Botswana vultures in decline

Staff Writer | Tuesday November 3, 2015 15:50

 

Senyatso, who is also Chairman of the Birdlife Council for African Partnership said that a coordinated response is needed that does justice to the scale of the crisis.

  “Africans, who derive direct benefits from having their vultures in their skies, must take the lead in mitigating threats to African vultures,” said  Senyatso.

“A coordinated response is urgently needed that does justice to the scale of this imminent crisis. As such, BirdLife Partner NGOs across Africa join forces and commit to playing a leading role in efforts to save the continent’s vultures,” he said at a workshop on African vultures held at the BirdLife Council for Africa Partnership Meeting in Senchi, Ghana, last month.

He said Africa’s vultures need all the support they can get at the moment adding that South Asia’s vulture populations have collapsed since the mid-1990s, those of Africa have also been declining, less steeply but over a longer period.

“In South Africa, Cape Vulture have declined by 60-70% in the last 20-30 years.

The causes of the declines in Africa are more varied and complex than those in Asia, which were driven mainly by the use in cattle of the anti-inflammatory drug diclofenac,” he said.

Africa holds 11 species of vulture, six of which are not found elsewhere and they face threats from poisoning  related to human-carnivore conflict and the poaching of large mammals.

He said that persecution of vultures for their body parts for use in cultural practices and divination is also a threat contributing majorly to an 80% decline in Hooded Vulture in Nigeria.

Other threats include collisions with powerlines and wind energy infrastructure, habitat loss, declines in food availability and disturbance at breeding sites.

Stopping and reversing the declines, by tackling these difficult issues, is one of the greatest challenges facing bird conservation in Africa.

“Though we need to continue to learn more about the threats and their relative importance in different parts of Africa, we cannot afford to wait to begin to take action. Large-scale initiatives are needed, engaging strongly on political and cultural as well as socio-economic levels,” he said.