20 Oct 2016

 Bird Life International Botswana director, Dr Kabelo Senyatso, says the country is moving in the right direction with noticeable outcomes on the global fight for protection of birds.

Protection is for endangered species such as vultures, flamingoes and kori, a few of the 30 species facing extinction globally.

Speaking in an interview recently, Dr Senyatso said there was no better time than now to react on the continuing problem of poisoning of vultures, illegal hunting of kori and flamingoes, adding that failure to take appropriate action on time would result in economic loss of income from bird tourism, higher spread of diseases from carcasses left to rot and imbalance of the ecosystem.

“Even though there is a decline in the killings of other birds, we still encounter reports of poisoned vultures on a daily basis countrywide and this is worrisome,” said Dr Senyatso.

In the list of projects, Dr Senyatso distinguished the Neighbourhood Patrol programme aimed at promoting the use of Barn Owl as natural rodent controllers through the use of nesting boxes. 

He implored Batswana to change the negative perception that associates these birds to witchcraft.

“Barn Owls eat rats so they fly at night to hunt these rodents. We have placed a couple of nesting boxes around shopping malls in Gaborone to kick start the project” He insightfully informed.

At Pandamatenga Farms, Dr Senyatso highlighted that they have trained at least 20 falcons (digootsane) to use them to scare away quelea (thaga) which causes a lot of damage in the fields. 

“The pilot project has proved that the approach works therefore we will roll it out in Pandamatenga in due time. We chose Pandamatenga farms because they practice coordinated farming” He said.

However, he highlighted that the approach will be a challenge in small subsistence farming but the idea of cluster farming can make it possible.

He detailed that they’ve embarked on bird counting to demonstrate the role of birds as environmental indicators.

“For example, in cities, an increase in the number of pied crow indicates poor waste management” Dr Senyatso explained. ENDS