Sick of reading about Cyprus songbirds
killed and pickled for snacks? Weary of wild killing sprees
like Egypt’s
sanctioned bird hunt ? Or maybe the downed
flamingos in Kuwait ruffled your feathers?
BirdLife International has created a fund to underwrite
environmental preservation projects in one of the world’s top biodiversity
hotspots: the Mediterranean Basin. Check out their new website to learn
more about the group and their work. Especially nice is a link where you can
enter your country and see which species are at risk and find resources to get
involved locally. A search on Jordan, as example, leads to The Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature,
BirdLife’s partner in Jordan, which in turn will advise on in-kingdom
conservation.
This five-year conservation investment aims to preserve
regional biodiversity by
engaging with and developing existing civil society organizations, said Ibrahim
Khader, Regional Director of BirdLife International’s Middle East Division.
“The Mediterranean
Basin is the world’s second largest global biodiversity hotspot,
covering more than two million square kilometers spanning 34 countries and
territories. It stretches from Portugal to Jordan and from northern Italy to
Cape Verde,” Khader told The Jordan
Times. A biodiversity hotspot is any place that boasts a large number of
diverse species under threat of human interference.
“The Mediterranean Basin is one of the biological wonders of
the world and is the third richest biological hotspot in the world, with more
than 13,000 endemic species found nowhere else on Earth,” he added. “The
primary threat is habitat loss due to increasing pressure on water resources,
agricultural intensification, land abandonment, and infrastructure and
residential development.”
Twice a year, BirdLife
International will invite proposals for small grants worth up to
$20,000 and large grants of up to $1 million, according to the Regional
Director. The money will support conservation at a local level,
especially vital given economies struggling in the wake of the Arab Spring.
No comments:
Post a Comment