Because of the way people identify with birds, BirdLife is perhaps more conscious than most conservation bodies of the importance of making people willing participants in the protection of birds, Berruti said.
It is for this reason that the central theme of this year's conference is "empowering people for change." Queen Noor of Jordan, honorary president of BirdLife International, says this will put the focus on "the immense challenges and opportunities facing us all in conserving nature and sustaining people's livelihoods."
The issue will be dealt with specifically under an agenda item on sustainable livelihoods and the help that birds can offer to people in terms of education and tourism. "In the developing world, conservation programs, also regarding birds, are people oriented. It is realized that unless they positively affect the lives of people, conservation programs won't stick," Berruti said.
BirdLife International's African partnership involves a network of nongovernmental conservation organizations. By offering an opportunity to stress the African agenda, Berruti says, he hopes the conference will help strengthen this network and boost the progress already shown by the continent. "I don't foresee specific projects. But in a meeting of 500 people from all over the world, there will certainly be a variety of new possibilities forthcoming," he said.
Haves Helping the Have-Nots
Berruti is also hopeful that the conference will yield greater financial assistance for conservation initiatives in the developing world.
"The point is that, while the [Northern Hemisphere] societies are well-resourced, it so happens that most of the birds under threat happen to be in parts of the world where money is short.
"Typically the First World is characterized by wealthy membership in terms of staffing, expertise, and money, and typically it is species oriented in the sense of being primarily concerned with one aspect of nature, namely birds. In developing countries, with the exception, to a point, of South Africa, birdlife organizations have small memberships and a lack of resources, staff, and expertise. They also tend to be part of broadly based conservation bodies. Yet, it is largely in the developing world that Earth's bird riches are," Berruti said.
Threatened Birds of the World, a mammoth book published by BirdLife International in 2000, lists 1,186 birds as threatened worldwide. In Africa, with about 2,000 bird species, the countries with the highest count of threatened birds are South Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo, with 28 each. In South America and Asia, two other species-rich continents, there are 114 species at risk in Brazil and 114 in Indonesia.
The rising concern with the conservation needs of the developing world was sounded at the Convention on Biodiversity in Kuala Lumpur in February. There, the U.K.'s Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) called on the developed world to fund developing-world initiatives that support wildlife and the peoples living closest to it.
Alistair Gammell, RSPB director of international operations, told the conference, "Only a major international effort to protect these crucial areas on which our remaining wildlife depends will save some of the world's most cherished natural habitats."
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