirdLife, works very closely with the Foundation. "Since 2004, the Aage V. Jensen Charity Foundation has worked very closely with us and has provided grants for 16 BirdLife projects in many regions of the world."
The first project will provide BirdLife Partners in developing countries with the skills and resources needed to engage effectively with mulilateral environmental agreement (MEA) policy processes. MEAs like the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and Ramsar Convention provide opportunities for Partners to achieve effective conservation at the national level. For example, the CBD Protected Areas programme offers huge potential for promoting conservation of Important Bird Areas (IBAs); and a number of BirdLife Partners have secured designation of key wetland IBAs as Ramsar sites. The project will support BirdLife Partners to work with their national governments and to transform commitments made under MEAs to real conservation actions on the ground.
Another project will enable BirdLife to assist with the identification and designation of a comprehensive global network of Marine Protected Areas, by helping to compile and analyse what is known about the distribution of marine biodiversity. Seabirds are one of the best life forms for this purpose and BirdLife, as part of its Marine Important Bird Areas programme, has already identified many important seabird sites around the world. But major gaps in Marine Important Bird Area identification, particularly in the Antarctic and Pacific, need to be filled. A further challenge is the need to identify the most important sea areas in international waters, to provide guidance to fisheries management organisations to reduce seabird mortality in the long-line and trawl fisheries. The funding from the AVJCF will help us start working with key groups to meet these challenges.
"The Aage V. Jensen Charity Foundation appreciates BirdLife’s long term vision of a world rich in biodiversity, with people and nature living in harmony" —Caroline Pridham, BirdLife's Programme Development Manager
The third project is to create permanent forest estates for the benefit of the people and biodiversity of Fiji. The tropical forests of the Fiji Islands contain some of the richest natural communities of all the oceanic islands of the Pacific, with high levels of endemism. Of 27 bird species which occur only in Fiji, 26 are land/forest birds. Over 80% of Fiji's land and forests are owned by 'family clans' called mataqalis, for whom these forests are their main source of livelihood. But about half of Fiji's forests have already been lost through clearance for agriculture, unsustainable logging and fires and as a result, many of Fiji's endemic species are threatened.
BirdLife International is working with a young, enthusiastic national Fijian NGO, NatureFiji-MareqetiViti (NFMV). BirdLife and NFMV believe much of Fiji's endemic biodiversity can be retained in well-managed, sustainably harvested forests, and have given priority to projects which promote Permanent Forest Estates for the future of the people and the biodiversity of Fiji. The project will also enable NFMV, which is in line to become the Birdlife Affiliate in Fiji, to establish itself more firmly as a professional and sustainable indigenous conservation NGO in Fiji's civil society.
Caroline Pridham concludes, "Over and above the funding that they provide, the Aage V. Jensen Charity Foundation come to us with a genuine interest and understanding of the holistic approach that is required to tackle and resolve many of the biodiversity conservation challenges that we are facing. They also appreciate BirdLife’s long term vision of a world rich in biodiversity, with people and nature living in harmony, equitably and sustainably."