02 juni 2009
The field worker: a non priority species?
There are many people in this world who dedicate their life to saving specific species or habitats. These are brave people. People in the field. People who make a difference. Who set aside their academic ambitions or combine the efforts to achieve their actual goal. And their dream.
Often these brave people work under very hard circumstances, earn very little money and give up a stability and safety, because they know, that it they don’t persist, probably nobody will care enough, so this is the price they pay.
These people, like many of my friends, are the people who make a difference. Who know the field, who know their subjects, who know the local situation, the status and the prospect. Little efforts have large impacts, and they can only be achieved by people who are actually IN the field doing the work.
Then why, I wonder, are exactly these people always struggling to get by? Very low incomes, uncertainty on future work, often no base to live etc. Are these people not doing 80% more effective work than NGO employees who travel around the world to ridiculously expensive workshops and conferences, flying business class only to TALK about conservation instead of taking ACTION?
The cost of one conference could probably provide one field worker with a 5-10 year salary. But in stead, the field worker is writing funding proposals to every fund they can find, just to make sure that they can continue their very important work, while others are sipping champagne at the opening ceremony of yet another conference in Barbardos!
It makes me angry. And disappointed, that the field worker seems to be a forgotten species, and many important conservation decisions (and funding decisions!) are made by conference lovers who have never set a foot in the field. Maybe we need a conservation programme for the field workers. Status Endangered!
Recently one of the larger global conservation NGO’s, of whom I will not mention the name, expressed an opinion that shocked me. I will not go into details, but literally they said that the Barbary macaque is in their eyes “not a priority species”.
WHAT?
Indeed, the fact that there are only around 3000 macaques left in the wild in Morocco, maybe 3500 in the world, and that the species is declining with a rate so fast that extinction is not so far away, the fact that they recently shifted the species to status “endangered” , the only primate in North Africa, the only primate North of the Sahara, the only macaque outside of Asia…..and there are LESS Barbary macaques than Sumatran orangutans left……..is not enough to call them a priority species??????
Maybe this NGO should organise a workshop in Morocco, not in luxury, but in the field, to see what the reality is. The money of their beneficiaries would be much better spent!
10 april 2009
Water source
Training Moroccan students & springtime in the field
It has been a very wet and cold winter in Morocco. I am back in the field with the WWF and GEA team, giving a training for the students of the Mohammed V University in Rabat (Faculty of Science) and students from the Royal Forestry Institute. The training is on Barbary macaque conservation.
It is such a pleasure to work with this group of young, motivated and smart students. They are the future of Morocco’s environmental conservation and what a team! After the theoretical part in Rabat, we have arrived in the Middle Atlas and are doing the practical training now. The students are learning about the degradation of the forest, the human impact, macaque biology and the methodology of how to do research in the field, by walking transects. The forest is currently extremely green, as it has rained a lot. There are even some patches of snow left. In November, when we visited one of the water sources that is isolated for livestock, there was barely water in it. Now the well is filled with water (see pictures). We have not seen many monkeys, although the groups that live in close proximity of the fossil sellers are doing well and have their first infants.
I myself have been mainly lecturing about the illegal trade. As I mentioned before, the fossil sellers have always worked with me, provided me with information about capturers. They want to protect the monkeys, as their income relies on tourists and the tourists will stop when the monkeys are there. Therefore, in cooperation with the National Park staff, we have decided that the fossil sellers are going to play an important role in stopping this trade by handing out flyers to tourists this summer. The students started doing this yesterday. This is a great achievement. Also a local NGO on environmental education (AESVT) will hand out flyers and commence an educational project for the local school children.
It is always inspiring to be in the field. I feel lately though that we are on the right track. The management of the National Park are finally starting to realize that the need for protection of this unique area is high, and together we are achieving so much. I am honoured to work together with GEA, Institut Scientifique and AESVT. We form a team of experts on every part of Barbary macaque conservation and strongly believe that we are heading for some great successes in the next year. Hopefully we can find funding for all the great plans we have so we can continue fighting for the survival of the Barbary macaque and its habitat.
06 maart 2009
Update
Honestly it would have given me the financial break that I have been longing for for a while now. It has become hard to keep myself involved in the Barbary macaque project when there is no funding available. But hopefully MPC will bring a change to that situation.
The plan is that MPC will be up and running in May this year. You should however know that in the meantime we are not sitting around doing nothing.
I will fly to Morocco at the beginning of April to participate again in a training organised by GEA and WWF MedPo for the students of the forestry school in Salé and for the Mohammed V university students. I will train them in the illegal trade issues. We will also take them into the field again, just like we did with the group in November.
Also, at the beginning of May, I will return to Morocco for SSN. SSN is working on the implementation of CITES in Morocco and, like we have done before with the Spanish customs, we will train the Moroccan customs as well.
Please keep coming back to this blog, I will update as much as I can and let you know when MPC is up and running!
31 december 2008
Future for Nature Award
Obviously I am not expecting to win this award as I have many many colleagues around the world who deserve this at least as much as i do, but already the acknowledgement for being amongst the last 12 candidates for me is an honour. And i want to thank all the involved people of mainly AAP, Sanctuary for exotic animals and IUCN The Netherlands (and individually David van Gennep, Rikkert Reijnen, Willem ferwerda, Carl Konigel and last but not least Mohamed Mouna) for their support in the past and for making it possible that i achieved what i did until now. Without their financial, professional and individual support, i would not have been able to reach this point.
Thank you! I hope we can continue our important work together, with or without this award!
03 december 2008
Moroccan Primate Conservation (MPC)
I will keep you informed on the progress on this blog and hope to raise funds so we can start some highly needed actions in 2009, such as the flyer project in the Moroccan ports and the start of setting up a rescue and reintroduction centre in Morocco.
26 november 2008
Training in Morocco 2
Training in Morocco
21 augustus 2008
International Primatological Society meeting
