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SPNL’s Wing & Waves Newsletter November – December 2017   Society for the Protection of Nature in Lebanon (SPNL) and Al Shouf Cedar Society (ACS) will be working together on a symbolic and pilot sites in the Shouf Mountain and West Beqaa in Lebanon.  In the conversation with Assad Serhal, the Director General of the Society for the Protection of Nature in Lebanon or SPNL, Charlie Moores learns about the current situation within Lebanon, the widespread culture of hunting, and how Assad began his lifelong career in conservation Assad is the Director General of SPNL, the Birdlife International Partner.  On 31 October 2017, Society for the Protection of Nature in Lebanon – SPNL, team visited Liban Cables Factory in Nahr-Ibrahim.The purpose of the visit was to honour the Chairman and President of Liban Cables, Mr. Bassem El-Hibri and the team of Liban Cables, in recognition to the solar power plant installation in the factory that will ease the pressure on the national utility.  The Northern Bald Ibis is a critically endangered species that is highly social and congregates in large flocks. At one time two separate populations existed– a non-migratory Northern African/European population and a migratory Middle-eastern population. It has been of special focus of both European Zoos and US Zoos to keep a healthy captive population with the intent of preserving the species.  Aiming to protect nature, birds and biodiversity in Lebanon, and to promote the sustainable use of natural resources with people through the revival of the Hima concept, the Society for the Protection of Nature in Lebanon (SPNL) explains more about its “Hima to Hima” program in the Bekaa.  From the huge Dalmatian Pelican in the Balkans, to vulnerable trees in the Middle East and nesting turtles in North Africa, the wildlife in developing countries in the Mediterranean Basin has been given a renewed hope of preservation, restoration and protection through a second phase of investment by the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF), which will be managed by BirdLife International for another five years.  On 15 December 2017 the peer-reviewed quarterly journal Bird Conservation International publishes a paper [1] entitled “Illegal killing and taking of birds in Europe outside the Mediterranean: assessing the scope and scale of a complex issue”. Led by the BirdLife International partnership with input from experts across the region the paper exposes the scale and scope of the illegal killing of birds across these regions. It is estimated that 0.4 – 2.1 million individual birds per year may be killed illegally in Northern and Central Europe and the Caucasus region – mainly for ‘sport’ or ‘predator/pest’ control.  By Mike Blair, Ornithological Society of the Middle East This is a splendid starter book for anyone in Lebanon, young or old, who has become interested in birds. If I had received a book like this in UK when I was young (that’s over 60 years ago!), I would have been delighted, as doubtless so would everyone who at that time developed an interest in the natural world. The RSPB’s membership would be double its present number of over one million!  Birdlife Global Councillors, November 2017 at the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB).  overfishing and climate change are pushing seabirds such as Black-legged Kittiwake and Cape Gannet closer to extinction, according to the latest update on the conservation status of the world’s birds by BirdLife International for The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™.  2018 will be “Year of the Bird”, thanks to an exciting new campaign with National Geographic, National Audubon Society and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. We’re calling on you to “bird your world”, starting with discovering why your backyard is a jigsaw piece for an entire continent  1 million birds are fatally poisoned in Europe each year by ingesting lead shot from expended cartridges. The EU’s European Chemicals Agency is currently considering an EU-wide ban on the use of lead shot for hunting in wetlands. It is running an online public consultation on the issue until 21st December. Join BirdLife Europe and TAKE ACTION! |
