So despite the dawn of a new year (well one that dawned a few weeks ago now), I am late as usual with this typically mixed bag of stories relating to conservation and sustainability. Yet while nothing changes on my timing, I am considering some changes to the nature of these posts going forward. For starters I was considering a series of interviews with leading conservationists in the region, in a bid to learn a little bit more about their work, the challenges they face and also to find out more about what we can do to help.
I’d love to know if people would be interested in hearing about this and what format (text/podcast/video) they would prefer. Do drop me a line about this or to be honest anything else – it would be lovely to hear from you. In the meantime, enjoy these offerings which range from the power of birds to make us happy through an important year for global agreements to a group of whales who’ve been very good at hiding.
Tweets to make you smile
The view from my window or a low-budget remake of a Hitchcock classic?
It’s pretty noisy around here at the moment, thanks to the multiple construction projects that surround our little condo. Yet amidst the chorus of clangs, bangs and rumbles there is another more pleasant soundtrack to lift the mood, that of the innumerable birds that live in and around our neighbourhood.
A judgmental Mynah bird. Pphoto by Sardaka.
As I sit here writing this, two Javan Myna’s are cackling loudly on our balcony - clearly complaining to each other about the recent incessant rain – much to the annoyance of our cat who is glaring at them through the screen door. They are not the only noisy feathered residents that can be seen and heard on a typical day.
It starts in the early morning with the ragged-looking jungle fowl that have somehow made a home down our dead-end street. Their crowing is soon joined by the plaintive cry of the Asian Koel, an alarm call of sorts for the rest of the area’s feathered inhabitants. Then the local gang of Javan Myna birds take over, with their trills and chortles filling the air as they call across the rooftops to each other.
Their tuneful conversations are often interrupted by the squabbles that take place between the neighbourhood’s other predominant population: the Asian Glossy Starlings with their mildly demonic red eyes, who love to feast on the berries of the umbrella tree outside our window. Pigeons, doves, sparrows, swifts, orioles also call the area home and if we’re lucky we’re also treated to flying visits by cockatoos, long tailed parakeets, the occasional sunbird and in a memorable one-off a pair of oriental pied hornbills.
It’s one of the things I love about living where we do. Not only is it a welcome visual distraction from doing any work but it also helps me feel connected to the natural world even when stuck inside and in the middle of the city.
A pair of Asian glossy starlings. Photo by Lip Kee.
It seems I am not alone in getting a lift from my feathered friends, with a recent report finding that the number of birds in the local environment plays a direct role in people’s happiness. What’s more the study, which interviewed more than 26,000 adults from 26 European countries, discovered that increasing the number of bird species in an area by 10% improved individual’s feeling of life satisfaction as much as giving them a 10% rise in wages.
“Much to our surprise, we found that avian diversity is as important for their life satisfaction as is their income,” explained one of the people behind the report Dr. Katrin Böhning-Gaese, director of the Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre and professor at the Goethe University in Frankfurt.
It’s certainly interesting to read tangible evidence (however vague) of the emotional impact that our environment has on our wellbeing and it is doubly powerful to see a financial value attached to that positive impact.
Perhaps it can be seen as further confirmation that the need to protect biodiversity, be that birds, animals or plants, isn’t just a case of protecting it for their sake but goes deeper than that – for a whole wealth of reasons it’s in our own selfish interests as well.
Flying off the shelves
Sticking with the feathered theme, I wanted to give a quick shout out to a new board game that celebrates the annual migration along the East-Asian Australasian flyway, which stretches from Northern Russia down to Australia and New Zealand.
Fly-A-Way is a joint project between Singapore-based creative agency Tuber and international bird conservation organisation Birdlife International. Birdlife’s Singapore based Flyways Coordinator (Asia) Yong Ding Li helping to ensure the accuracy of the information relating to the 42 bird species featured in the game.
The idea of the game, which features some beautiful artwork and looks super pretty, is to help the different species of birds complete their individual migration routes, while avoiding real-life dangers such as forest fires and poaching. The concept was launched on Kickstarter last November and reached its SG$10,000 target in less than a day. You can still make a late pledge and pre-order a copy with delivery expected in June. As an added bonus part of the proceeds of sales go towards Birdlife conservation projects.
You can read more about the amazing real-life journey these migrating birds undertake every year – which for some includes flying over the Himalayas – with this recent piece that Yong penned in collaboration with fellow conservationist’s Sayam U Chowdhury and Neha Sinha. Along the same lines I’d also recommend a great BBC podcast from a few years ago which looked in detail at what birds go through during the annual migration and how they navigate from A to B – it’s pretty nuts especially the bit about them transforming internal organs during the journey!
A Crucial Year
Denuded coral reef. Photo by Vincenzo Piazza
We come back down to earth with the potentially good news this month that more than 50 countries have pledged to protect 30% of the Earth’s land and oceans for nature by 2030. The announcement was made by the High Ambition Coalition for Nature and People an inter-governmental group, which includes Canada, France, Germany, Japan and the UK at the One Planet meeting taking place in Paris in January.
While the commitment is nothing more than words right now it does at least act as very public support for an initial plan drafted by the UN Convention on Biological Diversity last year, which set out the same aims and 2030 timeline. The hope is the plan will be ratified in some form at the 15th session of the UN Biodiversity Conference, which is set to take place in the Chinese city of Kunming in May this year, though it will need the support of the biggest players like the USA, China and India if it’s got any hope of making a difference.
A fire-ravaged forest. Photo by MICHEL BOULANGER
Indeed, this is an important year for global agreements relating to the twin issues of biodiversity loss and climate change, with the United Nations Climate Change Conference also set to take place in Glasgow in November this year.
Fingers crossed the announcement from the HAC and the changes in the White House to an administration with a greener way of thinking are the first positive signs that governments and the public are waking up to the need to act now. It was a stark reality that was raised again this week in another new report from scientists that predicted “ghastly future of mass extinction, declining health and climate-disruption upheavals”. Read more about their sober predictions if you can face it here.
Where’s Whaley?
A breaching Blue Whale. Photo by Lakpura LLC.
The last story relates to the unlikely discovery of a whole previously unknown population of Blue Whales that have been hiding out in the Western Indian Ocean all this time. According to a report published in the Journal of Endangered Species at the end of last year, the discovery of this new population of the world’s largest animals came after the research team recorded a new form of whale song off the coast of Madagascar.
When analysed, the researchers realised that it didn’t match any of the songs previously recorded from the four existing known populations of blue whales (which each have their own distinctive audio sounds) and deduced it had to belong to a separate group. Further recordings of the distinctive croon were also heard off the coast of Oman, in the Arabian Sea and the central Indian Ocean giving further clues to the movements of this mysterious ‘acoustic’ population, though little else is known about the behaviour and size of the group.
A stunning overhead shot of a Blue Whale. Photo by Don Ramey Logan.
The fact that estimates put the number of blue whales left in the wild at anywhere between 10,000 to 25,000 is further evidence of the challenges of studying the world’s largest living creatures. Indeed the difficulties in studying whales, despite their huge size, was further underlined by another piece I read on CNN, about the growth of humpack whale watching off the coast of Kenya. Ten years ago no one really knew the humpback whales were even there – it certainly wasn’t a thing when I was a regular visitor to Watamu back in the early-2000s.
A Whale tail. Photo by Kym Parry.
Now, between July and September the chance to catch sight of these magnificent animals passing along the East African coast as they migrate between the waters of Antarctica to Somalia to reproduce, has become a growing tourism draw to rival the country’s famous and unforgettable land safaris. Seeing whales in the wild is right at the top of my bucket list, as is a return to Kenya and its simply stunning beaches, so I think I know where we will be headed as one of our first post-pandemic family trips.
Yet despite these new developments, many scientists are concerned that this is a worrying time for global whale populations as a whole. For starters, a number of countries including Norway and Japan have recently reneged on the International Whaling Commission’s (IWC) 1982 ban on commercial whaling. More threatening, is the 300% increase in international shipping over the last twenty years, which has led to an increase in whales being struck by boats, as well as a huge rise in noise pollution which can greatly affect the ability of certain types of whale to hunt.
This excellent Guardian story has a lot more insight into these concerns, along with the fascinating backstory to an iconic 70s album Songs of the Humpback Whale. It’s well worth a read and just like enjoying the neighbouring bird song, I find listening to the whale song certainly does wonders for my sense of personal well-being.