Aid offered to save critically endangered Cape parrot
Copyright 2001, Environmental News Network
November 02, 2001
The last remaining population of the critically endangered Cape parrot in the southern Drakensberg Mountains is getting some help to survive from South Africa's Wildlands Trust.
The Wildlands Trust is an independent fund-raising and project-management organization concerned with conservation-based community development in the South African state of Kwa-Zulu Natal. The trust has announced a grant of 61,000 rand (US$6,462) to assist in preserving the habitat of the Cape parrot, which cannot survive without the Drakensberg's yellowwood forests.
The Drakensberg is a shear escarpment rising 3,250 feet above the rolling hills of KwaZulu-Natal, stretching from Transkei in the south to the Eastern Free State in the north.
The last census of these green parrots revealed that only 300 of them are left in the wild. Of these about 150 inhabit the southern Drakensberg Ukuhlamba World Heritage Site. Inscribed last year on the UNESCO World Heritage List, the site also contains many caves and rock shelters with a wealth of paintings made by the indigenous San people over a period of 4,000 years.
According to the Red Data Book issued every four years by the IUCN-World Conservation Union, a critically endangered bird or animal is so classified if there is a possibility that it will become extinct in the next 20 years.
The main threat to the Cape parrot is the fact that its habitat is almost extinct. Only a small patch of yellowwood forest remains in the southern Drakensberg. This patch is currently under pressure by rural communities who are clearing the trees for medicinal use and for firewood.
The Wildlands Trust grant has been given to the research section of KwaZulu-Natal Wildlife, which has formed a working group along with concerned conservation workers. They will work with rural communities in southern Natal to establish if it is possible to find alternatives to their use of the yellowwood forests.
"The future of the Cape parrot rests largely in the hands of the rural communities in Southern Natal," said Wildlands CEO Dr. Andrew Venter. "These communities live under very harsh conditions and rely on their natural resources. At the same time, these communities do realize the value of the forests. It is just that they have no alternatives. We have little doubt that, given better opportunities, the rural communities will do everything they can to assist with the conservation of these rare birds."
Two full-time rangers will try to find out which of the trees the community uses and why. They will also try to establish alternatives while at the same time attempt to find other resources for the communities. A large part of their field work will be to educate the rural communities about the value of the trees as a habitat for the Cape parrot and other endemic species like the Samango monkey.
It is hoped that by diverting the pressure from the habitat and supplying poor communities with other sources of fuel and medicinal plants, the Cape parrot will also be saved. The grant funding will be used to purchase equipment for the rangers as well as for operational costs.
"We are using the parrot almost as an indicator species," said Venter. "The real issue is the threat to the forest resources," he said.
"If we lost these forests, we don't even know what we are losing. These yellowwood forests have enormous ecological, cultural, and spiritual value, and we don't even know what that true value is. There is only about 2000ha of the forest left. We can't afford to lose that. Apart from the Cape Parrot, who knows what else will be lost?"