Mal92
Well-known member
This is currently being debated on the African Birding Forum.
I want to thank the 95+% of birders and bird tour leaders who visit southern
Morocco each year and respect the importance of the last colony of the
Critically Endangered Northern Bald Ibis, by searching for the birds away from
the main breeding colony at Tamri. I am very much aware how much all visiting
birders want to see Northern Bald Ibis when visiting the area, and realise it
can be frustrating if the birds are not in the feeding areas exactly when
arriving at the site, especially as visitors itineraries are often tightly
packed. The Souss-Massa National Park, with support from SEO/BirdLife (and RSPB
to a lesser extent now than previously) are working hard on ways to improve on
and develop birding visits in a way that ultimately benefit the local
communities, so they have a genuine interest and pride in protecting the birds
that are found only in their area.
I know first hand just how delicate this process is, with local attitudes to
outsiders and tourists being very varied, and some earlier efforts to protect
roost and breeding sites have resulted in locals actually deliberately
disturbing roosting birds through jealousy or suspicion, even when the majority
of local residents were fully supportive of such efforts. The National Park and
SEO/BirdLife have been making wonderful progress with compatible development
initiatives that are benefiting the local community, and gaining their
confidence and trust - but this takes time. One potential that is regularly
discussed is how to coordinate birders visits in ways that benefit local people
(not just benefiting an outside agent from abroad or elsewhere in Morocco), and
in a way that does not require huge resources to manage further down the line.
So it is very disturbing when a minority of irresponsible visitors such as a
recent group in early May (who we know from wardens records that the leader has
previously ignored the well known request among all birders to avoid the
colony), continue to approach the colony itself. This is particularly
disappointing and embarrassing to the responsible birding community. The wardens
are locally appointed and trained (one key tangible benefit of the ibis to the
village communities closest to the colonies and roosts, and one which indirectly
links and informs the locals of the importance of the ibis), and their priority
role is to keep all visitors away from the site as well as systematically
monitoring the breeding birds. This recent birding party of birders from England
refused to accept the wardens request to leave and became abusive before
photographing the birds anyway. Through their attitude they appear to condone
others in approaching and jeopardising
the largest remaining colony of this species in the world. As explained on the
ABC website, http://www.africanbirdclub.org/countries/Morocco/hotspots.html the
breeding sites simply can not handle visiting birders at this stage, not so much
because of direct disturbance to the birds, but (and this is the part that seems
hardest to explain) because any increase in visits by foreigners would very
quickly attract many local boys in particular who would remain at the site all
day hoping to interact etc. and this would quickly become impossible to control.
The above-mentioned group is not the only one to ignore the requests not to
visit the colonies, there are others who seem to think they can ignore these
codes of conduct, in some cases because they support an organisation that helps
to fund the work! This makes the task of those local wardens and the National
Park (who are doing a tremendous job with limited resources) a lot harder than
it needs to be, and undermines the morale of the wardening team.
Developing a birding circuit to more actively show the ibis to visitors, and
channel the benefits of bird tourism to local communities is something the park
plans to trial in the near future. However, this does not come without
considerable challenges and risks, ultimately for the birds - particularly as
not all birders are as responsible as we'd like, and with the added potential
for cultural misunderstandings.
Finally, to reiterate the thanks to the vast majority of birders who responsibly
manage to see the ibis (often seeing them very well and in good numbers), in the
areas away from the colonies, recommended on the ABC website. By using for
example the Tamri cafes/eating places, telling local people why you are there
and how good it is that they still have ibis is something very positive that all
visitors can do. I know some groups have started doing this on a regular basis,
and this has been very positive all round.
Given half a day in the Tamri area, very few such visitors go away disappointed,
which cant be bad for one of the rarest species in the world?
Chris Bowden, RSPB
I want to thank the 95+% of birders and bird tour leaders who visit southern
Morocco each year and respect the importance of the last colony of the
Critically Endangered Northern Bald Ibis, by searching for the birds away from
the main breeding colony at Tamri. I am very much aware how much all visiting
birders want to see Northern Bald Ibis when visiting the area, and realise it
can be frustrating if the birds are not in the feeding areas exactly when
arriving at the site, especially as visitors itineraries are often tightly
packed. The Souss-Massa National Park, with support from SEO/BirdLife (and RSPB
to a lesser extent now than previously) are working hard on ways to improve on
and develop birding visits in a way that ultimately benefit the local
communities, so they have a genuine interest and pride in protecting the birds
that are found only in their area.
I know first hand just how delicate this process is, with local attitudes to
outsiders and tourists being very varied, and some earlier efforts to protect
roost and breeding sites have resulted in locals actually deliberately
disturbing roosting birds through jealousy or suspicion, even when the majority
of local residents were fully supportive of such efforts. The National Park and
SEO/BirdLife have been making wonderful progress with compatible development
initiatives that are benefiting the local community, and gaining their
confidence and trust - but this takes time. One potential that is regularly
discussed is how to coordinate birders visits in ways that benefit local people
(not just benefiting an outside agent from abroad or elsewhere in Morocco), and
in a way that does not require huge resources to manage further down the line.
So it is very disturbing when a minority of irresponsible visitors such as a
recent group in early May (who we know from wardens records that the leader has
previously ignored the well known request among all birders to avoid the
colony), continue to approach the colony itself. This is particularly
disappointing and embarrassing to the responsible birding community. The wardens
are locally appointed and trained (one key tangible benefit of the ibis to the
village communities closest to the colonies and roosts, and one which indirectly
links and informs the locals of the importance of the ibis), and their priority
role is to keep all visitors away from the site as well as systematically
monitoring the breeding birds. This recent birding party of birders from England
refused to accept the wardens request to leave and became abusive before
photographing the birds anyway. Through their attitude they appear to condone
others in approaching and jeopardising
the largest remaining colony of this species in the world. As explained on the
ABC website, http://www.africanbirdclub.org/countries/Morocco/hotspots.html the
breeding sites simply can not handle visiting birders at this stage, not so much
because of direct disturbance to the birds, but (and this is the part that seems
hardest to explain) because any increase in visits by foreigners would very
quickly attract many local boys in particular who would remain at the site all
day hoping to interact etc. and this would quickly become impossible to control.
The above-mentioned group is not the only one to ignore the requests not to
visit the colonies, there are others who seem to think they can ignore these
codes of conduct, in some cases because they support an organisation that helps
to fund the work! This makes the task of those local wardens and the National
Park (who are doing a tremendous job with limited resources) a lot harder than
it needs to be, and undermines the morale of the wardening team.
Developing a birding circuit to more actively show the ibis to visitors, and
channel the benefits of bird tourism to local communities is something the park
plans to trial in the near future. However, this does not come without
considerable challenges and risks, ultimately for the birds - particularly as
not all birders are as responsible as we'd like, and with the added potential
for cultural misunderstandings.
Finally, to reiterate the thanks to the vast majority of birders who responsibly
manage to see the ibis (often seeing them very well and in good numbers), in the
areas away from the colonies, recommended on the ABC website. By using for
example the Tamri cafes/eating places, telling local people why you are there
and how good it is that they still have ibis is something very positive that all
visitors can do. I know some groups have started doing this on a regular basis,
and this has been very positive all round.
Given half a day in the Tamri area, very few such visitors go away disappointed,
which cant be bad for one of the rarest species in the world?
Chris Bowden, RSPB
