BY TSEGAYE TILAHUN
It is abundantly clear that vultures play a vital role in making our environment clean and safe more than ever before. As most people do not seem to have understood the role vultures play in keeping our environment clean, they perceived them as lowly scavengers who have been pouring cold water on environmental cleanliness. On the basis thereof, they give them the cold shoulder on numerous occasions.
As the whole of the community do not know the aforementioned reality on the ground, they every so often give them the cold shoulder on various occasions. To the surprise of everyone, they play a significant role in keeping the ecosystem healthy in view of the fact that they act as natural carcass recyclers.
Samson Zeleke, Communication Officer at Ethiopian Wildlife and Natural History Association (EWNHS) said regarding the issue, “As vultures put forward critically important ecosystem services and socio-economic benefits, the association has been carrying out a wide spectrum of activities once in a great while intending to safeguard them.
In a similar vein, vultures not only clean up the land but also eliminate the need for the treatment and incineration of thousands of tons of animal remains year in year out. What is more, the free cleaning service saves millions of budget in waste management and avoids the potential emission of hundreds of thousands of tons of carbon dioxide per year as well as benefits our environment and society as a whole without a doubt.
According to the officer, conserving the vultures is nothing less than conserving the environment and society. What is more, vultures play a significant role in cleaning up a wide spectrum of potential threats that can pose a threat to nature, wildlife, and public health.
“ If vultures disappear, ecosystems can go off balance cleaning up beyond a shred of a doubt. Protecting vultures means the protection of the entire ecosystem. Therefore, it is crucial to protect vultures.”
Today, the number of vultures in most countries has been plummeting on account of various threats such as persecution, poisoning, electrocution, habitat loss, food scarcity and all that kind of crap.
If truth be told, the Egyptian Vulture is a threatened species in the world, and over the last 30 years, its population in the Balkans has declined by more than 80 percent with no more than 70 pairs remaining.
He kept on saying, “To save the Egyptian Vulture species, institutions and organizations from 14 countries spanning the Balkans, Middle East, and Africa have joined forces indicating that political borders do not exist in these efforts. All of them have been united under the motto “Urgent Actions to Strengthen the Balkan Population of the Egyptian Vulture and Secure Its Flyway.”
As to the Museum of Southern Biology (MBS), Egyptian Vulture, Saker Falcon, Eastern Imperial Eagle, Greater Spotted Eagle, and Northern Bald Ibis move between their breeding grounds in Europe, Asia, and their wintering grounds in Africa making use of these corridors. Among the 37 species of vultures, 24 of them including all the Red Listed ones visit Ethiopia once or twice a year.
Along the same lines, MSB Project National level activities are being implemented in Jordan, Lebanon, Sudan, Djibouti, Egypt, and Ethiopia. What is more, the Project is funded by the Global Environment Facility and implemented by Birdlife International with the support of the United Nations Development Program. Ethiopian Wildlife and Natural History Society (EWNHS) is the national implementing Partner in Ethiopia.
MSB Project activities for Ethiopia will be implemented in the period from December 2019 to May 2022. The project works to protect MSBs during their migration by mainstreaming their conservation taking into account the productive sectors that pose the greatest risk to these birds.
In Ethiopia, the project has been working in the energy sector by involving wider stakeholders including the Ethiopian Electric Utility (EEU), Ethiopian Electric Power (EEP), and Ethiopian Wildlife Conservation Authority (EWCA). Identification of dangerous electric infrastructure that put birds’ lives in danger will be one of the focus areas of the project.
The Ethiopian Wildlife and Natural History Society (EWNHS) is an indigenous non-profit organization that was founded in 1966.
EWNHS is also a Birdlife International partner and member in Ethiopia. It shares the mission of saving species, protecting sites, conserving habitats, empowering, improving the livelihoods of people and other related aspects.
Conserving vultures and other bird species save billions of dollars that will be expended to manage the disposal of dead animals given that they bring environmental and health problems. By conserving them, Ethiopia can save much of its finance that will be used for purchasing various chemicals from abroad.
The organization strives to support the government’s effort in disseminating environmental issues, networking and collaborating, engaging proactively in conservation projects, conserving through the provision of advice, information, and hard data, and other related aspects.
As said by Samson, as part of its activity, the association managed to support the 20th edition of the Great Ethiopian Run race aimed at bird conservation. The intended target of the support was to associate the extreme efforts of marathon runners with the perilous journey migratory birds undertake and generate public empathy, and mitigate threats along the flyway.
Electrocution and collision with power lines have been identified as major causes of death among birds.
As several power lines have dangerous designs that put birds at risk at the stroke of a pen, the association is working to cover the power lines or electrocution by plastic seeing that migratory birds have been exposing themselves to power lines collision. Every year, more than 2000 Endangered Egyptian Vultures gather in Eastern Ethiopia to roost.
Consequently, the association has been working to minimize the consequence of the power line infrastructure in the region for the most part in Afar and Metehara on the grounds that birds are highly affected by electric shock in these areas. More than 100 vultures breathe their last breath owing to bird collisions with power lines.
Moreover, Birdlife International, through its partnership with the Ethiopian Wildlife and Natural History Society (EWNHS) was one of the sponsors and VIP attendees at the event within the framework of the “Egyptian Vulture New LIFE” project as it has been implemented in Europe and Africa and 14 different countries.
The Ethiopian Herald January 23/2021
