ORAPA GAME PARK PROJECT BRIEF Improving Biodiversity Management Through Citizen Science: The Bird Population Monitoring Scheme In Botswana Keddy Mooketsa1, Kabelo J. Senyatso1, Simon Wotton3, Motshereganyi Virat Kootsositse1 & Kulobone Soopu2 1 BirdLife Botswana, P O Box 26691, Game City, Gaborone, Botswana, education@birdlifebotswana.org.bw 2 Debswana, Orapa, Letlhakane and Damtshaa Mines, Private Bag 001, Orapa, Botswana 3 The Royal Society For the Protection of Birds, The Lodge, Sandy, Bedfordshire, United Kingdom ABSTRACT There is growing recognition that the decline in the state of nature has consequences for people and economies, especially through the loss of natural resources and ecological services. In response, political leaders have pledged a reduction of the rate of biodiversity loss at global, regional and national-levels; but ecological indicators are needed to measure progress towards achieving this. This poster describes the establishment and ongoing development of Bird Population Monitoring (BPM) in Botswana since 2009, which scheme was recently introduced in and around Debswana’s Orapa Game Park. We present initial successes, challenges, lessons learnt, as well as population trends for some species. INTRODUCTION Birds have many characteristics that make them good environmental indicators, such as their abundance, diversity and ease of identification1. BirdLife Botswana working with the government of Botswana has established a Bird Population Monitoring Programme (BPM) aimed at developing a wild bird index for Botswana2, 3. BPM seeks to demonstrate that birds can be useful at showing ecosystem changes where they occur. The programme is part of the global effort to monitor terrestrial birds around the world. For instance, the Wild Bird Index1 (WBI) data from the North American Breeding Bird Survey and the Pan-European Common Bird Monitoring Scheme shows that specialist birds have declined by more than 20% since 1980 (Wotton et al., In preparation). The WBI measures average population trends of a suite of representative wild birds, as an indicator of the general health of the wider environment. METHODS Point count technique is used and counts are done twice annually in February and November. Citizen science volunteers count birds along a 2 km transect stopping every 200 m for five minutes recording all birds heard or seen. RESULTS Data has been collected for four years (2010-2014) and is available for use by government departments and ministries, private sector, NGOs and the general public to infer the bird population trends, with some of the trends being useful to influence biodiversity and conservation policies (See figure 1-4 below). Figure1. Map of the Red-billed Quelea records from the BPM data 2010 to 2014 Figure 2. Number of transects and participants (b) (a) Figure 3. Transect distribution (a) as at February 2014 vs target coverage (b). The target coverage represents 50 × 50 km randomly-chosen grid squares (black squares) based on vegetation types (different colours) of Botswana to sample from . Figure 4. Index for Pied Crow, Yellow-billed Kite, Sabota Lark and Southern Masked-Weaver CONCLUSION Ensuing data is already useful e.g. Red-billed Quelea Quelea quelea records (Figure 1) demonstrate the value that the BPM can provide to agencies requiring spatio-temporal trends in birds of interest, in this instance for quelea control by the Ministry of Agriculture. The BPM connects people with nature: thus far >350 volunteers undertake >250 transects (Fig. 2) – a significant contribution to the ensuring Botswana meets Aichi 2020 Biodiversity target #1 [Everyone is aware of the value of biodiversity and the steps they can take to conserve and use it sustainably]. Notwithstanding, there are challenges such as participants’ low level of bird identification skills, failure to repeat transects and geographical bias of counters being primarily near cities and towns and remote areas still insufficiently surveyed. Recommendations are to conduct regular bird identification training and BPM recruitment /feedback workshops and identify strategies to keep the volunteers motivated for the long term to enhance data quality. ORAPA GAME PARK PROJECT BRIEF Project title: Improving Knowledge and Understanding of Conservation Needs for Threatened Birds in Orapa Game Park Debswana (Orapa, Letlhakane and Damtshaa mine) in collaboration with BirdLife Botswana began a project in mid-2013 to work on improving biodiversity monitoring in Orapa Game Park, using birds as indicator species. This project aims at: Developing the necessary resources for the park (Bird checklists, posters) and improving expertise of park managers in bird identification. Assessing temporal and spatial species diversity of common birds, by comparing their bird abundance, species diversity and functional diversity inside and outside the park. Focusing on a single threatened and flagship species – the Lappet-faced Vulture by assessing its habitat use and the extent to which the park could be beneficial to this species. 1. Sheehan, D. K., Gregory, R. D., Eaton, M. A., Bubb, P. J., & Chenery, A. M. 2010. The Wild Bird Index-Guidance for National and Regional Use. UNEP-WCMC, Cambridge, UK. 2. BPM is Implemented in collaboration with the government departments, the Department of Wildlife and National Parks (DWNP) and the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA). See http://www.birdlifebotswana.org.bw/bird_population_monitoring.html. 3. Acknowledgements are due to the BPM surveyors, sponsors are the Global Environment Facility/Small Grants Programme, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) and Debswana, Orapa, Letlhakane & Damtshaa Mine. NOTES BirdLife Botswana, P O Box 26691, Game City, Gaborone, Botswana, Telefax: +267 3190540/1, www.birdlifebotswana.org.bw,blb@birdlifebotswana.org.bw