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DECEMBER 2014-N°311 FREE Michel Gunther JOIN SOSTODAY www.SaveOurSpecies.org newsletter speciessavers SaveOurSpecies www.sospecies.org/donate EDITORIAL

BY JEAN-JACQUES FRESKO Editor WHAT ABOUT

PIERRE WITT PIERRE THE RACOON?

u’ve got to be a nutcase, or perhaps (Critically Endangered) to the most reassuring (Least utterly Italian, to write a highly Concern). But the Red List is a long way from recor- erudite book (406 pages, no less) ding all living things. It teems with et cetera’s; the list entitled The Infi nity of Lists. In it, suggests more than it says. It suggests the infi niteness Umberto Eco explains that there of life, the fascinating plasticity of species, their ability are lists and lists: those of the prac- to move between categories. Practical or poetic, or both tical sort, and of the poetic variety. at once, the Red List is above all a tremendous working The former category covers such things as shopping tool for all the – increasingly numerous – people for Ylists, library inventories, restaurant menus and tele- whom conserving nature is a priority objective. Under phone directories. Those lists contain things that exist the leadership of Julia Marton-Lefèvre, its Director and are truly known; they are exhaustive, fi nite, and General for the past eight years and still for a few more coherent. And they are orderly too: you won’t store weeks, IUCN and its partners have launched the SOS the tiramisu with the vegetables, or Modiano with – Save Our Species initiative to translate the Red List’s the humorists. The poetic list is quite the opposite: to sometimes depressing informa- hell with exhaustiveness, classifi cation and coherence. tion into concrete actions and In this category can be found Jacques Prévert’s poem Translating mobilisations on the ground; to Inventaire (“Inventory”) and its racoon; the enume- the Red List’s transform the sorry observation ration of the ships in the Greek fl eet (350 lines in The information that biodiversity is wilting into Iliad!), the litanies of the saints, and the stars in the into concrete momentum that inspires hope. sky. Here, the aim is not to draw up a fi nite inventory, actions, on the Behind Marton-Lefèvre, whose but, conversely, to open a window onto the infi nite, ground. obstinate work Terre Sauvage the incommensurable. The purpose of such a list is the applauds, and behind IUCN explicit or implied et cetera to which it leads. and its experts, whole swathes of our societies are swin- ging into action. In this issue you will fi nd out about CAUTIOUSLY – or perhaps with just a hint of unexpected and often little-known actions led by, among cowardice –, Eco did not fi nd room to state in which other parties, large corporations (BNP Paribas, Kering, category he would place the Red List of Threatened Klorane) – out of conviction, economic realism, or both Species, to which we devote this issue, coinciding with at the same time. its fi ftieth anniversary. Is it a practical list? Come to think of it, which Red List category does Defi nitely: the species it surveys actually exist; they are Prévert’s racoon fall into? “Least concern”. So: no known and perfectly described by the 10,000 experts worries for that species. It’s one of the lucky ones... (do you want the list?) who continually supply data for PS – Terre Sauvage dedicates this issue to Christophe Sidamon-Pesson. it worldwide, coordinated by IUCN (the International Union for Conservation of Nature), our partner in pro- ducing this issue. It contains animals and plants neatly arranged in rigorous categories, from the most alarming

N°311 Terre Sauvage 3 CONTENTS

Savoie Technolac, 12, allée du Lac de Garde, BP 308, 73377 Le Bourget-du-Lac, France. To contact the editorial department: call +33 (0)4 79 26 27 then your correspondent’s extension (2 digits); or go to our website [www.terre-sauvage.com]. SPECIAL 50 YEARS OF To contact the editorial department: call +33 4 79 26 27 then your correspondent’s extension (2 digits); or go to our website + 33 (0)826 20 00 00 (0.15 €/min.) THE IUCN RED LIST Terre Sauvage subscriptions: Milan Presse, Service Abonnements, B 150, 60732 Sainte-Geneviève, France Cedex. Via email: [[email protected]]. Via website: www.terre-sauvage.com 3 Editorial One-year subscription: 12 issues. Mainland France: €49 All reproduction rights reserved, unless prior consent is obtained. 4 Contents MANAGEMENT Executive director: Éric de Kermel 6 Wild Talk EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT 8 Seasonal Diary Editor: Jean-Jacques Fresko 41 [email protected] Head of editorial:Catherine Perrin 44 18 HISTORY OF THE LIST [email protected] Art director : Pascal Riner 56 THE BAROMETER [email protected] OF LIFE Contributors to this issue : Paul Barlet, Yann Chavance, Denis For 50 years, the IUCN Red Cheissoux, Alain Cugno, Floriane Dupuis, Jean-Philippe Grillet, Étienne Hurault, Guilhem Lesaffre, Marie Lescroart, Philippe Mouche, List has been recording the Jean-Baptiste Pouchain, Ronan Rousseau, Ann & Steve Toon, Nathalie Kouyoumdjian (sub-editor)), Léonie Schlosser (maps). conservation status of thousands CONTRACT PUBLISHING of threatened species. Executive editor-in-chief: Olivier Thevenet [email protected] + 33 (0)4 79 26 28 26 26 NATIONAL RED LIST Sub-editor: Cécile Dufrène + 33 (0)4 79 26 16 63 FRANCE: [email protected] Sub-editor: Stéphanie Reynaud 27 A STATUS UPDATE [email protected] A look at France’s undertakings, and Art director : Ivan Racine 49 [email protected] at country-level species assessment. Graphic designer: Gaëlle Haas 48 [email protected] 28 NFOGRAPHICS Bayard Nature et Territoires assistant: Emmanuelle Kerbati 60 ; THE RED LIST: [email protected] SALES & ADVERTISING A PRIMER Advertising director: Valérie Gourhant To fi nd out more, especially about +33 (0) 1 74 31 62 84 ; [email protected] 50 the Red List allocation criteria. Artworker: Morgane Genty +33 (0)1 74 31 69 72 [email protected] REPORT Invoicing: Bayard Publicité +33 (0)1 74 31 69 89 30 PORTFOLIO EDITORIAL AND SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE: SAIGA, NOMAD Martin Arnould, Christophe Aubel, Marie-Christine Blandin, HOW ARE YOU DOING? NIGGE Alain Cugno, Michel Delmas, Odile Gauthier, Jean-Philippe Grillet, OF THE STEPPE A close-up on the health status Chantal Jouanno, Dominique Lang, Catherine Laurain, Jean-Claude Lefeuvre, François Lemarchand, François Letourneux, KLAUS of species around the world. Erik Orsenna, Pierre Rabhi, Agnès Rochefort-Turquin Business club Terre Sauvage 48 ACTION MARIGOLD Terre des hommes Nature & Découvertes - Voyageurs du Monde IS THE TIDE Yves Rocher - Petzl - Melvita Léa Nature - Pur Projet - Zooparc de Beauval TURNING FOR THE Individual past issues and replenishment for newsagents: + 33(0) 800 22 86 22 (n° vert) SEA MARIGOLD? Director of administration and fi nance: Céline Cavalié-Marty This plant endemic to Sicily, Production : Vincent Tixier, Mathilde Jalès-Laplanche Calendula maritima, is under threat, Presstalis sales : Philippe Orillac Terre Sauvage is published by Milan Presse SAS, 300, but programmes are being set up. rue Léon-Joulin, 31100 Toulouse, France. CHAIRMAN AND PUBLISHER: Bayard Presse, represented by Georges Senerot. 50 REPORT Main shareholder: Bayard Presse Investissement. SAIGA, NOMAD OF PRODUCTION Photoengraver:Belgomedia (B Verviers) THE STEPPE Printer: Maury (ZI, 45330 Malesherbes) A journey to the Eurasian Steppe, in IPrinted on chlorine-free bleached paper from sustainably managed forests. search of a much-coveted antelope. JACQUEMOUD

N° de commission paritaire : 0718 K 83444. . H Copyright depost: December 2014, 12 issues a year;

COLLECTE ET ÉLIMINE publication distributed by Transport Presse. LA TOTALITÉ DE SES DÉCHETS 60 INTERVIEW Imprimé ISSN 0981-4140. Registered member of Diffusion Contrôle OJD. chez Maury, Your personal details (surname, fi rst name, address) are intended for entreprise Groupe Bayard, to which Terre Sauvage publisher Milan Presse belongs. JEAN-CHRISTOPHE VIÉ certifi ée These details are recorded in your customer fi le in order to process Imprim’vert your subscription. Bank-account details aside, they are liable to be sent The Depty Director of the IUCN outside the European Community for the purpose of registering and 76 processing your subscription and subscription renewal. In accordance Global Species Programme, with the amended French data-protection law of January 6th 1978, you CONSERVATION may exercise your right to access and amend your details by writing and Director of the SOS – Save to: Bayard (CNIL), TSA 10065, 59714 Lille cedex, France. If you do not want your data to be used by our partners for commercial canvassing NATURE’S Our Species initiative. purposes, you must advise us in writing at the same address. CUSTODIANS

4 Terre Sauvage N°311 CONTENTS

PORTFOLIO TO KNOW HOW ARE WHAT’S WHAT 30 YOU DOING? The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™ uses categories ranging from Not Evaluated to Extinct, based on defi ned criteria (see p.28). 64 REPORT For each of the species featured in VULTURES UNDER this issue, one of the symbols below THREAT: WHO IS is shown to indicate its category. GOING TO DO THE DIRTY WORK? EX EXTINCT It’s time to take action to help these natural carcass disposers, EW EXTINCT IN THE WILD which are essential yet fragile.

72 ACTION REPTILES CR CRITICALLY ENDANGERED SAVING THE CROCS’ SKIN EN ENDANGERED With farming and trade now regulated, crocodiles have VU VULNERABLE rebounded in recent years. NATUREPL

76 CONSERVATION / NT NEAR THREATENED TIPLING

NATURE’S

CUSTODIANS DAVID LC LEAST CONCERN Nonprofi ts, foundations, local communities – we look at the exemplary projects being DD DATA DEFICIENT conducted worldwide. NE NOT EVALUATED 82 INTERVIEW FINANCE, YES DEGRADATION, NO Élisa Vacherand talks about the BNP Paribas Group’s pro-active commitment. SOS – Save Our Species is a global alliance initiated by IUCN, the 84 REPORT Global Environment Facility (GEF) SAVING THAILAND’S and the World Bank. It gathers BLOOD WOOD funds to devise species conservation To halt the black market in programmes worldwide. rosewood, the rangers in When species are the subject Thailand’s national parks are of an SOS programme, we tracking the mafi a’s poachers. display the above logo. 94 Shopping 95 Books 96 Travel ideas 98 The fi refl y and the philosopher DECEMBER 2014 - N°311 FREE

VIVRE LA NATURE ! 84 Sauvage Terre REPORT SAVING THAILAND’S TOON . S BLOOD WOOD COVER PHOTOS: ET

. Nature Picture Library A WILD TALK BY YANN CHAVANCE

Biomimetics Ornithology AN EPIC MASTERS RAPTORS BOOST OF LIGHT BIODIVERSITY To protect an ecosystem, start CHRISTMAS TOUR! off by protecting its raptors! BY DENIS CHEISSOUX, That, roughly speaking, is the Journalist and producer of the “CO2 mon amour” conclusion of a Finnish study radio programme on France Inter that observed greater biodiversity in areas where Let’s go, reindeer! It’s time for birds of prey nested. There is, our 24-hour Christmas deli- it appears, a simple reason for very round! And without a jet ISTOCK this: raptors hunt a wide engine on the back or injections Giant clams? They’re nothing range of prey, which, in turn, of EPO. I’ve checked with the less than underwater solar leave the coast clear for a energy plants. That’s the COULOUMY

IUCN Red List, and the out- multitude of species that fi nd look for reindeer is upbeat. For discovery made recently by an refuge near where these

CHRISTIAN everything else, it’s a disaster. American team studying predators live. The This year there’s been heavy demand for videos and books these huge shellfi sh with the researchers think that about threatened species. People are fascinated by the colourful mantle. And it is the protecting raptors’ nests ambient chaos. How many friends on “Face bok”? 22, mantle – especially its could be an effective, 413 – which is how many species, give or take, we’ll soon iridescent cells – that has inexpensive way of see stuffed in museums. We’re expanding the world, but attracted interest from safeguarding an ecosystem’s shrinking nature.And there are even whole cities on the scientists. To pamper the biodiversity. Red List: Beijing, Mexico City, Shanghai… The rein- algae that live inside the deer are struggling to breathe. And then you’ve got local clams, and in symbiosis with Evolution specifi cities: when I fl y over Brittany, they think I’m a them, these cells uniformly red-capped protester and want me to help wreck an eco- direct rays of light towards GRIPPING STUFF tax gantry! Ah, come on, reindeer – you can’t stop four the algae, while protecting Generally speaking, hours in! Don’t tell me you’re working a shorter week – them from burns. The cells evolutionary mechanisms and anyway, we do the job in one night and one day. If also “sort” the wavelengths of occur over millions of years. you’re not happy, I’ll call the employers’ union! When I the light, refl ecting those that But an American team has look at all the stuff I lug around, I’m appalled, frankly. play no role in photosynthesis. been fortunate enough to Alongside the sleigh, I should tow a plastic-sorting bin, or According to the researchers, observe a small lizard, the take some of the gifts straight to the garbage tip. In some this system could inspire the Green Anole (Anolis Western countries, 15% of presents are never actually photovoltaic panels of the carolinensis) gradually unwrapped.… Hang on, what’s that ahoy? The manger future. evolving over a mere 15-year and the nativity scene. The ox is still in the stable, but span. The factor that not for much longer. Once the festive period’s over, it’ll Botanics prompted this change is the be processed into lasagne. Our Three Wise Men aren’t Brown Anole (Anolis sagrei), far away. Be careful, Gaspar(1) – THE INFLUENCE an invasive species that 22,413 with a name like that, you could OF ENDEMISM occurs in the same habitat threatened be a shale-gas lobbyist. Keep on Endemic species – those that and attacks the Green Anole’s species: we’re offering pieces of gold – it always live in one place only – are far young. The latter species expanding does the trick. Replace the incense more important for therefore began to perch the world, with the latest smartphone, and biodiversity than was higher in trees, and natural but shrinking the myrrh with mirages. When he previously thought, according selection logically favoured nature created man, God rolled the dice. to a study conducted on 15 the individuals best adapted Well, he tried... Luckily, in my sack eucalyptus species in to change. In the space of 20 there’s also Survival Guide for Honest People Who Still Tasmania. The endemic or so generations, the species Believe in Mankind, Let’s Cultivate our Garden and – very species of eucalyptus are has evolved into lizards with topically – La Boétie’s Discourse on Voluntary Servitude; thought to possess unique wider suction cups on their aged just 18, he’d got it all worked out. Hey guys, don’t characteristics, such as leaves feet, which deliver more grip. kneel down. When men become aware of themselves that stay on the tree longer, and their strength, they’ll have won. Come to think of it, compared to those of their am I on the Red List? But as I plan well ahead –I’m cousins growing elsewhere. warning you guys, this is your last year in harness. With The researchers reckon that global warming, next year I’ll be using camels instead. these species represent a pool (1) The French name sounds like “gas part” (gas exiting) of rare genes and unique

ecological niches. ISTOCK

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Code postal mmmmm Villee www.avsf.org E-mail : @ Association de solidarité internationale Conformément à la loi Informatique et Libertés du 06 Janvier 1978, vous pouvez accéder aux informations vous concernant, demander leur rectification ou leur suppression en vous adressant par écrit à AVSF. Votre adresse peut être utilisée par des tiers. Vous pouvez vous y opposer en cochant la case ci-contre T reconnue d’utilité publique SEASONAL DIARY NPL / GANDOLFI

8ANGELO Terre Sauvage N°000 DECEMBER

THE WOLF “Wolves in Paris? Are you mad!”, comes the rejoinder from a character in the fi lm La Traversée de Paris (English title: Four Bags Full or Pig Across Paris). Well no, actually, he wasn’t mad! There was a time when wolves could be found in the French capital: at the zoo of the Jardin des Plantes, to be precise. And from time to time they would howl – perhaps in desparation at being held captive. In fi lms or in zoos, we have all heard the king of the Canidae lamenting his lot. But rare are those fortunate enough to have heard the wolf in the wild. In France, however, it is possible. Though discreet, the Grey Wolf (Canis lupus) returned to French territory in 1992, after a decades-long absence. Globally rated in the Least Concern category of the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™, it is considered Vulnerable in France. Though protected, wolves fall victim to battue hunts and authorised culls, not to mention poaching… May its powerful voice resonate through our forests for a long time to come; and may its call, like an incantation to the stars, continue to thrill us.

VU VULNERABLE

Listen and look…

You can listen to the wolf with this fl ashcode. or on: http://www.terre-sauvage. com/media-les-choix-de-la- redaction/le-son-du-mois-TS/ le-son-du-mois-ts-311 More details here: www.naturophonia.com

N°311 Terre Sauvage 9 SEASONAL DIARY

ADVENT SNOWS ARE BITINGLY COLD FRANÇOIS

GUILLAUME 10 Terre Sauvage N°311 DECEMBER MY LETTER TO FATHER CHRISTMAS: A MINK, A VIOLET, AN EIDER... All of these species are on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species in France – the document that assesses the risk of extinction at country level (also see p.26), whereas the global Red List does likewise for the whole planet. These species are irreplaceable gifts, and I beg the kindly old man with the white beard to save them!

BY CATHERINE PERRIN - ILLUSTRATIONS VALENTINE PLESSY

Listen… Touch… Look… It’s the Eurasian Eagle-owl (Bubo the ice bells on the banks of a river or at the Red Crossbill (Laxia curvirostra), bubo). At twilight, at the foot of a torrent. These crystalline decorations which lives in conifer forests and in cliff in the Alps, Pyrenees or Massif appear at the end of branches that the gardens of mountain regions. This Central, you might surprise Europe’s hang over the river and are splashed large passerine, which looks like a largest nocturnal bird of prey. If a by the water. When it’s very cold, miniature parrot, catches the eye with warlike “ooo-hu” rings out, then the water freezes, creating these its ruby plumage. But what’s really it’s defi nitely what you’re after! Feel pretty iced cuffs. Remove a glove to amazing is the way it shells spruce its worrying cry, chanted over and pick one of the small bells in your seeds using its curved mandibles with over, slice through you. Be discreet hand, and you’ll feel as if you have their crossed tips. Sheer artistry! and patient, and maybe you will clasped the Snow Queen’s heart. It see its majestic silhouette outlined will send shivers down your spine! against the moon. Unforgettable!

Taste… Smell… squashes, and fi rst of all savour them the musky fragrance of the Red Fox with your eyes, such is their multitude (Vulpes vulpes). Winter is the season of varieties. There are round ones, of love: the males mark their territory, oblong ones; some are shaped liked alerting the ladies to their presence. pears, or spinning-tops, or even turbans. How is this done? By urinating! And as for their colours, it’s festival Not the most romantic of messages, time! Yellows, reds, greens and the granted, but fi endishly effective. They occasional blue. Their faintly sweet fl esh leave their scented billets doux on is delicious, and, perfumed with a hint trunks and shrubs; and leave visible of nutmeg, makes for magical soups and yellow traces in the snow. The smell gratins all winter long. Handsome and is so strong that even we humans fl avourful, squashes are also packed perceive it. Just follow your nose… with vitamins. So give yourself a treat!

N°311 Terre Sauvage 11 SEASONAL DIARY Mainland France FR . HEMIS / BARRERE . M .- J

Urban wildlife COMMON EIDER Somateria mollissima HOUSE SPARROW This triangular-headed seabird Passer domesticus is one of the waterbird species Everyone knows this lively little that winter in France. A few bird, with feathers the hue of a thousand individuals from monk’s cowl. It has long had ties Nordic climes fi nd refuge here, with man, whom it followed into from Picardy to Brittany. Does towns, fi nding board and lodging. this species also nest in France? At some time or other, we have Yes – well, after a fashion! In MASSON

all given them food, and they will the late 1990s, 25 couples were RÉMI readily scrap over a few crumbs counted, but they disappeared of bread. Some people even after the oil slicks caused by the ASPER manage to attract these perchers tanker Erika off the western coast. Zingel asper into their hand! The bird that Then in 2008, three couples were There it is, lurking on the stony La Fontaine nicknamed Pierrot observed, offering a glimmer of bed of fast-fl owing waters in (“Pete”) in his fable Le Chat et les hope – a fl ickering fl ame that the Rhône River Basin. In its Deux Moineaux (“The Cat and must be shielded from ill winds, gravel-hued scales, this maestro Two Sparrows”) seems so familiar so they don’t snuff it out. of camoufl age waits quietly for that it feels eternal. But in Europe nightfall to feed on insect larvae. CR CRITICALLY ENDANGERED it is declining. We must remain In deep winter and spring, it vigilant, so that Pete can ruffl e his breeds... though perhaps to no feathers for a long time to come. avail, because the Asper may soon be extinct. Does the little fi sh LC LEAST CONCERN know that? Of course not, but man knows. So he should do what it takes – in particular by razing certain dams and not polluting the water – so that the Asper NATURIMAGES / continues to wriggle cheerfully! SUEUR

CR CRITICALLY ENDANGERED LUDOVIC

12 Terre Sauvage N°311 DECEMBER

DWARF In the garden MOUNTAIN PINE Pinus mugo LA VIOLETTE DE ROUEN In a few Alpine mountain ranges, Viola hispida you might spot this small shrub- As charming as its cousin, the like species with its grey-brown Sweet Violet (Viola odorata), with bark and intensely green needles. amethyst and sometimes amber- Also known as the “mugo pine”, tinged petals, the Violette de it forms dense scrub on cliffs Rouen is more precious because and scree, on the upper fringe of it is very rare. Endemic to forests. It is very similar to the France, this discreet species EUROPEAN MINK Mountain Pine (Pinus uncinata), only grows on some limestone Mustela lutreola a cousin with which it sometimes hillsides in the Seine Valley With its cute face and infi nitely cross-breeds, at the risk of losing near Rouen, hence its name. soft fur, the European Mink is one its genetic identity. Its rarity Under pressure from vegetation of France’s fi ve most threatened warrants our protection, which succession, urbanisation, and mammals – a rareifi ed status it could be assured by restricting picking too, this pretty fl ower could happily do without. Fairly certain practices: forestry came very close to extinction. widespread at the turn of the 20th operations, ski-run development, Protected since 1982, it is now century, this mustelid has since and intensive pastoral farming. pampered by the Natural Spaces seen its range shrink drastically. Conservatory in Normandy, VU VULNERABLE The culprit? Destruction of and by a very special garden: wetlands, trapping for its pelt, and that of the National Botanical competition from its American Conservatory in Bailleul, cousin, which escaped from north-east France. Seeds are farms… A few remain on the kept there, and the plantlets Atlantic seafront, bravely hunting produced in greenhouses the Muskrat (Ondatra zibethicus) during winter are planted out despite the chilly weather. Let’s in spring to strengthen existing NPL save the European Mink! / populations and create new ones. NAGY

EN ENDANGERED CR CRITICALLY ENDANGERED ZOLTAN

N°311 Terre Sauvage 13 SEASONAL DIARY Overseas FR . HEMIS / SPANI

ARNAUD

Herbarium PETERS’ BRIGHT SNAKE Liophidium mayottensis WYDLER’S DANCING In the dry forest on Petite-Terre, LADY ORCHID one of Mayotte’s main islands, a Oncidium altissimum chocolate-coloured snake about a Martinique well deserves metre long slithers silently along its nickname, “the island of the ground. Peters’ Bright Snake fl owers”. Among its plant-world has spotted a lizard. It becomes wonders are a number of orchids, quite still, then suddenly lunges including Wydler’s Dancing and smothers it. In a trice, the ANTILLEAN EUPHONIA Lady Orchid, named by a Swiss hapless prey ends up in the jaws Euphonia musica botanist after its eye-catchingly of this beautiful scaled creature. In Guadeloupe, there lives a little suggestive shape. An epiphytic Non-venomous, this snake is prince with a turquoise crown species, it grows on other plants. not a danger to man, yet some and a golden seal on its forehead, Its long infl orescence, which can are hell-bent on killing it – here like a hallmark indicating great reach two metres in length, is as elsewhere, idiotic traditions value. The glow of its lemony covered by hundreds of fl owers die hard! A pity for this animal, belly is matched only by its shrill, in spring. So it isn’t yet the which exists nowhere else… sparkling song. In the rainforests, season to admire these dazzling this delightful passerine fl its CR CRITICALLY ENDANGERED little gems on the orchid’s host from branch to branch, seeking trees, but the wait is part of the the Mistletoe (Viscum album) pleasure... However, this orchid berries of which it is so fond. it is paying a high price for its Soon, amid the tall trees and beauty, alas! Too many people fl owers, it will be time for the have plucked it to plant nuptials of the birds which the it in their garden or to French nickname “le roi-bois”, or sell it. It is one of the 162 “king of the woods”. May their plant species threatened by wedlock be fruitful; and may NATURIMAGES

extinction in Martinique. / their lineage forever grace this Monitoring required!! beautiful West Indian island. VERNEAU

VU VULNERABLE VU VULNERABLE NORBERT

14 Terre Sauvage N°311 CARNETDECEMBER DE SAISON

REUNION ISLAND Sticking around? Reunion’s cast of reptiles hree millions years ago, the Indian humans came ashore, only one remained includes several geckos. These Ocean’s turquoise waters began to by 1840. Unfortunately for them, they had small lizards have adhesive foot Tbubble in awesome turmoil. Some way been marked down as “good to eat” by the pads enabling them to climb over off the coast of Madagascar, the Earth was invaders, who didn’t hold back. These are two all surfaces, especially in trees. giving birth to a volcanic island, spitting the fi re examples of extinct species, lost because they Several species are green, such as of nascent life. An island that was later named only lived on Reunion. During the following the Reunion Ornate Day Gecko Reunion. Plants gradually covered it. centuries, the situation did not improve (Phelsuma inexpectata). The red, Then animals settled there, having on the island, which is covered white and black stripes that run journeyed from other climes on with tropical forest and home from its head to rear set it apart makeshift rafts. Evolution to a unique wealth of biodiversity. from the other species, such as did its work, yielding species The IUCN Red List of Threatened the Reunion Island Day Gecko which, in isolation, acquired Species™ published in 2010 revealed (Phelsuma borbonica). These specifi c characteristics that that 165 animal species on the island face two species, endemic to the distinguished them from their extinction, such as the Reunion Cuckooshrike island, are threatened by the ancestors and distant cousins. These (Coracina newtoni), a small forest bird that has degradation and destruction are called “endemic” species. There was, suffered from the introduction of rats and cats. of their forest habitat. for example, the Reunion Ibis (Threskiornis Facing the same predicament are 275 plant solitarius), an ibis that had lost the ability to fl y; species, 82 of them endemic to the island. and the easy-going Reunion Giant Tortoise The causes are well known – urbanisation, (Cylindraspis indica). Both lived a quiet life on introduction of invasive species, degradation Reunion Ornate their island, fearing no predator… until the of natural habitats, etc. - so action is possible. Day Gecko 16th century. Man, that compulsive coloniser, Protecting part of the island, with the national CR CRITICALLY ENDANGERED disembarked on their garden of Eden. The park and nature reserves, should help limit Portuguese, and then the French, who named the damage, as should conservation plans for it “l’île Bourbon” after the king’s family name. certain species, such as a beautiful small tree, Soon, this paradise became hell for numerous Dombeya populnea. Whoever forgets history native species. The Reunion Ibis died out in is condemned to relive it – so let us not forget Reunion Island the early 18th century; and of the two million what became of the Reunion Ibis and the Day Gecko giant tortoises that populated the island before Reunion Giant Tortoise! EN ENDANGERED

N°311N Terre Sauvage 15 SEASONAL DIARY BY GUILHEM LESAFFRE

The white streak on the wings creates a shimmering effect as they beat.

A powerful beak and a long tail form its typical outline.

The young shrike’s mask and beak are not as dark.

GREAT GREY SHRIKE Lanius excubitor

With my black eye band, I have to say that I wings. After that, I just need to dismember neat, but it’s welcoming, with its lining of look just like a masked bandit! And that, some my prey. I might do so right away, or secure feathers and hair. Our home is located quite would probably say, is quite suitable. It’s true it in a bush larder, the better to focus on it, high up in a tree, and is often well hidden in that I’m what’s called a “predator”. In our especially if it’s a bulky specimen. Impaled a ball of mistletoe. In April or early May, my family, that’s just the way it is. Although we’re on a thorn or lodged in a fork of branches, partner will lay fi ve to seven eggs, which she only passerines, we behave like little birds of it’s easier to tear limb from limb – and, lastly, must sit on for two weeks. After being raised prey – me especially. After all, I do measure another advantage is that once I’m full up, I for three weeks, the brood will be ready for almost 25 centimetres in length. My feet can leave it hanging there, away from their maiden fl ight. Then, during the summer, could be a blackbird’s, but my beak all sorts of robbers. This winter, the kids will fl y the nest and leave us in peace gives the game away about my I’ll mainly devote myself to at last. ■ eating habits. Hooked and fairly fi nding food in my territory of strong, it’s a precious tool for meadows, hedges and copses. EN ENDANGERED fi nishing off my prey. Which In March, and maybe as is just as well, because a House early as February, I’ll need to Sparrow (Passer domesticus) seduce a partner. It won’t be or a Water Vole (Arvicola easy, because they are fewer terrestris) are quite a decent size! and further between. Fewer When lying in wait, I can hover thick hedges means less prey TO GO FURTHER as well as a Common Kestrel (Falco and more chemical pesticides – Books revised by Michel Cuisin, tinnuculus). But my usual hunting and that’s not good for us! To achieve • Les pies-grièches and published in 2010 by d’Europe, d’Afrique du Delachaux et Niestlé. Also technique means I dot the i’s, if you like. Most my aim, I won’t hesitate to adopt fl attering very useful. often, you’ll see me perched in clear view, on stances and exercise my voice. I often let out Nord et du Moyen-Orient, written by the undisputed Websites the end of a small branch rising from the top of whistles – some strident, some melodious – specialist on these birds, www.birdphoto.fi a large hedge or an isolated tree. A convenient and they certainly attract attention, I can tell Norbert Lefranc. Published This Finnish site features vantage-point for spotting a large insect, a you. Once we’ve paired up, it’ll be time for in 1993 by Delachaux et Niestlé. superb photos, and the small rodent, or a fl edgling bird. Then, all I work! I help with the lengthy job of building shrike’s voice is played in • Passereaux d’Europe, the background. have to do is whoosh down onto my target, the nest, though I’m not the main contributor. Tome II, by Paul Géroudet, revealing the beautiful mixed markings on my Imagine a large platform of twigs. It’s not very

16 Terre Sauvage N°311

THE HISTORY OF THE RED LIST 50 YEARS OF THE BAROMETER OF LIFE

BY MARIE LESCROART First published in 1964, the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species has established itself as the barometer of life, delivering the undeniable truth about the conservation status of thousands of species. At the same time, it provides reasons to sustain our hope in man, who is capable of acting for the common good. RED LIST BAROMETER OF LIFE

weather map to locate areas of hill. With the team, we were clambering upriver, over rough conditions at a glance. pebbles, when I brushed a frog with my hand. I can still An encyclopaedia that brings hear myself shouting “Frog in water!” in the hope that together the best available someone would catch it, which fortunately they did. When knowledge. A website that lists I examined the highly characteristic webbing of its feet, the options for repairing the I felt truly relieved. After 30 years of fruitless searching, repairable. A wealth of data I honestly thought the species was extinct.” that relies on the commitment In 2004, seven years before Blair Hedges found this of volunteer contributors. A specimen, IUCN published its fi rst Global Amphibian high-calibre think tank that Assessment. “As Coordinator of the Caribbean Reptile and A gathers the fi nest experts in Amphibian Specialist Group, I was tasked with writing their fi eld... Clearly, the Red List is much more than a list. a fi rst version of the IUCN status of the region’s amphi- Now 50 years old, but stemming from at least a century of bian species,” he explains. “This work provided the basis fi eld research, of theoretical progress in conservation bio- for a workshop held in the Dominican Republic, which logy, and of international cooperation, this incredible sum brought together 25 experts. It took us a week’s intensive of knowledge about wild species, although little known to work to arrive at a defi nitive assessment of the region’s the general public, has become essential to everyone fi ghting amphibians. We then sent it to the IUCN’s Amphibian to protect biodiversity. Specialist Group, who sent it to the Red List Unit, whose One of the 9,000 experts from across the world who job it is to check that the criteria are properly applied.” contribute to this vast resource is Blair Hedges, an amphi- This laborious protocol guarantees the quality of the bian specialist. In his laboratory at Temple information on the Red List. University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, In this fi rst complete assessment of the he is an affable, self-composed scientist. planet’s frogs, newts and salamanders, But once out in the fi eld, he turns into a the Foothill Robber Frog was rated as formidable frog catcher, as deftly skilful Critically Endangered. “Even though as the local village kids. I hadn’t found it at the time, I hadn’t searched suffi ciently to conclude it was FROM AMPHIBIANS TO PLANTS Extinct,” explains Hedges. But in view of For more than 30 years, Blair Hedges the collections kept in museums, which has been making expeditions to the most testifi ed to the species’ fairly extensive inaccessible hills of Haiti. On foot or by past presence in Haiti, the researcher helicopter, he and his small team of natu- was able to assume that the frog’s habitat ralists travel to corners of forest spared was deteriorating fast, and that its natu- by the deforestation that is blighting this ral range had shrunk to next to nothing steep and rugged island, in order to seek in just a few years… In short, the little rare and often endemic specimens. His amphibian met all the criteria for belon- purpose is to map their habitats in order ging to the Red List’s highest category of to protect them; set up conservation pro- risk of extinction in the wild. “The fact grammes; and, above all, establish the that we found a specimen later on didn’t degree of threat these species face. “Of alter this status,” he points out. all Haiti’s endemic amphibians, a frog Thanks to IUCN, the Foothill Robber from the Tiburon torrents, the Foothill Frog was found to have a point in common Robber Frog (Eleutherodactylus semipalma- with the Fregate Island Giant Tenebronid tus), was among those causing me most Beetle (Polposipus herculeanus), in the concern,” he says. “In nearly 30 years Seychelles; the Giant Kangaroo Rat of fi eld research, I had never spotted it. (Dipodomys ingens), endemic to California; Then fi nally, in July 2011, I found it in a the African Wild Ass (Equus africanus); BLAIR HEDGES small torrent, on the edge of a forest that’s BLAIR HEDGES, amphibian specialist, the Indian Vulture (Gyps indicus)… What still very well preserved, on Grand-Bois found the Foothill Robber Frog in 2004. they have in common is not a talent for

N°311 Terre Sauvage 19 OUR VANISHING WILD LIFE, from which the above illustrations are taken, was published in the early 20th century in America. The book forcefully condemned the devastation caused to fauna by human activities, especially hunting, and called for legislation.

jumping or a delicate croak, but their alarming conservation Only in the early 20th century, with the fi rst visible damage status. The real strength of the Red List is the criteria used to the environment, did people start talking about the risk of to allocate the various levels of species conservation status. extinction amid the beginnings of the nature-conservation The criteria are precise, refl ecting the risk of the species movement. One of the few books published on the subject at becoming extinct. And they are universal, adapting to all that time, Our Vanishing Wild Life, is a stirring plea to protect – or nearly all – forms of life: vertebrates, invertebrates, America’s fl ora and fauna. In this 400-page tome from 1913, plants and fungi, even though the list to date contains only author William T. Hornaday condemns the ongoing destruc- 18 species from the latter group. “Only bacteria cannot yet tion of North American wildlife, and calls for urgent legis- be assessed,” says Craig Hilton-Taylor, director of the IUCN lation to protect it. “Except within our conservation areas, Red List Unit, which oversees the whole process. an earthly paradise is being turned into an earthly hades,” wrote Henry Fairfi eld Osborn, president of the New York THE BIRTH OF THE IUCN RED LIST Zoological Society, in his dreadfully premonitory foreword. In a Paris café, in-between a Unesco symposium and a “And it is not savages nor primitive men who are doing this, meeting in Cambridge, England, Craig Hilton-Taylor tells but men and women who boast of their civilization. Air and the IUCN Red List’s long story. “Humans have always been water are polluted, rivers and streams serve as sewers and interested in what is exceptional,” he begins. “There’s a bit dumping grounds, forests are swept away and fi shes are dri- of a collector’s refl ex.” The Red List’s roots may stretch back ven from the streams. Many birds are becoming extinct, and to the early 17th century, when a chemist, Thomas Johnson, certain mammals are on the verge of extermination.” On the undertook a long journey around England to document the book’s cover is an etching of a Passenger Pigeon (Ectopistes rarest plants and write a book about them. “But ultimately,” migratorius). Endemic to the North American continent, this stresses Hilton-Taylor, “his work has little in common with bird still existed in stunningly large populations, estimated ours. There’s not necessarily a correlation between the rarity in the billions, in the mid-19th century. In 1914, the species’ of a species and its risk of extinction: if its habitat and popu- last representative died in her cage at Cincinnati Zoo. Most lation are stable, the fact that it’s localised or has a small astonishingly, no one really knows what caused its extinction. population isn’t in itself a threat to its survival.” Theories include an introduced disease, habitat destruction,

20 Terre Sauvage N°311 RED LIST BAROMETER OF LIFE DAVE WATTS/NPL DAVE THE TASMANIAN WOLF, or thylacine, as featured in the book Our Vanishing Wild Life with this caption: “Exterminated by Tasmanian sheep farmers.”

and excessive hunting. For until the early 19th century, there ‘Here’s what must be done, and here are your options’.” were contests that rewarded the fi rst hunter to kill more than When you claim the ability to advise governments, you need 20,000 doves… However, between the two irrefutable information. world wars, there was a fi ne line between A year after the IUCN was founded, naturalists and hunters. Westerners who a dedicated service was set up with the went off on expeditions to study animals in purpose, said its president Hal Coolidge, Africa and Asia often carried a rifl e on their of “gathering, assessing and disseminating shoulder. One of them was Hal Coolidge, information and studies relating to all a relative of America’s 30th president and The Red List species of fauna and fl ora under threat a primatology pioneer. He soon laid down of extinction, in order to assist govern- his arms and then in 1948 helped to found covers 4% of the ments and the agencies concerned with the International Union for Protection of ensuring their survival”. This service Nature (which a little later became the planet’s known became the Species Survival Commission International Union for Conservation of biodiversity (SSC), which today comprises more than Nature). He went on to set up the World 9,000 volunteer experts, split into 130 Wildlife Fund (WWF), originally created specialist groups, who contribute their to raise money for IUCN. “IUCN is the expertise to the Red List. “In 1949, a fi rst only organisation of mixed composition, red data book on threatened species was comprising non-governmental organisations published,” says Craig Hilton-Taylor. “It (NGOs) and countries,” explains Hilton-Taylor. “This gives contained 14 mammal species and 13 bird species – mainly it offi cial permanent observer status at the UN General large animals and game.” A few years later, IUCN realised Assembly. Its role is to give governments an independent that the book’s information had quickly become obsolete. “By opinion, and to act as a mediator between them and NGOs. way of modernisation, the book became a card index system, Unlike NGOs, we will never tell a government, ‘Here’s what which made it easy to update data and gradually add new you must do to protect this species’; instead, we will say, entries,” says Hilton-Taylor. The number of cards expanded

N°311 Terre Sauvage 21 RED LIST BAROMETER OF LIFE

slowly: in 1958, 10 years after IUCN was they’d seen in towns. So I was very proud created, only 26 mammals were listed. of supplying this new information. Having Meanwhile, IUCN delegated the job of “I spent whole said that, the revelations Coimbra and I updating the bird data to the International provided were of very minor importance.” Council for Bird Preservation (ICBP)*. days reading Card after card, binder after binder, the red book of threatened species gradually FROM INDEX TO DATABASE the fi rst red grew thicker. Craig Hilton-Taylor picks up “Starting the card index was an impor- the story again. “Updates and new cards tant step. It might have been viewed as the data book on were produced until 1981, but no complete starting-point of the Red List story,” says data set, with all the updates, has been Craig Hilton-Taylor. “But the main event mammals” found,” he says regretfully. “When upda- identifi ed was the publication, in 1964, of ted cards were sent in, the user’s manual a list of rare birds and a preliminary list RUSSELL A. MITTERMEIER recommended tearing out the previous of rare mammals.” These two documents, versions.” In the 1980s, the information on 10,000 copies of which were distributed the cards was computerised. “Today, the to the organisation’s members, were the IUCN Red List’s huge database is stored most complete list of threatened species in Cambridge, England,” says the Red List produced thus far by IUCN, and also the Unit Manager. most widely distributed. Two years later, in 1966, the “Red Data Book of Threatened UNIVERSAL, IRREFUTABLE Species” was published for the fi rst time. CRITERIA It comprised two volumes in binders: one There was a hitch, though. In fact, two for mammals, one for birds. hitches. First, the cost of printed publi- Back then, Russell A. Mittermeier – a cation prevented wide distribution of the long-time president of NGO Conservation information, which affected the effi ciency International with azure eyes, silver mane of the endeavour. “This problem was solved R. MITTERMEIER R. and Hollywood good looks – was still at by deciding to only publish summaries, high school. The memory moves him, even now. “I don’t updated every two years, which contain the species’ name know how I got to hear about these books, or how I ordered and Red List category, and the countries where its natural my fi rst copy of the Red Book of Mammals. But as soon as range is located,” explains Hilton-Taylor. The second pro- I received it, I remember falling into a state of fascination: blem – the system of categories was deemed too hazy and I spent whole days reading it, right to the last page. These heterogeneous. “Between 1949 and 1968, the experts who fi rst red data books were as austere as administrative docu- produced the Red Data books used their own vocabulary to ments, but they collated the best data then available. They describe species’ status,” he says. Subsequently, attempts soon became an encyclopaedia and a bible for everyone with at standardisation were made, but as there was no precise a passion for saving species.” A few years later, Mittermeier criterion for judging whether a species was Vulnerable or began working as a fi eld primatologist, embarking on the Endangered, the species’ conservation status could depend path that would see him become a leading nature-protec- on whether the observer was an optimist! And this made tion fi gure. At that time, he began contributing to the Red checks and comparisons impossible… Defi ning universal List himself. “I can picture myself back in October 1973, in criteria to estimate a species’ risk of extinction was a complex Tijuca National Park in Rio. With my friend Adelmar Faria matter, and it took a long time to resolve the issue. In 1991, Coimbra-Filho, a pioneer of primatology in Brazil, we were two specialists in conservation biology, British Georgina just returning from an expedition to the Brazilian Amazon Mace and American Russell Lande, proposed a new assess- to study uakaris and sakis. We were sitting on the ground ment system; and based on their work an “IUCN Red List fi lling in new data sheets for these species, and while doing of Threatened Species” was presented in Montreal in 1996. so, we realised that the information in the fi rst red data books “For the fi rst time, the conservation status of all the world’s was actually second, or even third hand! In fact, it came birds and mammals was listed in one volume, using one from 19th-century European explorers who had obtained it method,” says Craig Hilton-Taylor. “And it also included the from the local people, or from observing captive specimens status of some commercial marine species,” which caused

22 Terre Sauvage N°311 THE IBERIANLYNX, listed asCriticallyEndangered, madethecover oftheRedList.

IUCN RED LIST BAROMETER OF LIFE

trouble. “The fi shermen weren’t happy fi sh (sharks and rays), etc. – provides ano- seeing IUCN assessing their target species. ther perspective on biodiversity. “Before They pressured governments to get the Red the conservation status of amphibians was List criteria revised, to take better account “We will say, published in 2004, many specialists were of the specifi cities of ocean ecosystems and reporting a meteoric decline in their popu- fi shing practices.” This led to a new sys- ‘Here’s what lations. But without the big picture, it was tem being published in 2001. In use since impossible to gauge the rate of decline and then, it comprises nine categories, each must be done, its geographical extent,” explains Simon corresponding to data that are quantitative Stuart, who chairs the IUCN Species and therefore measurable, verifi able and and here are Survival Commission. “Through group comparable, on population size, a species’ assessment, we have realised that some geographical range, and its probability of your options’” populations of amphibians, especially in extinction. This assessment method will be CRAIG HILTON-TAYLOR America, were falling too quickly for the used for a long time to come. “If you keep cause to be traffi cking or habitat destruc- changing the status allocation criteria,” tion – which are also very real threats.” explains Craig Hilton-Taylor, “you can’t The suspected cause of this rapid decline track the actual progress or regression of is a series of diseases due to viruses, bac- species over time.” teria and fungi, some of which may be spread by human activities. On the basis THE ENDLESS EFFORTS OF THE of this assessment, a coalition of NGOs, RED LIST VOLUNTEERS the Amphibian Survival Alliance (ASA), Mace and Lande’s remarkable work gave formed around the IUCN Amphibian the Red List’s criteria the value of an inter- Specialist Group. “They’re developing a national standard. Pete Lowry, a botanist new strategy to protect these species, pri- at the Missouri Botanical Garden in the marily through seeking remedies to these United States, and a research associate diseases,” explains Stuart. Such advances G. HILTON TAYLOR G. HILTON at France’s National Museum of Natural could never have been achieved without History (MNHN), comments: “Botanists are increasin- the Red List. But the Red List is endless: “The usual gly applying the criteria systematically, every time they plan is for each group to be re-assessed every 10 years,” discover or name a new species. And when they publish a admits Jennifer Luedke, Deputy Coordinator of the description of it, they also publish its conservation status. SSC’s Amphibian Red List Authority. “The amphibian We volunteer to do this because we think it’s a worthwhile re-assessment should have been published in 2014, but process.” And with good reason: “I’ve seen mining com- we’re going to be a least a year late. Primarily because we panies send colleagues out in the fi eld to ascertain the need to include the 916 newly-described species, which conservation status of all the plants potentially under were discovered thanks to the mobilisation that followed threat on the site they’re looking to mine, then send them publication of the fi rst edition!” back again, and again, until the area’s fl ora are suffi ciently well known for them to be sure that no species within the POOLING EFFORTS AND COLLECTING potential mine perimeter is Critically Endangered accor- DONATIONS ding to the Red List,” says Lowry. Scientists, researchers, With 76,199 species having been assessed at least once industrial companies, governments… “Everyone has an using the new criteria, the IUCN Red List now covers interest in getting reliable information on species’ risk of 4% of the planet’s known biodiversity. “We aim to reach extinction,” concludes the botanist. “In fact, that’s why 160,000 species by 2020,” says Craig Hilton-Taylor. But New Caledonia is currently setting up an IUCN Red it will not be possible to completely assess some groups, List authority for its rich local fl ora, which has a high such as plants, within a reasonable timescale. “With the level of endemism.” Plants for People programme,” he adds, “we’ve decided Assessing a whole group – as has already been done for to prioritise assessment, by 2016, of 6,000 plant species mammals, birds, amphibians, cycads (palm-like plants), that are important for human populations – whether conifers, warm water reef-building corals, cartilaginous they’re medicinal plants, trees used for their wood, palm

24 Terre Sauvage N°311 trees, or wild relatives of cultivated plants. Frog (Mantella aurantiaca) of Madagascar, This will enable us to identify the priority the Sulawesi Babirusa (Babyrousa celeben- regions for protecting wild plants that are sis), and the Asian freshwater turtles. But useful to man.” all of them need help. Once listings have been made, coming According to the Red List, 4,635 spe- to the aid of biodiversity requires not just cies are Critically Endangered. But the goodwill, but resources too. And these good news is that conservationists now are often scattered. This is why, in 2010, know how to set up effective programmes IUCN set up the Save Our Species (SOS) to protect biodiversity. One example is initiative with the Global Environment the Arabian Oryx (Oryx leucoryx). This Facility and the World Bank. The idea: pool magnifi cent antelope, the last wild speci- resources to enable joint actions and attract men of which was killed in 1972, is back new sources of funding. “Our mission is in the desert following a successful captive to collect money from public authorities, breeding programme. Its Red List status private-sector companies and civil society has thus changed from Extinct in the Wild to give concrete support to fi eld projects,” to Vulnerable. Just one piece of proof that, explains Jean-Christophe Vié, Director day after day, it is entirely up to us whether S. WIDSTRAND/NPL S. of SOS. “Thanks to the Species Survival this list edges closer to a picture of disaster Commission’s expertise, we select the most or that of a wonderful rescue. ■ effective projects for the species that objec- tively need most help.” In its four-year exis- tence, SOS has given $9 million in support to nearly 90 projects that directly target threatened species. Some of these species * The ICBP has since become Birdlife International, one of the world’s leading federations of wildlife protec- are charismatic, like the Snow Leopard; tion bodies; one of its members is the Bird Protection others, less so, such as the Golden Mantella League (LPO) in France.

TO GO FURTHER Websites • To coincide with the Red List’s • Blair Hedges, amphibian • In 2004, the fi rst publication of English). • The portal of the IUCN Red List 50th anniversary, IUCN has specialist, has created the the IUCN Red List’s chapters on www.amphibians.org leads to two websites. Click left created a website devoted to the Caribnature/Haiti website, a amphibians revealed this group’s for the regular Red List site, event. wealth of information about alarming decline: one third are • To fi nd out all about the Save which gives access to all the You can sign a petition and Caribbean ecosystems, their threatened with extinction. As a Our Species - SOS initiative and information contained in the list. make a donation so that more species, and threats to them, result, the IUCN Amphibian the projects it funds: Click right for a different, slightly species can be assessed. especially in Haiti. Specialist Group set up the www.sospecies.org more fun approach. Now you 50.iucnredlist.org www.caribnature.org Amphibian Survival Alliance just need to choose! (ASA). Together, they have www.iucnredlist.org launched a dedicated website (in

N°311 Terre Sauvage 25 NATIONAL RED LIST

FRANCE: A STATUS UPDATE BY CATHERINE PERRIN

Did you know that 9% of the mam- experts are involved in this long and laborious endeavour. mals and 21% of the amphibians Out of the 50 or so countries to have already published one in France could die out in the near or more Red Lists, France, together with Switzerland, is most future? And how do we know that? advanced, having assessed the largest proportion of species. Thanks to the Red List of Threatened Nevertheless, much still needs to be done. Assessing the 5,000 Species in France. plants and 40,000 arthropods in mainland France will not be The global Red List measures the risk easy and will take time – not to mention the marine species. of a species becoming extinct world- Such is the effort demanded of a country with particularly D wide, while a national list assesses this rich biodiversity, especially overseas, where there are hun- risk in a country. And the risk is not necessarily the same dreds of species under global threat. France therefore bears in both cases. The Brown Bear (Ursus arctos) is rated as a heavy responsibility. Critically Endangered in France because there are only 20 or so individuals remaining in the Pyrenees; but the estimated AN ESSENTIAL TOOL FOR ACTION global population is 200,000, hence its listing in the Least What exactly is France doing? A national Red List is essential Concern category on the global Red List. But for species to help NGOs shape their strategy; and governments, their endemic to France, the risk of extinction is the same natio- public policies on nature protection. But it is not in itself a list nally and globally. For example, the Reunion Cuckooshrike of priority species. “Once lists have been published, half the (Coracina newtoni), a small bird from this French island in work’s been done,” says Florian Kirchner. “Priorities must the Indian Ocean, is Critically Endangered on the Red List then by identifi ed so we can defi ne the actions to be carried both nationally and globally: if it died out in France, it would out. To do this, other criteria must be taken into account: a quite simply be extinct. nationally threatened species is all the more urgent a priority if it is also threatened worldwide and if the country hosts a A LONG, VAST AND LABORIOUS ENDEAVOUR large percentage of its population – and even all its population In our country, the fi rst Red List – on reptiles and amphi- in the case of endemic species.” This is the case, for instance, bians – was published in 2008. Does this mean nothing had of the Aran Rock Lizard (Iberolacerta aranica), a reptile ende- been done previously? Of course not, but the two reference mic to the Pyrenees that only exists in France and Spain. works, published in 1995, were incomplete, based on cross- After being rated Endangered nationally and globally, it was sections of species and not compiled using the methodology subject to a national action plan in conjunction with Spain. of the global Red List. “The fi ndings relied on experts’ sta- France has drawn up other action plans for threatened species, tements, which are important, but the current consensus is such as bats and the Atlantic Sturgeon (Acipenser sturio). A for any assessment to be backed up by an objective metho- Red List also assesses the factors giving rise to concern that dology, with the results then approved by experts,” explains animals and plants will become extinct. “In France, 25% of Florian Kirchner, Species Programme Offi cer with IUCN- nesting bird species are threatened,” says Florian Kirchner. France. Besides, this French inventory was no longer current “And they are proportionally more threatened here than they and needed updating. Following discussions with wildlife are worldwide. The main reason for this is our method of associations and the Ministry of Ecology, IUCN-France intensive farming, which consumes high levels of pesticides thus decided to produce an exhaustive national Red List, in and produces standardized landscapes.” And bringing about conjunction with the National Museum of Natural History a shift in French agricultural policy is no small matter ■ (MNHN), based on the model of its global counterpart. This is a vast undertaking, because the objective is to assess For more details on France’s national Red List (in French): all the species in every animal and plant group. Numerous www.uicn.fr/liste-rouge-france.html

26 Terre Sauvage N°311 ACHETER SON MAGAZINE NE SERA PLUS UNE AVENTURE ! Presstalis RCS Paris : 529 326 050 - © Esprit de Formes 2014 - Crédit photo : Getty Images : Getty photo 2014 - Crédit : 529 326 050 - © Esprit de Formes Paris RCS Presstalis

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Exhaustive studies, adapted to a EXTINCT species’ biology, make it possible (EX) to state that the last individual THE has died. Dodo Raphus cucullatus A species that only survives in RED EXTINCT captivity or in cultivation. IN THE WILD (EW) Scimitar-horned Oryx LIST: A Oryx dammah A species facing an extremely high CRITICALLY risk of extinction in the wild. ENDANGERED (CR) PRIMER Sumatran Orangutan To determine the risk of a Pongo abelii A species facing a very species dying out, experts ENDANGERED high risk of extinction apply scientifi c criteria. (EN) in the wild. This is how we know that Grandidier’s Baobab Adansonia nearly one third of the grandidieri species assessed worldwide A species facing a high risk VULNERABLE of extinction in the wild. are threatened. Some (VU) Galapagos THREATENED SPECIES THREATENED of them are the focus of Giant Turtle conservation programmes. Chelonoidis nigra A species that does not yet meet the BY CATHERINE PERRIN NEAR INFOGRAPHICS PHILIPPE MOUCHE criteria of categories VR, EN or VU, THREATENED but probably will do in the near future. (NT) Philippine Tarsier Tarsius syrichta A species that does not yet meet the LEAST criteria of categories VR, EN, VU or NT. Assessment criteria CONCERN Designates widespread and abundant (LC) species. Population reduction European Bee-eater Merops apiaster Restricted Not enough data to assess range DATA the risk of extinction. DEFICIENT Small population size (DD) Long-snouted Seahorse and continuing decline Hippocampus guttulatus Very small or restricted population A species that has not yet NOT been examined with the assessment criteria. Quantitative EVALUATED analysis (NE) King Bolete Boletus edulis

28 Terre Sauvage N°311 USER’S GUIDE

KNOWLEDGE STATUS KNOWLEDGE GAPS Living world 2014 2014 2020 target 41 Number of Number of Number of new % described assessed species species to be 4,635 Amphibians CR species (to be re-assessed) assessed 22,413 EN 6,940 34 threatened % 39,223 28,126 species Conifers VU 10,838 22,412 17,218 Corals and 33 reef builders % 76,199 Vertebrates Invertebrates 83,801 assessed species 31 64,778 1,359,365 Rays % 76,199 According to the global Red List published in 2014, and sharks some 22,413 species are under threat. However, this 18,783 assessment only covers 76,199 species, whereas 14,482 nearly 1.9 million have been identifi ed across the 26 % globe! So: much work remains to be done, especially Total on invertebrates, plants, and fungi. It is hoped that, Mammals 20 19,738 1,899,587 by 2020, the conservation status of 160,000 species will have been assessed. 13 % Fungi Plants Birds 165,305 310,129

WHERE ARE MOST MAMMALS THREATENED? Number of threatened One quarter of the world’s mammal species mammals face extinction in the coming years, succumbing to the destruction of their habitats and to being used by man for food or medicine. Of the top 12 countries with the greatest Indonesia Madagascar Mexico India Brazil number of threatened 185 116 101 96 82 mammals, half are in Asia.

China Malaysia Thailand Australia Colombia, Peru, Vietnam 74 71 57 55 54 WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THE RED LIST? (need for conservation policies) This tool monitors the Request status of biodiversity. Produced at the request of NGOs, managers and governments, it enables them to design conservation programmes for threatened species. A programme is effective if NGOs and a species is downgraded Assessment of Global, regional, biodiversity Political Implementation to a lower Red List Scientific conservation status and national Red Lists managers decision- of conservation category, for example experts of species makers policies from Endangered to Vulnerable.

Assessment of conservation policies

N°311 Terre Sauvage 29 30 Terre Sauvage 30 Terre Panthera tigris sumatrae tigris Panthera TIGER SUMATRAN ONLY 500INDIVIDUALS involving theminthisbigcat’s protection. reduce confl aim toincrease thenumberoftigers and programmes, oneofthemIUCNled, and topoaching. A numberof especially toallow plantingofoil palms, Its declineisduetodeforestation, sub-species are thoughttoremain. CR EDWIN GIESBERS / NATUREPL CRITICALLY ENDANGERED ictwithlocalpopulations, by N°311 of this tiger of thistiger PORTFOLIO HOW ARE YOU DOING? The Humpback Whale, the Lady’s Slipper Orchid, and the White-tailed Eagle are managing fairly well. But for the Sumatran Tiger, the Gorilla, and the Siamese Crocodile, the picture is gloomier… Let’s run a health check on some Very Important Species on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™. BY CATHERINE PERRIN - PHOTOS EBPHOTO/NATUREPL

N°311 Terre Sauvage 31 32 Terre Sauvage 32 Terre

CHRIS MATTISON NATUREPL DANIEL HEUCLIN NATUREPL PORTFOLIO OF FROGS, THE POISONOF THIS MOST TOXIC Phyllobates terribilis POISON FROG GOLDEN frog isalsotraffi its habitatisapriority. This poison due todeforestation, soprotecting kilometres, isconstantlyshrinking Its range, covering less than5,000square is beingstudiedtocreate newdrugs. / / EN ENDANGERED endemic toColombia, N°311 cked.

EDWIN GIESBERS / NATUREPL POISON FROG Dendrobates tinctorius populations remain stable. Itiscommonin THIS SMALLFROG AMPHIBIAN, LARGEST THE WORLD’S davidianus Andrias SALAMANDER GIANT CHINESE is adelicacy inChina. and overexploitation, astheanimal rarer. The culprit?Habitatdegradation years, ithasbecomedramatically to becommon.Butinthepast30 more thanametre inlength, used Unlike manyamphibians, itisnotunder CR forests oftheGuyanaPlateauinBrazil. threat, thoughillegallytraded. Itslarge French Guyana, where itisprotected. DYEING DYEING CRITICALLY ENDANGERED which canmeasure lives in the tropical lives inthetropical LC LEAST CONCERN its habitatmustbecomeapriority. but forthisspeciestosurvive, protecting gold-mining. Breeding programmesexist, where itspawns, by illegalartisanal by loggingandfi forests where itlivesare beingdestroyed Madagascar.of habitatineastern The occupies lessthan10square kilometres THIS HIGHLY LOCALISEDSPECIES aurantiaca Mantella MANTELLA GOLDEN CR CRITICALLY ENDANGERED res; and the ponds res; andtheponds

JP LAWRENCE / NATUREPL DAVID SHALE / NATUREPL to berare initsrange. Nevertheless, thislizard isnot considered are captured tosupplythe pet trade. intoplantations. Individuals and turned habitat: rainforest which hasbeencleared has already lostalarge proportionofits has fragmented severely andisfalling. Specialists estimatethatitspopulation impaired by forest useandfi Madagascar, which have beenheavily lives intheforests ofeastern ENDEMIC TO SRILANKA, Lyriocephalus scutatus LIZARD HUMP SNOUT THIS PINOCCHIOOFCHAMELEONS Calumma gallus CHAMELON LANCE-NOSED EN NT ENDANGERED NEAR THREATENED res. res. this reptile this reptile

NICK GARBUTT / NATUREPL IN THE EARLY 1990S, siamensis Crocodylus CROCODILE SIAMESE are inprogress. To save theanimal, release programmes collection andhydroelectric dams. relic populationsare affectedby egg Cambodia in2000.Itshighlyfragmented skin. Butthenitwas rediscovered in due toexcessive huntingtoobtainits was thoughttobeextinct inthewild, CR CRITICALLY ENDANGERED this reptile this reptile AMPHIBIANS AND REPTILES AND AMPHIBIANS

NATUREPL caught infi in thePacifi cisontheverge ofextinction. population isdoingbetter, buttheone as wellegg-poaching. The Atlantic along thecoastswhere itlaysitseggs, It isalsobeingaffectedby urbanisation causes forthislarge seaturtle’s decline. BY PLASTICS, WATER POLLUTION, ESPECIALLY coriacea Dermochelys TURTLE LEATHERBACK contribute toitsrating. which issubjecttodeforestation, continual deterioration ofitshabitat, and fragmented population, andthe in Tanzania. Itsrestricted range in theforests oncertainmountains THIS VENOMOUS SNAKE THIS VENOMOUS Atheris ceratophora VIPER EYELASH USAMBARA VU VU VULNERABLE VULNERABLE shing nets are the main shingnets are themain and being accidentally andbeingaccidentally Terre Sauvage 33 N°311 Terre is found is found

JURGEN FREUND / NATUREPL

DANIEL HEUCLIN / NATUREPL 34 Terre Sauvage 34 Terre PORTFOLIO IN TEMPERATEREGIONS, calceolus Cypripedium ORCHID SLIPPER LADY’S which facefarmore serious threats. countries, isbetteroffthanothers, is foundinFrance amongmany other But theLady’s SlipperOrchid, which picking andby habitat destruction. lips are threatened by excessive 80% oforchids withslipper-shaped LC LEAST CONCERN N°311 nearly nearly

/ BENVIE / NATUREPL WWEUROPE found inlow-density woodland, onthe despite giving cause for concern that that despite givingcauseforconcern struggling? We don’tknow: like most WIDESPREAD IN THE NORTHERN edge offorests andingardens, from spring toautumn.Isitdoingwell, or fungi, ithasnotyet beenassessed, HEMISPHERE, the speciescouldbeintrouble. Coprinus atramentariaCoprinus INK CAP this mushroom is this mushroomis NE NOT EVALUATED a limitedrange andgrowsslowly. impact too, especiallyasthistree has Recurrent fi are considered unsustainable. ofthenuts,(partly illegal)harvesting Current levelsofuse, including by apalmtree intheSeychelles. nicknamed the “bum seed”, isproduced THE WORLD’S LARGESTSEED, Lodoicea maldivica PALM COCONUT DOUBLE EN ENDANGERED res are having adramatic

PETE OXFORD / NATUREPL NATURE PROD. / NATUREPL ANGELO GANDOLFI/ NATUREPL THOMAS LAZAR NATUREPL ONCE OVEREXPLOITED, giganteum Sequoiadendron SEQUOIA GIANT / with thesequoia. fl management,past forestry which favoured Alas, itisnotsafefromfi res causedby almost exclusively inprotectedareas. American tree isfound, initsnatural state, EN ammable conifer species that compete ammable coniferspeciesthatcompete ENDANGERED this North this North excessive picking. threatened by habitatdestructionand nepenthes (orpitcher plants)itis metres inheight.Like theothertropical species initsgenus, itgrowsupto20 PLANT THIS SPECTACULAR CARNIVOROUS Nepenthes bicalcarata PLANT PITCHER FANGED VU VULNERABLE isendemictoBorneo. The tallest NORTH AFRICA, FOUND IN THE MOUNTAINS OF atlantica Cedrus CEDAR ATLAS diseases are aggravating thesituation. caterpillar,processionary and by Attacks by pests, such asthepine of recent years, linked toclimatechange. in someareas are therepeated droughts but thecurrent causesofitsdecline from overexploitation and overgrazing, EN ENDANGERED PLANTS ANDFUNGI PLANTS this tree used to suffer this tree usedtosuffer Terre Sauvage 35 N°311 Terre

ECWIN GIESBERS / NATUREPL 36 Terre Sauvage 36 Terre VISUAL UNLIMITED / NATUREPL N°311 HUMPBACK WHALE Megaptera novaeangliae FOUND IN ALL OCEANS, this species was subject, like a number of cetaceans, to intensive hunting from the 18th to 20th centuries, which reduced its population by 90%. The introduction of a hunting moratorium in 1966 saved this giant of the seas from extinction.

LC LEAST CONCERN

N°311 Terre Sauvage 37 38 Terre Sauvage 38 Terre

NICK GARBUTT / NATUREPL PORTFOLIO still thinkitbringsbadluck. plenty ofMalagasypeople for itsmeat, andalsobecause killed destroyed.is TheAye-aye of Madagascar, haslargely been natural habitat, thetropicalforest vertebrates ontheplanetastheir most threatenedof groups of lemurs. They are oneofthe animal coulddieout, like 94% LIKE A GREMLIN,LIKE A LOOKING DECEPTIVELY madagascariensis Daubentonia AYE-AYE EN ENDANGERED N°311 BERNARD this this

CASTELEIN

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NATUREPL

MARK CAWARDINE / NATUREPL threat forthisspeciesandothers. the country, becomingamajor the politicalcrisisthathasrocked has increased considerably during even inprotectedareas. Illegal hunting is alsoavictimofdeforestation, which livesinnortheastMadagascar, THE LARGESTSPECIESOFLEMUR indri Indri INDRI R ING -TA ILED LEMUR ILED -TA ING R WIDELY RESIDENTINZOOS, catta Lemur involving localcommunities. sustained by programmes conservation fragments offorests. Buthopeisbeing occupy most groups increasingly isolated low,Its populationdensityisvery and lemur isfoundlessfrequently innature. populations ofthislemurare shrinking. agriculture.and slash-and-burn And to deteriorate becauseofillegallogging This fragmented area iscontinuing Madagascar. smallrange inwestern very less than10centimetres inlength, hasa THE WORLD’S SMALLESTPRIMATE, berthae Microcebus LEMUR MOUSE BERTHE’S MADAME CR EN EN CRITICALLY ENDANGERED ENDANGERED ENDANGERED this pretty thispretty ,

ANUP SHAH / NATUREPL and fur, evenin protectedareas. Sifaka isalsohuntedforitsmeat A victimofdeforestation, the Diademed and mainlyinthree nationalparks. rainforests Madagascar, ofeastern this rare speciesthatlives in the 22 are CriticallyEndangered, including OUT OF THE 101LEMURSPECIES, Propithecus diadema SIFAKA DIADEMED CR CRITICALLY ENDANGERED LEMURS

INAKI RELANZON / NATUREPL 40 Terre Sauvage 40 Terre

PAUL D STEWART / NATUREPL.COM PORTFOLIO EXTINCTION. A SYMBOLOFMAN-MADE Ectopistes migratorius PIGEON PASSENGER OSTRICH, DISTINCT FROM THE COMMON molybdophanesStruthio OSTRICH SOMALI cage atCincinnatiZoo. female namedMartha, diedaloneinher But 100years ago, thelastindividual, a North American bird, by someestimates. 19th century, there were billionsofthis protective measures. data which are neededtoimprove available onthesizeofitspopulations– degraded. As yet, is littleinformation collected; anditshabitatisbeing its meat, hideandfeathers;itseggsare lives innortheast Africa. Itishuntedfor EX VU EXTINCT VULNERABLE thisrecently identifi At the beginning of the At thebeginningof N°311 ed species ed species

MARY MCDONALD / NATUREPL seems fairlycommon, andassuch is Although theexact sizeoftheoverall rainforests ofColombiaandEcuador, population isnotknown, thespecies THIS PRETTY HUMMINGBIRD THIS PRETTYHUMMINGBIRD lives in the high-altitude tropical lives inthehigh-altitudetropical where itfeedsonfl not considered Vulnerable.not SAPPHIRE- Eriocnemis luciani PUFFLEG VENTED LC ower nectar. LEAST CONCERN LEAST CONCERN also persecuted by farmers who accused also persecutedby whoaccused farmers remained. A target oftraffi it of damaging corn crops. it ofdamagingcorn Thanks to its rating downgraded fromCritically IN 1983, ONLY 60INDIVIDUALS a conservation drive,a conservation itspopulation has beenmultiplied20-fold, and of thisgorgeous Brazilian parrot Anodorhynchus leari Endangered toEndangered. MACAW LEAR’S EN ckers, itwas ENDANGERED

VISUAL UNLIMITED / NATUREPL PETE OXFORD / NATUREPL PETE OXFORD / NATUREPL ANDY ROUSE / NATUREPL LIKE MANYSEABIRDS, Thalassarche melanophrys ALBATROSS BLACK-BROWED are killedeach year. waters, more than5,000individuals nets andlonglines.InSouth African themselves, caughtaccidentallyby trawl considerable numbersofthebirds makes itsprey rarer butalsokills by industrialfi is avictimofcollateral damagecaused NT NEAR THREATENED shing, which notonly TODD

PUSSER

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NATUREPL this albatross this albatross sites are protected. climate change. Mostofitsbreeding by risingwater temperatures dueto it isaffectedby industrialfi Like many Antarctic Oceananimals, large,seem very butit’s decreasing. the populationofthispenguinmay TOTALLING 6.3MILLIONPAIRS, Eudyptes chrysolophus PENGUIN MACARONI are soldperday… in onemarket, upto10,000birds it issubjecttolucrative smuggling: quickly. Considered a delicacy inChina, to Endangered, asitisdeclining very Asia hasbeenupgradedfrom Vulnerable this perching Europeand bird ofnorthern LOCALLY,THOUGH ABUNDANT Emberiza aureola BUNTING BREASTED YELLOW- EN VU ENDANGERED VULNERABLE It stilldoesnotnestinFrance. and poisoningremain real threats. pollution, collisionswithwindturbines However, lossofwetlands, chemical to protectionmeasures inEurope. a slightriseinnumbersduechiefl which livesincoastalareas, isenjoying THIS LARGEBIRDOFPREY, Haliaeetus albicilla EAGLE SEA WHITE-TAILED LC shing and shing and LEAST CONCERN LEAST CONCERN THIS NORTH AMERICAN BIRD borealisLeuconotopicus WOODPECKER RED-COCKADED this woodpecker’s decline. in theearly19thcentury, hadcaused and tocreate farmland, which began Conifer overexploitation fortimber to lossofitshabitat: oldconiferforests. However, it remains highlysensitive has beendowngraded: good news. NT y NEAR THREATENED

BIRDS

MYN / BRADY BECK / NATUREPL DAVID TIPLING / NATUREPL 42 Terre Sauvage 42 Terre JABRUSON / NATUREPL N°311 AFRICAN ELEPHANT Loxodonta africana HUNTED INTENSIVELY, the world’s largest land mammal saw its numbers collapse during the 20th century. Protection schemes are helping it recover in places, but it is continuing to decline where poaching is intensive. It also faces another problem: habitat loss due to man’s expanding presence.

VU VULNERABLE

WESTERN LOWLAND GORILLA Gorilla gorilla gorilla LIKE ALL ANTHROPOID APES, this one is at risk of extinction due to expanding exploitation of African forests, coupled with an increase in poaching, even in protected areas. Then there is the Ebola virus, which is also having a devastating effect on our cousin. In the space of three generations, its population could fall by 80%. CR CRITICALLY ENDANGERED

N°311 Terre Sauvage 43 44 Terre Sauvage 44 Terre PORTFOLIO

DOUG PERRINE / NATUREPL replenish itsstocks. which are strictlycontrolled, will recover. Onlyareduction incatches, populations are takingalongtimeto 1970s. Becauseofitslongbreeding cycle, has seenitsnumberscollapsesincethe this tuna, which hashigheconomicvalue, SUBJECT TO INTENSIVEFISHING, thynnusThunnus TUNA BLUEFIN ATLANTIC SUE FLOOD / NATUREPL EN ENDANGERED N°311 though itbreeds readily incaptivity. resulting inthespecies’decline, even more than900,000fi from wildcollection(insomeyears, aquarium enthusiasts.Itsuffered heavily Archipelago, popularamong isvery endemic toIndonesia’s Banggai underestimated. and numberscaughtare probably in soups. A massacre isgoing on, isthefi harvested extinction by overfi in tropicalandtemperate seas, faces RAY SPECIES, LIKE A QUARTER OFSHARK AND Sphyrna lewini SHARK HAMMERHEAD SCALLOPED THIS PRETTYMARINEFISH, Pterapogon kauderni FISH CARDINAL BANGGAI EN EN ENDANGERED ENDANGERED thisanimal, which lives ns, which Asians eat shing. The onlypart share removed),

GORGETTE DOUWMA / NATUREPL WWEUROPE / LUNDGREN / NATUREPL is a harmless animal. Itismainlyfi is aharmless change, andirresponsible touristhabits. which canmeasure uptoninemetres, Rays and sharks are among the most Rays andsharksare amongthe most are pollutionby plastic bags, climate GIANT MANTA medicine market. Otherpressures to supply the traditional Chinese to supplythetraditional Chinese THE LARGESTRAY SPECIES, threatened ofallanimals. VU Manta birostris VULNERABLE RAY RAY shed shed LIKE 85%OFSTURGEONSPECIES, huso Huso BELUGA may take manyyears. year,breed every stock replenishment coveted caviar. As thebelugadoesn’t It isoverfi in theworld, isundersevere threat. this one, thelargest freshwater fi CR CRITICALLY ENDANGERED shed and poached for its highly sh sh

Today, itisimpactedby hydroelectric 100 years ago, duetosevere overfi but there isnopopulationdataavailable. enables reintroduction programmes, dams andpollution.Breeding infarms THIS SPECIES’DECLINEBEGAN hucho Hucho SALMON DANUBE EN ENDANGERED Terre Sauvage 45 N°311 Terre FISH shing. about about

MICHEL ROGGO / NATUREPL DOUG PERRINE / NATUREPL NICK UPTON / NATUREPL SIMON COLMER / NATUREPL PORTFOLIO threatened, thisoneisnot. research. Although somespeciesare venom, which isusedinpharmaceutical collectors foritspretty shellandforits Indian andPacifi ice cream cone, isfairlyabundantinthe THIS GASTROPOD, Conus mustelinus MUSTELINUS CONUS LC LEAST CONCERN LEAST CONCERN c Oceans. It is sought by which lookslike an

HANS CHRISTOPH KAPPEL / NATUREPL to thedraining andpollutingofwetlands. parts ofEuropeitappearsmore vulnerable Mediterranean asawhole, butinother Africa. Itisnotunderthreat inthe EuropeandNorth is foundinsouthern RARE INFRANCE, THIS DAMSELFLY caerulescens Cœnagrion BLUET MEDITERRANEAN LC LEAST CONCERN LEAST CONCERN

MICHAEL D. KERN / NATUREPL ecological continuity. chief threat. Another problemislack of original andsemi-originalforests –isits Europe.northern Lossofitshabitat– France, SpainandItaly, butisdecliningin beetle isstillquitecommoninsouthern RESIDENT INOLD TREES, Cerambyx cerdo LONGICORN CERAMBYX VU VULNERABLE this large thislarge INVERTEBRATES

PEACOCK STAGHORN TARANTULA CORAL Poecilotheria metallica Acropora cervicornis THIS MAGNIFICENT TREE- LIKE A THIRD OF REEF-BUILDING DWELLING SPIDER is endemic to CORALS, this Caribbean species is Andhra Pradesh, a state in southern under threat. In the past 30 years it has India. Known to exist in a single locality, declined by more than 80%, the victim covering 100 square kilometres, this of bleaching linked to global warming very rare species is much coveted by and of white-band disease, which both collectors. In addition, its forest habitat cause the coral to die. NATUREPL

/ has been heavily degraded by lopping for fi rewood and cutting for timber. CR CRITICALLY ENDANGERED LAMAN

CR CRITICALLY ENDANGERED TIM NATUREPL

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HOLMES

MARTHA

COMMON SPINY LOBSTER Palinurus elephas POPULAR FOR ITS TASTY FLESH, this Atlantic and Mediterranean shellfi sh has been overfi shed, and in decline since the 1960s. To better manage the resource, several measures have been taken, such as banning fi shing during part of its breeding period. VU VULNERABLE

LARGE BLUE Phengaris arion NINE PER CENT OF GRASSLAND BUTTERFLIES in Europe face extinction, the main factor being intensive agriculture. This species is not yet one of the threatened ones, but NATUREPL

/ could become on in the near future.

Extinct in the United Kingdom in 1979, NATUREPL

/ it has been successfully reintroduced. HODDINOTT

DALY NT NEAR THREATENED ROSS SUE

N°311 Terre Sauvage 47 ACTION CALENDULA IS THE TIDE TURNING FOR THE SEA MARIGOLD? The Common Marigold (Calendula offi cinalis) may be doing well, but its Italian cousin the Sea Marigold (Calendula maritima) is one of the most threatened plants in the Mediterranean Basin. To protect this endemic species, the Klorane Institute has begun a conservation programme in partnership with organisations including IUCN. BY CATHERINE PERRIN

n Trapani, western Sicily, there is sky a native of South Africa, was introduced and sun and sea. And there is also a to the Mediterranean coasts, where it has small plant that brightens the coast- become invasive. It is competing with local line with its lemon-yellow capitula: the plants and taking their place, and the Sea Sea Marigold (Calendula maritima). It Marigold is one of the casualties,” adds is a cousin of the Common Marigold de Montmollin. Another problem – and (Calendula offi cinalis), a small and very a considerable one – is genetic pollution. common aster that fl owers in spring- A species similar to the Sea Marigold also time in fallow land and gardens. Its Latin grows in these parts. “By transforming Iname includes “officinalis” because it natural environments, man has unwittingly has a host of therapeutic properties, fi rst promoted this relative, which has invaded observed in the 12th century. It is used in the habitat of Calendula maritima,” explains particular for its anti-infl ammatory, mois- Salvatore Pasta, a botanist with the National turising, softening and healing effects – it Research Council (CNR) in Palermo. “The is good for the skin, basically. Yet although two species have crossbred, and now, half the Common Marigold is anything but S. PASTA ET G. GARFI of the populations of Calendula maritima CALENDULA MARITIMA. CRITICALLY ENDANGERED rare, its Italian cousin is a far more fragile CR are seriously threatened by hybridisation.” proposition. Each species has its own specifi c genome: A species endemic to Sicily, the Sea Group. “If they encounter any snags at when two neighbouring species mix, they Marigold is limited to a few small popu- all, they could disappear forever – and this risk losing their genetic integrity and thus lations scattered along a coastal area of marigold is one such plant.” being replaced by the hybrid. less than 10 square kilometres, either Once this had been observed, action was side of the town of Trapani, and on a few PLANT HERITAGE IN PERIL! needed. A conservation programme was nearby islets. It has the sad privilege of What exactly are these snags? The fi rst is launched in 2011, bringing together Italian being among the most threatened plants undeniably urbanisation, which has already and French scientists; France’s National in the Mediterranean Basin, a region wiped out several of this species’ popula- Botanical Conservatory in Brest, which renowned for its outstanding plant bio- tions and continues to cast a shadow over has a long tradition of protecting species diversity. “Out of this region’s 25,000 the sunny shorelines of this part of Sicily. from around the world; and the Klorane species, half are endemic and many are Port extensions, new hotels – property Institute, the business foundation behind restricted to a single place,” explains developers are not short of ideas, and in the project. For the past 20 years, this ins- Bertrand de Montmollin, Chair of the Italy there is no coastline protection body titute has been conducting actions to pro- IUCN Mediterranean Plant Specialist to keep an eye on things. “The Iceplant, mote and protect the world’s plant heritage,

48 Terre Sauvage N°311 ACTION CALENDULA S. PASTA ET G. GARFI KLORANE KLORANE URBANISATION is threatening the Sea Marigold, which grows on the coastline. Re-introduction operations are being conducted to secure its future.

and especially threatened species. Why is it interested in this Italian species? For WITHOUT PLANTS, WE CAN’T about 50 years, the Klorane brand has used the Common Marigold in its baby- care range. “We know this plant well for BREATHE, WE CAN’T EAT, AND WE its anti-infl ammatory and soothing proper- ties. We felt it made sense to get involved CAN’T LOOK AFTER OURSELVES in protecting a threatened neighbouring species,” says Florence Guillaume, the Institute’s Director. In concrete terms, what is being done? Seeds are collected out on the – out on the ground, it’s quite another mat- breathe, we can’t eat, and we can’t look after ground for keeping in a seed bank in Italy ter!” notes Pasta. His colleague Bertrand ourselves,” argues Florence Guillaume. and France, and for supplying a conser- de Montmollin adds, with a hint of irony: “This Sicilian marigold is part of our bio- vation nursery at the Agronomic Institute “During the Berlusconi era, environmen- diversity. Like other species, it plays a role in Marsala, western Sicily. Flower and leaf tal protection wasn’t always a priority, and in ecosystems, and we’re duty-bound to fragments are also being harvested. “First anything that hindered construction on the protect it.” It’s certainly an easy message of all, we check that they come from pure coastline was quite bad form. Let’s hope to grasp. As Groucho Marx once said: “A plants, not hybrids, then we cultivate them that’s now changing.” Fortunately, some four-year-old child could understand that! in vitro in the laboratory to produce plant- Sea Marigold populations are in nature Run and fetch me a four-year-old child!”■ lets,” explains Salvatore Pasta. “These are reserves such as the Trapani and Paceco then planted out, with the aim of strengthe- salt marshes, run by WWF-Italia. ning the existing populations and creating Another focus is raising awareness among new ones.” adults and children, an activity wholehearte- dly subscribed to by all those worried about CONSTANT AWARENESS-RAISING the plant’s fate. This includes explaining But reintroducing a species, be it plant or relentlessly that nature is not a dump, that animal, is scarcely meaningful if its habitat you mustn’t go trail-biking just anywhere, continues to suffer deterioration. And pro- that installing fences stops people tram- tecting natural environments is the hardest pling on these pretty fl owers. And of course, thing of all. “Half of the populations are on explaining why this marigold contains the Natura 2000 sites, except that here in Italy, word gold in its name! “It’s quite simple. Natura 2000 is mainly a theoretical concept Without plants, we cannot live: we can’t

N°311 Terre Sauvage 49

500 km RUSSIARUSSIA MONGOLIAMONGO

KAZAKHSTANN AralAral Betpak- SeaSea Dala LakeLLakke BalkBalkhachalkhacal

Caspianpiai n CHINACHINACCHINHIN Sea UZBEKISTANUZZBEKISTAZBBEEKKIKISTSTATAAN KIRGHIZISTANKIRGHIZISTAKKIIRRGGGHHIZIZZIISTSTATAA

REPORT SAIGA, NOMAD OF THE STEPPE The Saiga Antelope (Saiga tatarica) has come to us from the mists of time. For millennia, it has withstood climate change and the assaults of formidable predators such as the Sabre-toothed Tiger, before meeting a far more formidable opponent: man. Today, it’s under threat in the Eurasian steppe. Down, but not out…

BY RONAN ROUSSEAU - PHOTOS KLAUS NIGGE

N°311 Terre Sauvage 51 FACED WITH THE FLAT AMONG SAIGA ANTELOPES, and endless horizon of the only the males have horns. steppe, gaining height is a good This attribute has seen them way of spotting antelopes… relentlessly persecuted by or poachers. criminal gangs, who are increasingly well organised

52 Terre Sauvage N°311 REPORT SAIGA ANTELOPE

laus Nigge has set up his hide near one of the few water holes that break up the landscape’s mono- tony. Whichever way you look, the In days gone by, the steppe stretches to the horizon. Nigge thunderous clatter of a is all alone. The day before, Kazakh rangers had dropped million Saiga Antelopes or Khim in this no man’s land of dry grasses. more echoed between Russia, They noted his GPS location and then just headed off, promising to come back Kazakhstan and Mongolia and fetch him. Nigge watched the old Russian SUV as it bumped along, shrin- king amid the steppe, then vanished over the horizon. At his feet: photographic gear and a small portable hide. Hardly very reassuring. A dot in the disquieting vastness of the steppe, he now felt a bit like a shipwreck survivor. All he had to (Smilodon populator) – though far more pressure from hunting, the population cling to was the rangers’ promised return. intimidating – died out, more than 10,000 managed to stay relatively stable thanks And the photographer’s slender hope: that years ago. The Saiga Antelope’s survival is to its extremely high fertility. From one he would spot and immortalise a most probably due to its adaptability, but also, year onwards, a female can give birth to singular and elusive animal. perhaps, to its extremely timid character. a calf. When older, she produces litters The Saiga Antelope is nowadays glimp- of two. sed only fl eetingly. Slim are the chances of A SHY ANIMAL But the equilibrium was disturbed in detailing its slender body, which contrasts WITH COVETED HORNS the aftermath of the Soviet empire’s strongly with its fl eshy proboscis. Some “Never in my life have I experienced break-up. “The authoritarian, commu- might poke fun at this facial feature, com- a more timid animal than the Saiga nist control exercised by the State over pared to the sleek and delicate looks of Antelope,” says German photographer hunting was lost,” explains Zuther. And more photogenic antelopes. But when it Nigge. And with good reason! “As soon the farming sector fell into decline. With comes to the elegance of its gait and its as you spot these antelopes on the hori- food supplies scarcer, the hungry popula- pace over the ground, this ungulate can zon, they take fl ight. They always see tion, who had already devoured cows and easily hold a candle to its African cousins. you fi rst, and always run off if you get sheep, turned to the Saiga Antelope. And At peak speed, it can reach 80 kilometres closer than a kilometre to them.” It has hunting inevitably intensifi ed, especially an hour! to be said that Saiga Antelopes have as the Russian-Chinese border was now A Eurasian antelope, and the sole species learned not to trust man. Hunted since more porous and this ungulate became of its genus, the Saiga Antelope is a relic time immemorial, this prehistoric ante- attractive not only for its meat. The of the Ice Age. It already existed during lope has paid a heavy price. “During the horns, sported by the males only, were the fi nal glacial periods, and back then Soviet era, up to 200,000 individuals drawing covetous looks. In traditional captured our ancestors’ imagination; its were killed each year,” notes Steffen Chinese medicine, Saiga Antelope horn distinctive outline can be found in many Zuther, a German expert on secondment powder is said to work wonders against caves, carved in the rock. At the end of to the Association for the Conservation many complaints. “A kilo of these horns the last glaciation it survived, whereas the of Biodiversity of Kazakhstan (ACBK). can fetch thousands of dollars,” reckons Woolly Mammoth (Mammuthus primige- Back then, more than a million Saiga Zuther. Tempting indeed for a rural nious), the Woolly Rhinoceros (Coelodonta Antelopes roamed the Eurasian steppe, population in the grip of poverty. A kilo of antiquitatis) and the Sabre-toothed Tiger particularly in Kazakhstan. Despite great horns equates to the death of two or three

N°311 Terre Sauvage 53 REPORT SAIGA ANTELOPE

ALERTED by the presence of a steppe eagle, Steffen Zuther observes the ravages. After the poachers’ visit, dozens of from another age, the rangers struggle total. “So far, reproduction seems to be Saiga Antelope carcasses to intercept the poachers, despite their continuing as normal,” suggests Zuther, litter the ground. best efforts. Like shadows, the gunmen tempering the stark data. “But it’s hard vanish into the vast expanse of land. to know what will happen in the future The upshot? In about 15 years since the if poaching continues…” Especially as 1990s, the total population plummeted another Damoclean sword, albeit a by 95%, to 50,000 individuals. A col- more insidious one, is hanging over animals – a relatively easy haul for poa- lapse that prompted the International the species. Saiga Antelopes are some- chers accustomed to life on the steppe. Union for Conservation of Nature times hit by a mysterious affliction Recently, poaching took a radical turn (IUCN) to sound the alarm. In 2002 that kills them en masse. In May 2010, for the worse, expanding to an indus- the Saiga Antelope joined the IUCN more than 12,000 carcasses – mostly trial scale as criminal networks moved Red List of Threatened Species™, rated females and their young – were found in. “Perched on motorbikes or powerful as Critically Endangered. in western Kazakhstan. Zuther recalls SUVs, they chase the herds and pick The scarcity of males makes the the macabre spectacle. “The steppe was off the males one by one,” says the situation even more worrying. The literally strewn with dead animals!” expert, who’s on secondment from the sex ratio is already naturally against Inexplicably, further episodes of mass Frankfurt Zoological Society. “After them. More impetuous in temperament mortality occurred in the following killing all the animals they come back to than the females, the males live shor- years. The ACBK is currently working cut off their horns, then leave the car- ter lives as a result. Selective poaching with the Royal Veterinary College in casses on the steppe.” With their limited has aggravated this imbalance, so that London to try to shed light on the resources, most often Russian SUVs males account for just 1% to 10% of the causes of these sudden deaths…

54 Terre Sauvage N°311 RANGERS play it clever to catch an antelope in their nets. It will be fi tted with a GPS tracker, an essential A KEY ROLE IN THE STEPPE’S But the Saiga Antelope is more than tool in giving herds better ECOSYSTEM just a symbol; it plays a key role in the protection. Klaus Nigge is still full of wonder at a steppe’s ecosystem. “It spreads many delightful scene he had the privilege to seeds that stick to its fur, and by keeping witness. Camoufl aged in his hide near a vegetation cropped, it promotes greater water hole, he watched, incredulous, as plant diversity,” explains Steffen Zuther. a herd moved peacefully towards him in The Saiga Antelope also keeps the steppe the gathering dawn light. He soon found fertile by returning nutrients to the soil in where some groups occasionally journey himself amid a hundred or so individuals, its droppings. Of course, it also provides south into Uzbekistan during their winter unaware of his presence. Captivated by a larder for predators like the wolf. “You migration. their grace, he still can’t quite believe it. really get the impression that the steppe In Kazakhstan the ACBK, which leads “I’ve been to Kazakhstan six times in is more alive in the parts frequented by the protection of Saiga Antelopes, is on various seasons, spending four months antelopes,” notes the project coordinator. the case! In 2005 it launched the Altyn there in total. And I’ve only been close “You see a greater diversity of plants, but Dala (“Golden Steppe”) Conservation enough to photograph them on four also more animals, such as foxes, eagles, Initiative (ADCI), a programme that aims occasions! During these brief moments, etc.” The futures of the steppe and of to set up a network of protected areas in I understood that these animals perfectly the Saiga Antelope are therefore closely an area, the size of France, in the centre reflect the spirit of the steppe.” Saiga entwined. Today, the Saiga Antelope is of the country. The Kazakh government, Antelopes are true nomads that travel only represented by fi ve populations. One which is determined to protect the ani- long distances – northward in summer, in Russia (Kalmykia), one in Mongolia mal, is a stakeholder in the initiative. and the other way in the cold season. (a sub-species) and three in Kazakhstan, Ranger patrols have been beefed up to

N°311 Terre Sauvage 55 56 Terre Sauvage N°311 N°311 Terre Sauvage 57 Long-distance nomads through the seasons, Saiga Antelopes migrate to the southern steppe in winter

fi ght poaching more effectively. The popu- accurately. These are precious data to help iconic ungulate must be saved. lations are counted regularly from the air, better protect the species. After a few years, these efforts paid divi- and a special effort is being made to study Extensive work has also been done to raise dends. In 2003, 2,000 individuals were the ecology and migratory routes of these awareness among rural people. Rangers go counted from a plane in Betpak-Dala, cen- little-known animals. In 2009, 68 ante- into schools to tell the children how impor- tral Kazakhstan. Today, there are 200,000. lopes were fi tted with GPS trackers. The tant the animal is for the steppe – with the “This population’s stunning growth fi ndings have made it possible to identify underlying hope that the younger gene- highlights the great resilience of the species – herd breeding areas and migrations more rations will convince their elders that the if protected, it can recover its numbers very

DESERT, YOU SAY? The steppe is actually home to many plant species and to fauna adept at blending into the landscape.

58 Terre Sauvage N°311 REPORT SAIGA ANTELOPE

quickly,” comments E. J. Milner-Gulland, blow! It’s not healthy for the species to Chair of the Saiga Conservation Alliance, have all its genetic diversity and ecological a network of scientists and conservationists variations concentrated in a single popu- fi ghting to save the antelope. lation.” At present, there are thought to be fewer than 300,000 Saiga Antelopes RESTRICTED MIGRATION: left – and more than two-thirds of them A THREAT TO SURVIVAL belong to the Betpak-Dala population. Unfortunately, not all the populations While the species is safe from extinction are enjoying such a revival, because not for now, the prospect of it regaining past all of them are so well protected. Some population levels seems unlikely. “The are still on the verge of extinction, like world is changing,” stresses Philippe the one on the Ustyurt plateau. Given a Chardonnet, Co-Chair of the IUCN rough ride by poachers, and by a fence Antelope Specialist Group. “Man is now TO GO FURTHER between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan that encroaching far more into natural envi- Website • A network of scientists and conservationists who are hinders their migration, fewer than 2,000 ronments and hindering saigas’ migra- fi ghting to protect the species: individuals are struggling to keep going. tion, which is very important for their http://www.saiga-conservation.com/ In Russia, fewer than 10,000 antelopes survival.” • A website devoted to Saiga Antelopes, with pictures, videos and news: remain, compared to a population in But the fact remains that “if the species http://www.saigaresourcecentre.com/ 1980 of nearly 380,000. It is a concern for were adequately protected throughout and the BBC’s site: Milner-Gulland, who is also Professor of its natural range, it would grow to reach http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/life/Saiga_Antelope • The IUCN page on the species’ conservation status: Conservation Biology at Imperial College, half a million individuals within fi ve to http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/19832/0 London. “There’s a real danger that one 10 years,”, reckons the Chair of the Saiga • The Save Our Species project page: or two populations will die out. If that Conservation Alliance. And that would http://www.sospecies.org/sos_projects/pilot_ were to happen, it would be a serious do nicely for starters. ■ projects/saiga_antelope/

N°311 Terre Sauvage 59 INTERVIEW

JEAN- CHRISTOPHE VIÉ GUNTHER

MICHEL A UNIVERSAL CAUSE “Protect nature and you work for the community”. Although the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™ has become a reference tool for conservation, it is still necessary to change mentalities, involve governments, and encourage funding. The Deputy Director of the IUCN Global Species Programme explains why. INTERVIEW BY CATHERINE PERRIN

Terre Sauvage: The ICN Red List of Threatened Species amount has been achieved in the past 15 years, but there are still is celebrating its 50th anniversary. How do you feel many gaps – in plants, for instance. Despite support from a foun- about that? dation, we’re struggling to secure extra funding. And that’s par- Jean-Christophe Vié: I feel very humble with regard to the ticularly surprising because we’re focusing fi rst on plant species people who began this work – they were visionaries! The Red that are useful to man. A number of governments are backing List has become vital for nature conservation. It’s used by resear- us, but it’s still not enough. chers, governments, NGOs and the media. But it’s still diffi cult to keep on updating it, because we’re perpetually forced to justify It’s paradoxical… Could it be because assessing its usefulness to get the funding that’s essential for producing it. species takes time, and political decision-makers operate to a short timescale? Why? J.-C. V.: Donors typically don’t want to commit for decades. J.-C. V.: It’s odd, because the Red List isn’t a very expensive Which means that our funding cycles are very short, lasting just tool considering the benefi ts it can deliver. This nervousness is a few years, and this doesn’t enable us to study all the animal and perhaps linked to the fact that the Red List is about species, while plant groups in all the world’s regions. Between 2000 and 2004, more attention is paid to ecosystems and the services they provide we assessed all the world’s amphibians, and observed that more to people. In addition, decision-makers want quick results, whereas than 40 per cent of them are threatened with extinction. This analysing the status of biodiversity is a long-term job. A colossal operation needs to be repeated for other groups.

60 Terre Sauvage N°311 INTERVIEW

It can’t have been easy to raise funding for amphibians. They’re less charismatic than mammals or birds, even PROTECT SPECIES AND though they’re just as important. J.-C. V.: Defi nitely, and even for birds and mammals it wasn’t an easy task, but we did it! I’m not sure we’d manage to do that YOU ALSO HELP PEOPLE today… Even for fi sh, which are widely used by man, we’re having trouble completing the global assessment due to a lack of money. ON THE GROUND France is helping us for the Caribbean and Oceania, as is the European Commission for Europe, but that’s still inadequate considering how many other regions exist.

Are some species harder to assess than others? J.-C. V.: Sometimes, the more data, experts and issues there are, the more complicated it is. The value of the Red List is Slightly more than 76,000 species have been assessed recognised, because IUCN has taken the time to draw up stringent to date, and IUCN aims to assess 160,000 by 2020. Is criteria, put in place information-quality checks, held workshops this really achievable? with people who sometimes have divergent views – as was the J.-C. V.: It all depends on funding. Technically speaking, we’re case for commercially used species. Sometimes, there are stormy already able to assess thousands of species a year, and we could debates between those who use these species and those trying to do much more, but it takes human resources – which means protect them – as happened in the case of tuna. These people fi nancial resources. All of the mammals, amphibians, and birds don’t have the same interests, but the strength of the Red List have been assessed. Now we are focusing on assessing selected process is that it achieves a consensus. The scientifi c data drive plants, invertebrates, and fungi. And that will require people and decisions, and we have to make sure that no one derails the pro- take time. cess. The Red List doesn’t have the force of law, and it’s not linked to any binding document, so it restricts nothing. But because it The public authorities aren’t doing enough to provide infl uences lots of political mechanisms, it must be irrefutable. funding, but what about the private sector? J.-C. V.: So far, there’s been little engagement. Some brands try to limit their impact on nature or to make sure that their sources of procurement adhere to sustainability principles, but the majority consider that supporting work to assess or protect a threatened animal isn’t their responsibility, even if they’ve chosen the animal as a logo or use it in their advertising.

Brands that use threatened animal species as a logo or in advertising do so free of charge. Could they not be made to pay a tax to fund conservation programmes? J.-C. V.: Some people have had that idea, but it would be very complicated, without a doubt. For the time being, we’re relying on goodwill only. Some brands invest large sums of money to sponsor sports, such as Formula One, because there’s a good return on investment. If the general public attached greater impor- tance to nature, then companies would make a bigger commitment in this area. When you protect species, you also help men and women who are taking action on the ground and who sometimes face huge risks. Hundreds of rangers having been killed in African parks while protecting elephants, rhinos and great apes, for example. And yet we can come up against special interests and suffer intimidation – I’ve seen it for myself. In my view, people who fi ght to protect the living world are modern-day heroes, and we must help them!

Is it SOS’s role to involve the private sector more closely in protecting threatened species? J.-C. V.: Yes, the SOS – Save Our Species initiative was set up to give companies the chance to commit to a universal cause, which speaks to their potential customers and their employees. We try to do this in simple terms, by capitalising on the attrac- tiveness of species. We then explain what conservation

N°311 Terre Sauvage 61 INTERVIEW JEAN-CHRISTOPHE VIÉ

work is – and that it’s not about paying hippies to run around kings made in the strategic plan of the Convention on Biological in the wild – which is how the work still is caricatured all too Diversity adopted in 2010 are useful, but they all still need to be often! Protecting a species means preserving its habitat, helping implemented – protected areas must be created, and it mustn’t local communities to develop, and resolving disputes. This ove- just all stay on paper. rarching work includes the human and economic aspects. We’re a point of entry into the conservation world. Thanks to our 9,000 It always feels a bit like it stays on paper… experts and the knowledge in the Red List, we’re able to select J.-C. V.: There have been advances. The more optimistic people the best projects. The usefulness of SOS also lies in the fl exibility say, “A lot has been done already!’, while the more pessimistic of its mechanisms: we can decide to quickly change geographic ones say “What a disaster – is that all?”. The Red List highlights areas or species depending on the threats out there, as we did for problems that can’t be swept under the carpet to give a false vultures (see p.64) or the Saiga Antelope (see p.50). The idea is impression of security. We have more bad news than good news, also to get governments involved, as they have all pledged to unfortunately. reduce biodiversity loss. France is the only country to partner with SOS so far, and I hope that others will follow its example. Such as? J.-C. V.: Some species have become extinct recently, there’s What are the big successes in threatened-species been a phenomenal decline in some species of vulture, and so conservation? on. The Vaquita, a small porpoise from the Gulf of California, J.-C. V.: There are many, such as the Arabian Oryx, which was is becoming extinct. SOS has funded a conservation project, but Extinct in the Wild and which we’ve managed to reintroduce in recent years, illegal fi shing of a species of fi sh – which is also back into the wild; the California Condor, the White Rhino, the under threat – has soared. This fi shing, which supplies the Asian Humpback Whale... In Europe, the otter, the beaver, and the market, is having an impact on this porpoise, and is likely to result wolf have returned to areas where they had died out. I often hear in the extinction of both species. it said that the Red List is depressing, but we always try to highlight the success stories in order to give people hope. But the Is traffi cking, through fi shing and poaching, the main successes are sometime patchy: although elephants are doing threat to threatened species? better in southern and east Africa, despite poaching, their situation J.-C. V.: It certainly affects many of them, but the main cause is still catastrophic in central and west Africa. The White-tailed is still habitat destruction. Intensive agriculture causes more Eagle is no longer under threat globally, but it’s still not breeding damage than traffi cking. Growing oil palms, for instance, gene- in France… And these are fragile victories, because they some- rates considerable profi ts, and there’s a strong temptation for times take years to achieve, and all the progress can be wiped out farmers to keep on clearing forests and replace them with palm in a few months. monocrops. This is disastrous for biodiversity and doesn’t meet the long-term needs of local populations. The Convention on Biological Diversity most recently met in October in South Korea. As is often the case, it Isn’t the crux of the problem that the world of nature felt like a grand ceremony – commitments were made, conservation has little infl uence compared to big but will they be respected? lobbies such as industrial agriculture or fi sheries? J.-C. V.: These are very long processes. For things to move J.-C. V.: For sure. These lobbies only serve special interests, forward more quickly, what’s really needed is for citizens to engage whereas if you protect nature, you’re working for the common more strongly and for the media to give greater coverage to envi- good – it’s humanitarian aid in the broadest sense of the term. ronmental topics. These aren’t necessarily topics that cause Nobody questions emergency humanitarian aid, and rightly so, anxiety, as I’m sometimes told. Nature feeds our dreams, it stirs but the same should apply to the environmental cause. The per- emotions, and it can’t be boiled down to anecdotes about such ception of nature conservation is changing, yet the people who and such an animal’s biology or the birth of a cute little bear in work on it are still criticised all too often. a zoo! The erosion of biodiversity is an extremely serious reality, and it’s forcing us to rethink the ways we operate. The underta- IUCN should be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize! J.-C. V.: That would be tremendous! Protecting nature is a universal cause, like education or health. That should never be negotiable. Environmental problems are killing more people than the Second World War. Denying the atrocities of this episode in history is a crime, which is normal. Denying climate change, the extinction of living beings, and the reality of millions of people THE MAIN THREAT TO who suffer the consequences should also be a convictable offence. The utilitarian argument is often put forward to justify A SPECIES IS HABITAT protecting species: they must serve man. What about the ethical argument: recognising their right to exist for DESTRUCTION their own sake?

62 Terre Sauvage N°311 J.-C. V.: I totally agree with the argument of recognising that nature has an intrinsic, non-measurable value. The nature-conser- DENYING THE vation community is constantly being told to demonstrate that such and such a species is important to man, and that nature EXTINCTION OF LIVING delivers an economic benefi t. And we do demonstrate it, because we have to provide the decision-makers with arguments. But now and again we should turn the tables and say to the decision- THINGS SHOULD makers: prove that such a species or such a natural area is abso- lutely useless and can be wiped off the face of the earth! BE A CONVICTABLE Is man on the Red List? OFFENCE J.-C. V.: Yes, mankind has a Least Concern rating, which means that preserving the species isn’t a conservation challenge. In fact, the challenge is more to do with controlling human expansion! Human population growth is a very important subject, but it’s taboo. According to a very recent report by UNICEF, there are more and more poor children, even in the developed countries of the OECD. As well as being the underlying cause of environ- mental problems, demographic growth produces poverty. Is that really what we want? As there’s no obvious solution, people prefer to avoid the subject.

Although he has a Least Concern rating, man is ultimately under threat as well. If he continues to destroy nature, is he not doomed to extinction? J.-C. V.: Yes, but perhaps beyond the period used by the Red List, which is three generations. Humans are put in this category because the number of adult individuals is growing and so is their natural range, because man is colonising more and more habitats. In view of our environmental impact, if another civilisation were to assess Homo sapiens, it would doubtless describe us as an invasive species! Fortunately, there are men and women who are trying to change the world, such as those striving to protect living beings. Through SOS, I’m fortunate enough to track the tremendous fi eld work done by people from all backgrounds. Their enthusiasm and energy will make the difference. And I hope we’ll be able to give them even stronger support. ■

BIOGRAPHY • 1962: born in Algiers • 2000: joined IUCN in west Africa, then • 1986: graduated as a vet Switzerland • 1987-1988: fi rst contact with great • Since 2001: Deputy Director of the apes IUCN Species Programme • 1990: fi rst trip to French Guyana, • Since 2010: Director of SOS – Save where he spent eight years Our Species; and since 2014, of a tiger protection programme • 1993 to 1998: ran the wildlife research programme on the Petit-Saut Author of: Le jour où l’abeille disparaîtra dam site in French Guyana (“The day the last bee dies”), Éditions Arthaud, 2008. • 1994: set up the Kwata non profi t and ran it until 2000 Co-editor of: Wildlife in a Changing LOCTEAU

World, IUCN, 2011. • 1998: wrote an ecology PhD thesis on LAËTITIA

two species of ape in French Guyana DESSINS

N°311 Terre Sauvage 63 NATUREPL

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ELANDERL

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WWEUROPE

64 Terre Sauvage N°311 REPORT VULTURES UNDER THREAT WHO WILL DO THE DIRTY WORK? As nature’s vital clean-up crew, vultures prevent the spread of diseases and epidemics caused by animal corpses. And yet these fragile scavengers are declining all over the world, sadly in some cases at a spectacular pace. It is becoming increasingly urgent to protect these raptors… BY YANN CHAVANCE - PHOTOS NATUREPL

N°311 Terre Sauvage 65 A BLACK VULTURE, one of the world’s largest vultures, tussles with a Griffon Vulture, a Himalayan Griffon and an Indian Vulture. A SLENDER-BILLED VULTURE (left) perched on the ramparts of Mehrangarh Fort (Jodhpur, Rajasthan). NATUREPL

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CASTELEIN

BERNARD : PHOTOS

66 Terre Sauvage N°311 REPORT VULTURES NATUREPL

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he figures are stark: of the 23 species of vulture on our pla- GOMERSALL net, 12 are thought to be under threat, CHRIS according to the International Union Vultures are being for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), devastated by diclofenac, and fi ve of these are Critically Endangered. In other words: a drug contained in the oneT out of two species is fi ghting for sur- vival… The fi gures would doubtless have carcasses they feed off amazed naturalists of yesteryear, for these winged scavengers seemed to thrive wher- ever they settled. Although the causes of their decline are multiple, including habitat loss and hun- ting, they vary from species to species. One specifi c threat appears however to AN UNPRECEDENTED DECLINE have quickened their demise: poisoning. only in 2003, more than 10 years after Evolution may have equipped vultures to Between 1992 and 2007, the Slender- this mortality of epidemic proportions resist the toughest bacteria and viruses, Billed Vulture (Gyps tenuirostris) and began, did studies fi nally prove the link but they have proved particularly sensitive the Indian Vulture (Gyps indicus) saw between the poisoning of Asian vultures to the various poisons in the carcasses their populations plummet by 97%. In and diclofenac. “It was a unique situa- they feed on – whether it’s lead from hun- the same period, populations of White- tion, and we knew that getting rid of ting ammunition or toxic substances used Rumped Vultures (Gyps bengalensis), the diclofenac would be a huge challenge,” to kill small mammals that are treated as species worst hit by the phenomenon, fell explains Chris Bowden. “Fortunately, pests. This established fact has ushered by 99.9% - practically a mass extinction governments reacted relatively quickly plenty of species to the edge of extinc- of unprecedented scope, especially as this to enforce a ban on the substance.” tion, sometimes at bewildering speed, and vulture was once considered the world’s In 2006, diclofenac for veterinary use taking all observers by surprise. most abundant large raptor, numbering was discontinued on the Indian and The starkest example is defi nitely in several tens of millions of individuals. Pakistani markets, leaving a chance to Asia, where a new poison came close to “It’s precisely because these vultures were save the species ravaged by the drug. fi nishing off all of the continent’s vul- so common in the early 1990s that no one Although vulture populations have since tures. This invisible killer is diclofenac, an realised something was up,” points out continued to fall, specialists are still hope- anti-infl ammatory drug mainly prescri- Chris Bowden, one of the two Co-Chairs ful, having seen the rate of decline slow bed for painful joints. In the early 1990s, of the IUCN Vulture Specialist Group, in the past few years, with some popula- this drug began to attract the interest of and Programme Manager for SAVE tions even beginning to stabilise, thanks livestock farmers in India, Pakistan and (Saving Asia’s Vultures From Extinction), to huge conservation efforts. But now, Nepal, who administered it en masse to a consortium set up in 2011. “At the time, diclofenac has recently been authorised their cattle. But the thing is, the diclofe- there were no survival programmes – in for cattle in Italy and Spain, two countries nac in the carcasses, once ingested by the fact, there was no warning system. It was of capital importance for European vul- vultures, causes acute kidney failure that only in the late ‘90s when we realised that tures... Truly a time bomb, this move has kills them in a matter of days. As a result, populations were severely depleted, but been unanimously condemned by raptor the vulture populations of the Indian sub- the decline had started six or seven years conservationists. continent were dramatically affected in before that.” Noticing a problem, espe- the space of just a few years. cially late in the day, is not enough to A NATURAL CARCASS DISPOSER solve it – the source must be found. And Besides revealing the extreme fragility

N°311 Terre Sauvage 67 REPORT VULTURES

SEVEN OF THE 11 species living in Africa are classifi ed as threatened, with some populations falling by 85%. NATUREPL

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ving the tusks. Why? To kill the vultures, which, by fl ying in numbers above the crime scene, risk attracting attention to GOMERSALL their act. In Namibia, more than 600 vul- CHRIS tures perished in 2013 around a single poisoned elephant carcass. In the face In India, stray dogs have of such incidents, the Vulture Group Co-Chair prefers to remain hopeful. “ It’s become carcass disposers, likely that populations will keep on fal- ling in the near future, but there are lots and can transmit rabies to of positive energies, and work is being humans done on the ground to measure the scope of the problem and fi nd the right solu- tions.” But, as the South African-based specialist concedes, the African challenge is immense.

of these scavengers to poisoning, the about the problems of poisoning and its THE LONG ROAD TO PROTECTION Asian vulture crisis has also highlighted impacts,” says André Botha, Co-Chair If specialists in each country are fi ghting the central role of vultures in their eco- of the IUCN Vulture Specialist Group. to protect vultures, it’s because they know systems. The digestive system of these “In many African countries, vultures that once a species is no longer present in birds of prey is considered an “epide- still aren’t viewed as a priority, and even an area, re-introduction programmes are miological dead-end”, able to destroy specialists prefer to concentrate on large particularly long and complex. Though most pathogens, viruses and bacteria. In mammals.” never completely extinct, the California nature, it plays a key role in preventing If specialists are so afraid at the pros- Condor (Gymnogyps californianus), for the spread of numerous diseases origi- pect of an African crisis similar to the example, with just nine surviving indi- nating in animal corpses. In Asia, the diclofenac crisis in Asia, it is because viduals in 1985, is today still Critically near-extinction of vultures has given rise African vultures are already having a Endangered after a 30 year fi ght to save to serious public-health problems, espe- very rough time: seven of the continent’s it from a continued decline caused largely cially through the contamination of drin- 11 species are considered under threat by lead poisoning. But the prize for the king water. But above all, vultures have by IUCN; and some, such as Rüppell’s longest conservation campaign goes to been replaced by other gravediggers that Vulture (Gyps ruepelli), have seen their a French programme, one of the fi rst of are, by contrast, able to spread plenty of populations slump by 85% in the past few its type, in the Grands Causses Regional diseases. In India, stray-dog populations decades. But unlike their Asian neigh- Park, south of the Massif Central. In this have nearly doubled in recent decades, bours, African vultures are facing mul- vast patchwork of limestone plateaux, the carrying, among other diseases, rabies – tiple threats. “Africa is a vast continent last vultures died in the 1940s, as hap- the country holds the unwelcome world and the threats there are very diverse,” pened almost all over the country; only record of 20,000 cases a year. The Indian explains Botha. “In west Africa, there’s a few pairs survived in the Pyrenees. In sub-continent, which has been fi ghting a big trade in vultures, they’re used for 1968, a handful of naturalists, eager to these problems for years, is, in IUCN’s their meat or in traditional medicine. In see these birds of prey fl y once more in view, concrete proof of vultures’ para- east Africa, the biggest threat is poiso- the Causses, released four young Griffon mount importance in running nature’s ning: farmers try to protect themselves Vultures (Gyps fulvus) virtually in secret, carcass-disposal operations. In Africa, for from large predators by poisoning car- or at least amid utter indifference. “It example, where diclofenac is still being casses, but at the same time they kill lots was an outright failure,” recalls Raphaël sold in some countries, IUCN is working of vultures.” What is more, farmers are Néouze, current Head of the Grands vigorously to make people more aware not alone in causing casualties among the Causses Unit at France’s Bird Protection of these scavengers’ importance. “We’ve scavengers. Poachers tracking elephants League (LPO). “One was shot, another been working for many years to inform or rhinos have also acquired the habit died from electrocution. And the other livestock farmers and the general public of poisoning their carcasses after remo- two just disappeared, which was actually

68 Terre Sauvage N°311 NATUREPL NATUREPL

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DIANE VIUSUAL EGYPTIAN VULTURES, Yemen. RÜPPELL VULTURES, Tanzania.

WHITE-RUMPED VULTURES, Kenya. LAPPET-FACED VULTURE, Kenya. NATUREPL

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SUMMER 2014: AT POURTALET PASS, watched by hikers, this colony of Griffon Vultures based in the Pyrenees lose no time tucking into a dead cow. NATUREPL

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PHOTOS 70 Terre Sauvage N°311 REPORT VULTURES

quite logical: we now know that they’re an erratic species, whose young travel a great deal before they’re able to breed.” In the early 1970s, they structured their initiative and took it in a different direc- tion. A large aviary was built, and in 1971, the fi rst Griffon Vultures moved

in. The idea being that they would breed NATUREPL

/ there, after being given the time to make themselves at home. “It was a technique CANCALOSI that we invented, it had never been done anywhere else,” says Néouze. In the JOHN 1980s, even the Americans came to the Grands Causses to see this method in regard to the California Condor.” The After 30 years’ relentless technique proved particularly effective: conservation work, the after the aviary had been in service for 10 years, the fi rst vultures were released in California Condor is still 1981, and in the following spring, a fi rst pair was already breeding in local gorges. Critically Endangered WORKING WITH LOCAL FARMERS Today nearly 450 pairs are fl ying free in the skies of the Cévennes Mountains. “The population is doing fairly well, and now, most of our attention is focused on stance arose in the 2000s in Spain, when FIND OUT MORE the Black Vulture (Aegypius monachus), the country set up an industrial carcass- Websites a species which is particularly threate- disposal system that deprived most of the • rapaces.lpo.fr/grands-causses/ ned,” says the ornithologist. For this vul- country’s 25,000 Griffon Vultures of food. (in French) general information on French vultures and ture, reintroduced in the area from 1992 For Raphaël Néouze, the situation cannot the conservation programmes in the Grands Causses. • www.save-vultures.org onwards, only 21 pairs are living in the be compared with France. “These strong Site of the SAVE consortium, presenting the problem of Grands Causses – most of France’s Black concerns, relayed by the media, have cros- diclofenac in Asia. Vultures, in fact. sed the Pyrenees and come to the attention • http://www.sospecies.org/sos_projects/birds/ To drive the success of these various of French farmers. In the Grands Causses, vultures_india/ • http://www.sospecies.org/sos_projects/pilot_ programmes, ornithologists have been we’ve proposed a procedure to observe if projects/conservation_leadership/vultures_nepal/ able to rely on the support of local lives- vultures are deemed to be aggressive, with The SOS – Save our Species project pages. tock farmers, who are delighted to have a a single hotline farmers can call.” In recent Books free, natural carcass-disposal service on years, this scheme has made it possible to • Le vautour fauve, by Bertrand Eliotout, Delachaux and hand. In 2001, the fi rst on-site feeding work with farmers and study the reported Niestlé, 2007. A detailed study, in French, of the most spots – where a farmer can leave, in an cases: it turned out that in less than three common French raptor. • Vultures. Evolution, Ecology and Conservation enclosed space, the ewes in his fl ock that per cent of cases, the vultures, which are by Michael O’Neal Campbell, CRC Press (to be published die “normally” – are beginning to replace opportunistic animals, had indeed attac- in February 2015). A complete overview of knowledge the feeding stations that centralised the ked animals that were still alive, albeit about vultures worldwide. fallen stock of several local farmers. But very weak. So: a minority, which mustn’t Documentaries in recent years, this harmonious rela- distract us from the many environmental • Les géants du Caire, by Cyril Barbançon. A recent fi rm about Griffon Vultures, shot in the south- tionship has been troubled by discordant benefi ts of these natural carcass dispo- east French department of Drôme. voices, claiming there are now too many sers... and the opportunity to once again • Le bal des charognards, by Michel and Jean- vultures, which are growing bolder and behold their giant outline in French skies, François Terrasse. A 1984 fi lm by two brothers who attacking animals that are still alive. This like in times gone by. ■ initiated the fi rst re-introductions of vultures.

N°311 Terre Sauvage 71 J. FREUND/NPL SAVING THE CROCS’ SKIN After being ravaged by uncontrolled hunting for nearly a century, the crocodilians have rebounded in the past 30 years. Conservation actions such as the introduction of suitable farming methods and regulated trading have proved effective. And this approach could soon be helping pythons too. BY FLORIANE DUPUIS

72 Terre Sauvage N°311 ACTION REPTILES E. GIESBERS/NPLE. THE SALT-WATER CROCODILE (Crocodylus porosus) lives mainly in Asia and Oceania.

o protect crocodiles, trade is conducted legally and sustainably.” levels of abundance, such as the Salt-water nothing beats selling their The crocodilians have indeed made a long Crocodile (Crocodylus porosus) in Australia, skins, right? Is that a joke? journey of recovery. the American Alligator (Alligator mississi- Or a provocation? Actually ppiensis) in the USA, the Nile Crocodile it’s pragmatic, the IUCN EGG-COLLECTING OPERATIONS (Crocodylus niloticus) in many African Crocodile Specialist Group After the Second World War, the sharp countries, the Broad-snouted Caiman (CSG) would say. One rise in demand for crocodile leather (Caiman latirostris) in Argentina, Morelet’s of its members, Charlie caused populations worldwide to collapse. Crocodile (Crocodylus moreletii) in Mexico, Manolis, Regional Chair for Australia Unmanaged and unregulated, crocodile and so on. “We owe this success to the pro- andT Oceania, and a zoologist specialising hunting brought many species to the verge tection and management measures imple- in crocodilians, explains the principle: “As of extinction, as highlighted by the fi rst mented in many countries, but also to the crocodiles are large predators that attack IUCN Red List, in 1963. Faced with these huge role played by CITES since it came human beings and their livestock, they’re facts, the CSG, set up in 1971, fi rst endea- into force in 1975,” points out Manolis. not terribly popular... Giving them a com- voured to give crocodiles complete protec- One signifi cant advance is ranching, which mercial value is an effective incentive to tion. Then they changed focus. During the involves collecting eggs or juveniles in the protect them.” As paradoxical as it may 1980s, the CSG realised that trading could wild and then raising them on farms. This seem, the skin trade has boosted many actually be a very powerful lever in protec- practice is authorised by CITES on condi- crocodilian species in the past 30 years. ting crocodilians. It thus decided to support tion that it is non-detrimental to wild popu- But it’s not any old trade… “In 1990, most the rollout of a legal, sustainable trade in lations. “And that’s defi nitely the case!” the international trade was illegal,” Manolis conjunction with CITES (see p.75). And the specialist confi rms. “In Australia, hundreds goes on. “Now we’ve managed to achieve a results are highly convincing: many popu- of thousands of eggs have been collected situation where practically all international lations are currently back to their original since 1983, which hasn’t stopped wild

N°311 Terre Sauvage 73 KERING PYTHON SKINS are subject to international trade, which a sustainability programme is now aiming to make more responsible.

populations of Salt-water Crocodiles from gangeticus) in India. The Siamese Crocodile the stakeholders involved in skin trading, recovering. Elsewhere, as in Argentina, (Crocodylus siamensis) has become extremely as well as zoos,” explains Charlie Manolis. monitoring schemes have shown that this rare in the wild, whereas there are nearly “It was essential to have everyone on board method has no signifi cant impact on wild- a million in breeding farms in Thailand, so that together we could achieve signifi - crocodile populations. The advantage of Cambodia and Vietnam. “In this case, cant change in wild crocodile populations ranching is that it provides local people closed-circuit farming is the only solu- and the skin trade. There have been some with a source of income when they collect tion, but the skin trade is totally separated great successes, but we still face chal- the eggs or juveniles – and a reason, conse- from work to protect wild populations.” lenges.” Such as improving the lot of six quently, to protect the crocodiles’ habi- Meanwhile, hunting is still happening, on Critically Endangered species and resol- tats. And protecting habitats is ultimately a regulated basis, in Louisiana, Florida, ving human-crocodile confl icts, which arise the crux of the matter. In the USA, the Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and, on where management efforts have restored Louisiana swamps might have been conver- a smaller scale, in Australia and many healthy populations of wild crocodiles… ted into paddy fi elds if an income hadn’t African countries. been available from alligators, among other Out of the crocodilians – a group of 23 THE KERING EXAMPLE things…” In Asia, this is a crucial issue. species of alligators, gharials, caimans and In some African countries, it is proving Habitat loss due to human pressure and crocodiles – only 10 species are involved necessary to improve crocodile monitoring. activities has led to critical situations for in the trade. “Naturally we’re interested in Especially in Madagascar, where, for want some species, such as the Chinese Alligator all the species, even though, besides bio- of proper management, international tra- (Alligator sinensis) or the Gharial (Gavialis logists, our Specialist Group includes all ding was suspended by CITES for four

74 Terre Sauvage N°311 ACTION REPTILES

years. In July 2014, the CITES Permanent Committee recommended lifting this sus- pension, in light of the introduction of spe- cifi c national legislation on managing the island’s one crocodile species. What promp- ted lifting the ban was the creation of an action plan to conserve and sustainably use crocodiles from Madagascar. University research has been conducted and a cro- codile management unit has been put in place: the programme will receive back- up from the IUCN Crocodile Specialist Group (CSG), with technical and fi nan- cial support from French apparel and accessories group Kering (formerly called Pinault-Printemps-Redoute, and the owner of brands such as Gucci, Saint Laurent and Balenciaga). “Backing these initiatives, by investing in research and in introducing standards and monitoring, help us ensure that the precious skins we stitch are pro- duced in a humane, sustainable way,” explains Dr. Helen Crowley, Conservation and Ecosystem Services Specialist at KERING A PYTHON FARM in An Giang province, Vietnam. Kering. “But above and beyond the issue of sustainable sourcing, from our Group’s perspective, it’s all about helping to create a more responsible market.” ledge will enable CITES, the government Kering committed to a sustainability pro- authorities and the luxury goods industry gramme more than 10 years ago, and in to create a better system for monitoring 2012 set itself a series of measurable tar- trade with regard to sustainability, tracea- gets to achieve by 2016. One of these is to bility and animal wellbeing,” says Tomas sustainably source all of its precious skins Waller, Chair of the IUCN Boa and Python – especially its python skins, which have Specialist Group. “Even so, the internatio- become increasingly popular in the past 20 nal skin trade is not jeopardising the survi- years. “For pythons, international trade is val of the three python species in question less advanced than for crocodiles,” conti- – the Reticulated Python, Burmese Python nues Helen Crowley. “That’s why we’re and Sumatran Short-tailed Python [Python supporting the introduction of a system reticulatus, Python bivittatus, Python cur- to ensure traceability and help make this tus]. The direct threats to these species are WHAT IS CITES? trade more responsible, with no negative primarily habitat loss and human expan- impact on biodiversity or local commu- sion. Paradoxically, in some cases, such lso known as the Washington Convention, nities.” With this aim, Kering formed a as this one, regulated trade increases spe- CITES (Convention on International Trade partnership in late 2013 with the IUCN cies’ value and acts as an incentive to do Ain Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Boa and Python Specialist Group and the research and promote the conservation and Flora) is an international agreement that came International Trade Centre to conduct a management of species which are viewed into force in 1975 and now has 180 parties. It three-year research programme. The fi n- as a natural resource that benefi ts local aims to ensure that the trade in specimens of dings and recommendations should help communities.” Another case of pragmatism animals and wild plants does not threaten the make progress on the issue.”This know- winning the day... ■ survival of species in the wild.

N°311 Terre Sauvage 75 NATURE’S CUSTODIANS Protecting life is the objective shared by numerous species conservation programmes. From Myanmar to Greece, from Fiji to China, and from Indonesia to Belize, people are mobilising to implement exemplary projects. BY JEAN-BAPTISTE POUCHAIN - ILLUSTRATIONS HEÏDI JACQUEMOUD

Okapi Okapi johnstoni EARNING ITS STRIPES t may have zebra-like stripes on its legs, but it’s actually more similar Ito a giraffe. Discovered in 1901, this mammal is endemic to the Ituri Jungle in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Its population, now estimated at 10,000 individuals, has fallen by 50% in the space of 15 years, a casualty of traps laid by poachers to catch other animals and the destruction of its habitat by deforestation and illegal gold mining. Since 1987, the WENZEL/NFMV WALTING/NFMV Okapi Conservation Project (OCP), in partnership with the Congo Institute for Nature Conservation (ICCN), has carried Fiji Acmopyle Acmopyle sahniana out up to 20 deterrent patrols a month in the Okapi Wildlife Reserve (RFO). PUTTING IT ON THE MAP The OCP also promotes sustainable “The Fiji Acmopyle embodies one of the major problems of nature agroforestry methods, teaching local protection in Fiji: little is known about species, and little is done people alternatives to slash-and-burn, to raise their profi le,” regrets Dick Watling, Executive Trustee of which destroys the environment. But nonprofi t NatureFiji-MareqetiViti (NF-MV). The presence in Fiji in a country where the political/military of this small conifer, a relic of the Gondwana supercontinent, is situation is impacting deeply on nature unexplained. The species was described in 1927, but has never been protection, the way forward is very the subject of a conservation plan. On Viti Levu Island, fewer than bumpy. After the gorillas in Virunga 100 trees were recently counted. NF-MV has decided to break this National Park, now the Okapis of Ituri inertia by working with the owners of three sites that host Acmopyle are bearing the brunt of armed fi ghting: populations. “A team of four landowners will confi rm the identity in June 2012, poachers murdered six of each new tree, and agree on monitoring the sites and identifying rangers and 14 captive Okapis at the new populations.” Two months later, the sites will be revisited by RFO headquarters. The death of the an NF-MV scientist, who will describe, photograph and record the rebel chief, killed by the Congolese GPS coordinates of the trees found. “This process will be taught to army in April 2014, heralds better times landowners so they become self-suffi cient before the project ends,” for the okapi. explains Watling. “We’re trying to instil a sense of responsibility and http://www.sospecies.org/sos_projects/ stewardship, making sure that the landowners really understand the mammals/african_forest_elephant____ species’ importance in conservation terms.” okapi_in_dcr/ http://www.sospecies.org/sos_projects/plants/conifers/fi ji_acmopyle/ EN ENDANGERED CR CRITICALLY ENDANGERED

76 Terre Sauvage N°311 NATURE’S CUSTODIANS FÖRDERVEREIN WALDRAPPTEAMFÖRDERVEREIN Northern Bald Ibis Geronticus eremita THIS WAY FOR MIGRATION! The Egyptian pharaohs made it the country’s sacred bird, because it migrated towards Mecca, accompanying pilgrims. Today, Europe has made the bird its big challenge. Although Morocco is protecting its 450 wild, but seden- tary, individuals in Souss-Massa-Draa region, and Syria has discovered a small migrating colony whose fate is now uncertain, it is in Europe – where Eastern Hoolock the northern bald ibis has not set foot for 400 years – that the Förderverein Gibbon Waldrappteam nonprofi t has undertaken the “Reason for Hope” re-intro- duction programme. Thanks to juveniles raised in captivity and to extensive Hoolock leuconedys anti-hunting measures in the relevant countries, the objective is to develop a migration corridor to ensure the species’ survival. Breeding colonies have been CONNECTED FORESTS established in Germany and Austria, and human-led migrations will create rom the far side of the River three autonomous populations by 2019. In August 2014, 14 ibis, accompanied Chindwin, in Myanmar, the Eastern by 16 people, successfully migrated to their wintering grounds in Tuscany. FHoolock Gibbon has lulled the Project Director Johannes Fritz says: “We owe the fantastic outcome of the forest with it vocalising since time migration to adoptive mothers Corinna and Anne. They did their work with immemorial. The country is home to joy, and built a strong relationship with all the birds.” 99.9% of the total population, which http://waldrapp.eu/index.php/en CR CRITICALLY ENDANGERED used to spread into China. “The species is increasingly threatened by fragmentation of its habitat,” explains Jaguar Fernando Potess, Co-Founder of the Panthera onca People Resources and Conservation Foundation, which in 2007 kicked off FOR A FREE-RANGE HABITAT a rescue plan to reduce the damage When a man enjoys telling a story, it speaks volumes caused to the forest by traditional about his own. This mythical aura surrounds the life of agriculture and armed confl icts. Most American zoologist Alan Rabinowitz. Voices are central of the work is being done in the Ker to it: the voice that a young boy with a severe stutter Shor Ter community in Karen state. could summon, facing an old jaguar at the zoo; and “We’re working with the local people the voice of which the big cat was deprived, prompting to maintain wide gibbon-friendly the young lad to become his spokesman. Rabinowitz habitat corridors, and establishing has since controlled his stutter and set up a nonprofi t, connections with the other forests,” Panthera, because he wanted to start protecting his says Potess. Initiatives such as favourite animal before it became endangered. After managing forests in accordance with discovering that the Americas’ largest feline was the ancestral rules, replacing building only one in the world with no subspecies, i.e. its popu- timber by other materials, and lations had not undergone any fragmentation, he set monitoring gibbons all strongly involve up the Jaguar Corridor, a transnational project that local communities. As their culture aims to create a continuum of protected habitats, so forbids hunting primates and venerates that jaguars in Mexico can continue to mix their genes the beauty of their singing, who better with jaguars in Argentina. Having been given a voice, to become their guards? these big cats must now keep fi nding their way through www.prcfoundation.org forest, plantation or ranch, helped by 13 governments VU VULNERABLE and local populations. www.panthera.org NT NEAR THREATENED LYNN M. STONE/NPL M. LYNN

N°311 Terre Sauvage 77 Sawfi shes Pristidae CUTTING-EDGE CONSERVATION Along the west African coast, the sawfi sh family, which have cartilaginous skeletons similar to those of sharks, are threatened by fi shing activities and illegal trading. This is why they are the subject of a conservation pro- gramme: AfricaSaw. “The core of our project is working with Africans,” says Armelle Jung, Scientifi c Project Leader for nonprofi t Des Requins et des Hommes, also an SOS grantee. “We’ve set up a warning network across several countries – including Senegal, Sierra Leone and Guinea-Bissau – so we can react quickly if a sawfi sh is captured. The network is based on local intermediaries – a village chief, or a person in charge of fi shing – who communicate frequently to maintain the link after we’ve run an operation, and thus present their community as ‘friends of the sawfi sh’. This sus- tained energy, as well as several educational projects, are increasing awareness. In a small village in sou- thern Sierra Leone, I remember some fi shermen who, Zamia Prasina after a long and stormy debate, had decided to throw Zamia prasina back a sawfi sh. It was a strong statement from these people, who have plenty of other everyday concerns. CULTIVATING A WILD Ultimately, we hope to see them sensibly managing FUTURE their fi sh resources on their own.” t almost seems as if, to live happily, http://www.sospecies.org/sos_projects/fi sh/sharks_and_rays/ Zamia prasina kept a very low profi le. securing_the_future_of_sawfi shes_in_western_africa/ Not content with being endemic to the CR CRITICALLY ENDANGERED I PERRINE/NPLDOUG Maya Mountains in south-west Belize (Central America), this cycad – which may be reclassifi ed as a new species called Zamia decumbens – only grows Loggerhead at the bottom of dolines, sinkholes formed by the collapse of underground Caretta caretta rock. Ironically, it is the rarity of the LAYING THE FOUNDATIONS plant, which looks like a fern crossbred “I’ll never forget the fi rst time I saw a loggerhead giving life. It was dark, and we were lying with a palm, that has made it precious near it, waiting for it to fi nish laying its eggs so we could tag it. Its prehistoric shell shone to collectors. Hit hard by unsustainable golden in the full moon, and I could not imagine anyone harming such a beautiful animal.” commercial use, it is down to just But if Freya Cohen has become a station head for Archelon (the Sea Turtle Protection Society a hundred or so individuals across of Greece), it is because the loggerheads’ millennia-old laying ritual is now threatened by 10 square kilometres of forest. On fi shing and uncontrolled development of the Greek coastline. In the crisis-hit country, illegal expeditions cofunded by SOS – Save constructions are mushrooming along the turtles’ protected habitat, and their interactions Our Species, the Montgomery Botanical with humans are often fatal. For more than 30 years, Archelon’s many international volunteers Center (MBC) brings precious wild have been identifying, protecting and monitoring the nests through to laying. Their work is cycad seeds back to the United States bearing fruit: more and more female loggerheads are emerging each summer. It now remains for horticultural purposes. “Ex situ to introduce eco-tourism activity that benefi ts both the turtles and local communities. collections are needed to supplement “Everyone owns these sites,” says Cohen, “and they will give us far greater rewards over the the wild cycad populations,” explains long term than some ephemeral real-estate complex!” www.archelon.gr EN ENDANGERED Tracy Magellan, MBC Outreach Manager. “If nursery-grown cycads are widely available, this will discourage collectors of wild plants.” With a 1,000 seed propagation plan yielding a germination rate above 50%, Zamia prasina seems set for a brighter future. http://www.sospecies.org/ sos_projects/plants/cycads/ belizean_sinkhole_cycads/

CR CRITICALLY ENDANGERED POUCHAIN J.-B.

78 Terre Sauvage N°311 NATURE’S CUSTODIANS

Manta Ray Mantra birostris Mantra alfredi ECOTOURISM TO THE RESCUE fter shark fi n soup, which harms animals more than it helps Ahumans, the fashion is now to harvest Manta Ray gills for pseudo- therapeutic purposes. A few years ago, ecologists from nonprofi ts WildAid and Shark Savers tracked down this illegal trade to the dried-seafood markets of Guangzhou, southern China, where 99% of the gills harvested are sold as the basic ingredient for health tonics. To halt the decline of Manta STEPHEN BELCHER/MINDEN PICTURESSTEPHEN Ray populations, due to overfi shing of Javan Rhinoceros Rhinocerus sondaicus the species driven by demand for the gills, the two nonprofi ts have created NOT A LONE RANGER the Manta Ray of Hope programme. In the Ujung Kulon National Park in Indonesia, Pak Sorhim and Pak Tisno are members of Besides introducing measures to a Rhino Protection Unit (RPU). For the past 20 years, these teams of four rangers have been give the rays legal protection and an operating for the International Rhino Foundation and the Yayasan Badak Indonesia nonprofi t awareness-raising campaign in China, to protect the last population of Javan Rhinoceroses, estimated recently at approximately it is promoting ecotourism activities 60 individuals. “We patrol the forest and raise awareness among the communities that live related to the species, such as scuba around it,” explains Pak Sorhim. The species is coveted by poachers for its horns, which diving. “This trade is depriving the are sold on the Chinese market. “As well as preventing human disturbance, we identify the local economies of one of the most areas where the rhinos live and monitor the state of their habitat,” adds Pak Tisno, Head of charismatic ocean creatures, which an RPU since 2007. Monitoring of the species, based on its faeces and tracks, is primarily could earn them millions of dollars aimed at stopping the proliferation of invasive species that crowd out the grass the rhinos each year,” says Team Leader Shawn feed on. “If the park and local communities work well together, it will improve the villagers’ Heinrichs. The deadly traffi cking of lives,” stresses Pak Sorhim, who’s keen to also offer them a better life. As for an unlikely Manta Rays, which generates USD11 encounter with a rhinoceros, Pak Tisno simply says: “I’ve seen them twice in thirty years, million a year versus a potential and it was just incredible!” www.badak.or.id/home USD100 million in ecotourism activities, CR CRITICALLY ENDANGERED certainly seems the less sensible option. http://www.sospecies.org/ Niedzwetsky Apple Tree sos_projects/fi sh/sharks_and_rays/ manta_rays_china/ Malus niedzwetskyana http://www.sospecies.org/sos_pro- jects/fi sh/sharks_and_rays/manta_ CRUNCH TIME rays_in_mobulid_fi shing_nations_/ Are the fruit forests of Central Asia a paradise (nearly) lost? For they too contain their forbidden fruit: the Niedzwetsky Apple Tree, a wild VU VULNERABLE ancestor of our cultivated varieties. Robin Loveridge, Programme Offi cer for the Global Trees Campaign (GTC), a conservation pro- gramme for threatened trees set up by Fauna & Flora International, travelled in June 2014 to the Sary-Chelek Reserve in Kyrghizistan to supervise protection of the last population of Niedzwetsky Apple Trees: “Each spring, the young plants push out their fi rst shoots, which are eaten by herds of livestock. And this silent population is in the process of collapsing.” To offset the lack of regeneration – which, coupled with the fragmentation of populations, has reduced the species to 117 individuals – GTC is training local communities and government departments to manage the apple trees across extensive pastureland, while also developing nurseries to reinforce the wild populations with cultivated trees. The species’ survival would provide “genetic diversity and potential resistance to diseases that are threatening domesticated apple varieties”. http://globaltrees.org EN ENDANGERED

N°311 Terre Sauvage 79 Mediterranean Monk Seal Monachus monachus SMILE, YOU’RE ON CAMERA Hunted excessively in days gone by, the Mediterranean Monk Seal is one of the most threatened marine mammals, with only about 500 animals spread between the Aegean Sea and the North African coast. Spanish foundation and SOS grantee CBD-Habitat has begun a pro- gramme to protect the species off Mauritania, in the “Seal Coast” reserve. “Around the Cabo Blanco peninsula, we’re protecting nearly half of the global population,” says biologist Mercedes Muñoz Cañas, “and it’s the only population that has retained the original colony structure. So we’re basically protecting its best hope of survival.” As Corroboree Frog seals the suffer from human disturbance in their three resting and Pseudophryne corroboree breeding caves, the programme’s technicians use surveillance came- ras and, more rarely, abseil down to check on the animals’ activities. GOLDEN EGGS They are also working with the inhabitants of n recent years, a number of the neighbouring town of Nouadhibou to pre- amphibians worldwide have vent any intrusive fi shing. Their efforts have Ibeen decimated by the infectious enabled the colony to double in size in 14 years, chytrid fungus. One of these is the says Muñoz Cañas, and the seals thank them Corroboree Frog, endemic to the in their own way: “It’s incredible when you’re wetlands of Kosciuszko National climbing and suddenly feel something tugging Park in the Australian state of New on the rope – you look down, and there’s a baby South Wales. Only six males were seal nonchalantly playing with it!” counted in January 2014. Thanks http://www.sospecies.org/sos_projects/mammals/ to a conservation project, there is protection_of_the_mediterranean_monk_seal__ now hope that this amphibian, with monachus_colony_of_the_cap_blanc_peninsula__ its spectacular yellow and black mauritania/ markings, has improved prospects. WWEUROPE/NPL CR CRITICALLY ENDANGERED “But there’s a wider challenge, because this pathogen is threatening all frog species globally,” says David Hunter, Threatened Species Offi cer at the state’s Offi ce of Environment and Heritage, which is hopeful that Timneh Parrot Psittacus timneh its protection scheme will spawn others elsewhere. Four Australian POACHERS TURNED GAMEKEEPERS zoos and parks manage breeding in “The Timneh Parrot’s intelligence explains both its survival captivity, in conditions that duplicate and its decline.” The old timers from the Bijagós Archipelago the Corroboree Frog’s natural habitat. in Guinea-Bissau told Mohamed Henriques, a biologist with The eggs are then re-introduced into SOS grantee World Parrot Trust (WPT), how this parrot, artifi cial ponds in Kosciuszko National which is endemic to west Africa, has declined in the past 30 Park. “The ponds are slightly raised, years: its ability to mimic human words has made it a popular which rules out the presence of the pet in Europe. But the creation of protected areas, such as Common Froglet [Crinia signifera], the João Vieira-Poilão National Marine Park, and the start the amphibian that carries chytrid,” of conservation operations, have begun to discourage parrot explains Hunter. And it’s working; hunters. “This year we had proof of this, when we managed 60% of the eggs hatch and several to recover and re-introduce a chick that had been poached,” individuals are reaching maturity and says Henriques happily. To protect the breeding colony on the managing to mate. João Vieira and Meio Islands, the WPT took the bold step of www.corroboreefrog.com.au recruiting six parrot hunters to help count the populations. CR CRITICALLY ENDANGERED “The idea is not just to offer them an economic alternative, but to make them more aware of the implications of the Timneh Parrot’s extinction.” Thanks to their knowledge, the ex-poachers have become precious project colleagues, and are restoring hope for this bird, which, in Henriques’ eyes, embodies the true meaning of freedom. http://www.sospecies.org/sos_projects/birds/timneh_parrots/

VU VULNERABLE DANIEL LOPES

80 Terre Sauvage N°311 NATURE’S CUSTODIANS

Violet Copper Maleo Bird Lycaena helle Macrocephalon maleo COMING BACK HOME LOOKING FORWARD, The Violet Copper’s French name, NOT BACK Cuivré de la bistorte, refers to the plant arcy Summers runs the Alliance on which it depends: the common for Tompotika Conservation bistort. Populations of this insect, a M(AITo), set up in 2006 to protect relic of the last Ice Age, are declining the Maleo, a bird endemic to Sulawesi and increasingly fragmented, deep in and Buton Islands in Indonesia. the valleys of the Belgian Ardennes Threatened by illegal collection of the and Lorraine areas. In 2009, the single egg laid by the females on a Belgian region of Wallonia set up a beach near the village of Taima, in fi ve-year conservation programme Tompotika province, the species has with European funding, coordina- seen its population grow continually ted by nonprofi t Natagora. Work has since AlTo introduced patrols with the focused on rehabilitating 110 hectares local community. “We’ve proved that of land, including 40ha purchased BOITIER EMMANUEL if humans can change their behaviour especially and numerous Natura 2000 sites, to once again provide an envi- towards nature, it can be mutually ronment friendly to this butterfl y: a network of wet grasslands where bistort benefi cial.” Protecting the beach, which grows, as it needs the plant to breed. For example, selective logging and the pays better than selling the eggs, has creation of clearings in the Semois River Basin, which had previously been also shown Indonesians the tangible overrun by spruce, attracted the Violet Copper back two years later. The consequences of their actions. project has been granted a one-year extension to supervise the eco-responsible “The hardest part is to change management of the re-opened sites, which the Violet Copper has successfully people’s mentalities... It takes time. But recolonised despite high rainfall in the past two spring seasons and a steady increasingly, the villagers are talking decline in its overall numbers. www.life-papillons.eu EN ENDANGERED proudly about their natural heritage!” According to Summers, this invitation to change is being extended by the Maleos themselves, which, having buried their egg, return to the forest without looking back, leaving the future baby to fend for itself. “It’s the ultimate act of trust. They rely on the world to be kind to their child. As a human being, that inspires White-clawed me not to betray their trust.” Crayfi sh http://www.sospecies.org/sos_ projects/birds/maleo/ Austropotamobius EN ENDANGERED pallipes RUN FOR SHELTER! There are few organisa- tions devoted to protecting

LINDA PITKIN/NPLLINDA “thankless” species such as invertebrates. Yet they are “the key to maintaining a healthy environment”, stresses Joanne Gilvear, Conservation Offi cer at Buglife. This nonprofi t, whose motto is “Saving the small things that run the planet”, aims to save the White-clawed Crayfi sh in south-west England. Populations of this pollution- intolerant species, which acts as a bio-indicator, have halved since the 1970s, mainly because of a “plague” carried by an invasive species, the Signal Crayfi sh (Pacifastacus leniusculus). To fi ght this disease, Buglife and several partners have initiated the South West Crayfi sh Partnership, which aims primarily to set up Ark sites. “These are safe havens devoid of the invasive crayfi sh that threaten the threatened native populations,” explains Gilvear. After capturing White-clawed Crayfi shes, the offi cers move them to these isolated sites where they are carefully monitored. Twelve such sites have been created, and Buglife, using a participatory-science method, is encouraging everyone to identify new ones, using criteria that can be downloaded from its website. www.buglife.org.uk/uk-crayfi sh EN ENDANGERED

N°311 Terre Sauvage 81 INTERVIEW

ÉLISA VACHER AND Head of Sector Policies, . R . D BNP Paribas Group FINANCE, YES DEGRADATION, NO The BNP Paribas Group’s commitment to responsibility? It helps to conserve biodiversity by strictly controlling its fi nancing and investment activities.

Terre Sauvage: For some years now, BNP Paribas has Newmont Mining. Some NGOs have highlighted a risk of been displaying its pro-active commitment to protec- contaminating local people’s water resource... ting biodiversity… Where does this concern stem from? É. V.: The mine’s not in service yet, it’s still at the planning Élisa Vacherand: The general management made a public stage. The evidence does not substantiate the controversies commitment to fi ght climate change in 2011, as part of its around water management, and the government has asked positioning as a responsible bank. A bank is responsible if it Newmont to propose measures to minimise these impacts. provides fi nancial products that match its customers’ needs Newmont’s most recent assessment shows that it respects the and has a clear vision of the social and environmental impacts mandatory criteria of our sector policy, which was published of its investments. So after identifying the business sectors that in March 2013 and anyone can read on our website. We have pose big challenges in terms of climate change and biodiversity, also established a dialogue with the company. we defi ned strict criteria which dictate how we invest in and fi nance these sectors, and which are applied in the same way Do you fi nance companies that use threatened in the 74 countries where the group operates. species? É. V.: We rule out any relationship with companies that don’t An example? respect the regulations set by CITES (Convention on É. V.: Take mining. Before we fi nance a project, we check that International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and the future mine and its related facilities are not located in sen- Flora) and might be involved in traffi cking protected species. sitive areas: UNESCO world heritage sites, Ramsar wetlands, And companies that have been convicted for traffi cking pro- protected areas in IUCN categories 1 to 4. Categories 1 and 2 tected species are put on an exclusion list that our bankers must areas are often protected by the public authorities, but those check. This “black list” is compiled using data from TRAFFIC, in categories 3 and 4 rarely are. We therefore go further than the wildlife trade monitoring network. If we exclude a company, international regulations. To check where a future operating we also exclude its parent and its subsidiaries, so there’s little site is located, we use a tool developed by IUCN called IBAT risk of working with a company in the same group. We’re also (Integrated Biodiversity Assessment Tool), a database of infor- particularly vigilant with companies based in countries that mation on the world’s protected areas. are not CITES signatories. And if a potential customer has a business importing and exporting protected species from or to BNP Paribas has invested in a gold-mine project in these countries, we systematically ask to see its CITES Peru (the Conga project), led by American company permits.

82 Terre Sauvage N°311 INTERVIEW

Growing oil palms is very harmful to biodiversity. Do you have a policy on this subject? É. V.: Yes, we’ve had one since 2011. The palm-oil sector has WE GO FURTHER a heavy environmental impact, but it employs millions of people in developing countries, which is why we want to pro- THAN INTERNATIONAL mote responsible palm oil instead of seeing it banned. This activity must be subject to fairly strict controls. As well as REGULATIONS banning it in the most sensitive areas, we invite our customers to maximise output from existing plantations rather than clearing forests to create new ones. We work with The Forest Trust (TFT), an NGO with close ties to Greenpeace. In particular, BNP Paribas is strongly involved with palm-oil producers in Southeast Asia. One of the biggest producers, respect local regulations. But we actually go further. They a Nestlé supplier, was a customer of ours. Following a don’t always understand that a banker can have such stringent Greenpeace campaign that condemned the damage this far- requirements. However, it’s quite hard for us to tangibly illus- ming activity was causing to orangutan populations, we trate the link between banks and environmental protection decided that if it didn’t change its practices we would no to the general public. In France, our fellow citizens are gene- longer fi nance it. We worked with the producer on a pro- rally interested in banks’ social utility, given that the envi- gramme of commitments, and it is now one of the leading ronmental aspects of the projects we fi nance are already very responsible growers of oil palms in Southeast Asia. tightly regulated. ■

What other problems are you interested in? É. V.: Overfi shing and undifferentiated catch, through the production, trade and use of trawl nets more than 2.5 kilo- metres in size. These are banned in many countries, especially in Europe, but not others, such as Thailand. Before we fi nance a fi shery in such a country, we check that it doesn’t use these nets. We are also fi ghting mountain top removal (MTR), the surface mining of summits or summit ridges to extract ore or coal, as in the Appalachians. It completely alters the landscape, and the mined earth and rock is discarded into waterways. BNP Paribas has ceased all dealings with the mining compa- nies that are most active in MTR, having tried to dissuade them from continuing.

BNP Paribas fi nanced the Tata Mundra coal-fi red power plant in India, which is criticised for polluting rivers and destroying the mangrove forest with its CO2 emissions! É. V.: This investment dates from 2008, before we introduced our environmental policy in 2011, and we couldn’t have pulled out mid-project. It’s worth noting that this plant’s emission levels are far lower than those of any other coal-fi red power plant in India, and it supplies electricity for 16 million Indians.

Who takes your decisions on environmental policy? É. V.: The group’s top-management team leads these actions, and all members of the Executive Committee and the Board of Directors are informed of sector policies. Part of the bonus of the group’s 5,000 most senior managers is linked to achie- ving a number of social and environmental responsibility targets.

Why do you not communicate more on your environmental commitments? É. V.: We talk about them a great deal to our investors and biggest customers. Indeed we sometimes have very lively meetings, because some of them think it’s not enough to

N°311 Terre Sauvage 83 84 Terre Sauvage N°311 THAiLAND KhaoK Yai Thap Lan

PangP Sida Ta Phraya Gulf of Thailand 50 km CAMBODIA

REPORT SAVING THAILAND’S BLOOD WOOD Siamese Rosewood is a traffi cked commodity that generates huge black-market revenues. The rangers of Thailand’s national parks are waging a war against mafi a gangs to save it from extinction. BY ANN & STEVE TOON WINNERS OF THE 2013 TERRE SAUVAGE-MELVITA NATURE IMAGES AWARDS GRANT

N°311 Terre Sauvage 85 THE FOREST COMPLEX WATERFALLS of Dong Phayayen-Khao Yai and streams, richly covers more than 6,000 sq km. diverse fl ora and fauna, With its heavy annual rainfall, it is and spectacular wooded a vital watershed for Thailand. landscapes are the hallmarks of this complex.

86 Terre Sauvage N°311 REPORT SIAMESE ROSEWOOD

red mud track cuts a single thin line between two impenetrable walls of dizzyingly tall, dark forest. We’re penned in on each “We saw the number of side by a twisted, tangle of damp poachers in the forest undergrowth. Huge trees, fi ghting to break free from increase by 950 per cent in theA stranglehold of snaking vines, reach skyward. Way up in the canopy their lea- three months! ” ves greedily steal our daylight. Down here at ground level it’s sticky, oppressively hot and claustrophobic. Thousands of tiny, prickly grass seeds like small, sharp spears have planted themselves in our socks and trousers while ravenous mosquitoes have begun feasting on our arms. The maddening us along to check some of the camera nal parks about the endangered species buzz of cicadas in our ears is broken by traps he’s placed along the forest trails. and wildlife that exist here. In recent strange hoots, screams and ear-piercing The monthly task is a highlight for him; months these camera traps have shed light screeches. We’re told they’re the calls of his excitement is palpable as, before even on an altogether more sinister and deadly gibbons and forest birds, but we can’t see reaching the fi rst camera, we fi nd a per- forest secret. It’s the reason we’re accom- anything. Handfuls of butterfl ies, some fect tiger pug mark on the wet earth. panied everywhere by an armed forest the size of small birds, dance around the Soon we’re poring over his computer, guard. For these forests have become a forest edges, their wings edged with neon fl icking through images caught by the fi rst war zone. Gangs of armed criminals are blues and acid yellows. This richly-green, camera. We’re amazed at the sheer wealth laying siege to the forest in search of a densely-vegetated, seemingly endless of wildlife that shows up: Leopard Cat, natural commodity that fetches hundreds forest landscape is awe inspiring and Pig-tailed Macaque, Large-spotted Civet, of thousands of dollars on the internatio- beautiful, but it’s also eerily forbidding Dhole, Hog Badger, Elephant, Asiatic nal black market. It’s not the tiger they’re and alien. Black Bear. And tiger. A huge, muscular hunting out, but a tree. We’re deep in the Dong Phayayen-Khao male fi lls the screen. Eric checks the stripe The tree in question is the Siamese Yai Forest Complex, a UNESCO World pattern. “This is male number two...” Rosewood (Dalbergia cochinchinensis), a Heritage Site comprising five natio- rare forest hardwood with a distinctive nal parks and more than 6,000 sq km CAUGHT IN THE ACT red-coloured timber that for centuries of rugged tropical forest in the east of He’s not alone. Over the next couple of has been sought after for the manufacture Thailand, stretching to the Cambodian days we check a dozen or more cameras, of highly-prized furniture and religious border. It’s an internationally important identifying fi ve individuals. Only a few statues in China. In recent years, as biodiversity hotspot, home to many threat years ago some conservationists dismissed China’s affl uent middle class has rapidly ened and endangered species, including suggestions that the area could still har- increased, there’s been a boom in demand Asian Elephant, Siamese Crocodile and bour tigers, but Freeland’s research has for high status reproduction ‘Hongmu’ Banteng, and a vital watershed for fi ve of proved that far from locally extinct, there rosewood furniture. A single chair can Thailand’s major rivers. remains a signifi cant population of these sell for $1 million, and the price of Siam Today we’re looking for signs of one elusive Indochinese tigers living deep in rosewood has correspondingly skyroc- creature in particular. Eric Ash of the these forests. keted, reportedly fetching as much as Thai-based anti-wildlife traffi cking orga- Freeland’s cameras not only provide $100,000 per cubic metre. In just a few nisation Freeland Foundation has invited valuable information for Thailand natio- years the forests of Laos, Cambodia and

N°311 Terre Sauvage 87 REPORT SIAMESE ROSEWOOD

CHAINSAWS, THE PRECIOUS outboard motors and Siamese Rosewood motorbike wheels (Dalbergia used by the poachers cochinchinensis), are seized, as are considered sacred by chopped-down tree the Chinese, is trunks. subject to illegal, deadly logging in Thailand.

training and equipping rangers. “We reached out to SOS Save our Species for an emergency rapid response project to increase the capacity of the park to inter- dict some of these large poaching groups,” explains Eric. “This included a training programme to improve the skills of the rangers, providing equipment and fi eld provisions, and implementing park-based monitoring systems, so they can unders- tand the problem a bit more and coordi- nate resources to go after the poaching groups more effi ciently. We’ve also enga- ged with other government organisations so that they are brought in and they can exercise their mandates to go after poa- ching groups and criminal organisations.” At a substation in Thap Lan national park, Sayan Raksachart, a long-serving ranger who now works for Freeland doing community outreach work, shows us the fruit of the anti-poaching units’ recent endeavour. It’s a ghostly timber yard of confiscated rosewood logs and rough hewn planks, marked with individual case numbers, heavily fenced with barbed wire. There are hundreds of motorcycle Vietnam have been virtually stripped of increased by about 950 per cent within wheels, a shed full of chainsaws and out- rosewood, and the poachers have turned the span of a three month period,” Eric board motors (some poachers smuggle their attention to Thailand. tells us. “The poachers are fi nanced by timber across a lake that adjoins the park), Since 2008 Thai forest parks have seen large criminal organisations. They also and a parking lot with two dozen confi sca- a steady escalation in poaching, with the poach local wildlife for food, and clear ted vehicles: clapped out pick-up trucks, last two years reaching crisis proportions. large areas for their camps: if we can’t minibuses with tinted windows, even an Poaching gangs with as many as one protect the Siamese rosewood, it’s going old school bus. Sayan points out how hundred men, mainly Cambodians who to have signifi cant implications for some the insides of vehicles have been com- cross the border illegally, often paying of the other endangered species in the pletely stripped so the felled rosewood off border offi cials, are guided into the forest complex.” can be smuggled out. Two cool boxes in park by local Thais. They are armed with an innocent-looking mobile grocery van chainsaws, motorcycle wheels with which RAPID RESPONSE have been customised to hide the illegal they improvise hand carts to carry out Faced with these large, armed gangs, the wood. The tons of timber represent sei- the wood, and weapons – anything from park’s anti-poaching rangers are outnum- zures from only the last two years – and home made shotguns to AK47s. The fel- bered, out-gunned and out-resourced. In this is only one of several evidence stores led timber is cut into rough planks, car- the past two years several rangers have that we see over the next few days. We ried to the edge of the forest and loaded been wounded in confrontations with start to appreciate the sheer scale of this into vehicles, often adapted with hidden poachers, and one has been killed. poaching epidemic. compartments, to be smuggled back To rebalance the odds, Freeland We’re interrupted by the arrival of a across the border and ultimately to China. Foundation applied for and received a truck, loaded with rangers, rosewood and “We saw from our camera traps that grant from SOS Save our Species, to build three freshly apprehended poachers. They the number of poachers in the forest on the work they were already doing in are bundled out and made to squat on the

88 Terre Sauvage N°311

HEAVILY ARMED, the anti-poaching patrols wage a merciless war against the traffi ckers, and sometimes manage to catch them (below).

90 Terre Sauvage N°311 AFTER ARRESTING the poachers, the rangers unload the rosewood that they have just confi scated.

N°311 Terre Sauvage 91 REPORT SIAMESE ROSEWOOD

The largest rosewood trees have mostly already vanished, and poachers are resorting to digging up roots!

ground, humiliated, as we take photogra- phs. Two are just teenagers and it’s hard not to feel sorry for them. These are the people taking the risks, but they’re not the ones making big money. Rosewood poaching has close ties to the illegal drugs trade: many of the poachers are addicted to “yaba”, a methamphetamine/caffeine cocktail, and some are even paid in the drug. Taking it gives them the energy to work all night in the forest hauling the timber out. At Thap Lan park headquarters we meet ranger team leader Chaloaw “Doi” Kotud, who has worked in the park for 20 years. He’s wearing a cool khaki photo-vest with Korean lettering that he snaffl ed from a poacher he arrested and a TAYWIN MEESAP, Superintendent of Thap Lan Park, outside a storehouse full of seized rosewood. camoufl age face mask he wears rolled up on his head. You wouldn’t want to mess and self confi dence, better patrol tactics corruption, reinforcement from the army with him. “The most important thing for apprehending large gangs, the value - these are all encouraging signs for the the rangers doing this job need to have of GPS and compass training, rangers’ future. But the poachers are already tur- is heart and passion and they need to be lives saved. ning to other rare hardwood species to fully prepared to sacrifi ce themselves for Most are optimistic that they will ulti- meet the insatiable demand from China. the job,” he tells us. mately win this bloody war with the Before leaving Thap Lan, park superin- During our time in the forest we speak poachers. But will it be too late for the tendent Taywin Meesap tells us he has to many rangers about the dangers they Siamese Rosewood? Already the largest an important message for the Chinese. face and why they would do such a job. rosewood trees have all but vanished “Many Chinese believe Siam rosewood is They remind us of the anti-poaching from the forests, and poachers are a holy tree. That’s why they want to have rangers we’ve met in South Africa, pro- resorting to digging up roots. It will be furniture made from it in their house, tecting rhinos. Quietly spoken, deter- 50 years or more before the surviving because they believe it will bring luck to mined men, doing a dangerous job with saplings mature into the forest giants them,” he says. “I want to tell them this limited resources and little thanks. Every that are now so rare. Tougher sentences rosewood is not holy, it will not bring one of them expresses their gratitude for poaching, some recent success in sei- luck to their life, because this rosewood for the training and equipment provided zing the assets of criminals higher up is obtained through the lives of rangers through Freeland and SOS – Save Our the chain, a promise from Thailand’s and criminals. It is wood that is stained Species: they talk of improved morale military government to clamp down on through with blood.” ■

92 Terre Sauvage N°311 INITIATIVES

CONSERVATION: HOW YOU CAN HELP Each one of us can take action to brighten, or at least not darken, the future of threatened species, whether they live in France or beyond. Here are some avenues to explore. BY ETIENNE HURAULT

Be a smart consumer… Help a nonprofi t…

BY SELECTING YOUR EVERYDAY PURCHASES BY PUTTING YOUR PAWPRINT 50.iucnredlist.org and www.sospecies.org/fr • Prefer woods that are grown locally and/or carry ON THE FOLLOWING PETITIONS • To Aves France, which supports two nonprofi ts in the PEFC or FSC labels (the latter’s more stringent) • “3 200 tigres”: to help the World Wildlife Fund Ecuador: AmaZOOnico, which manages a refuge for that guarantee sustainably managed forests. double the current global tiger population by 2022, wild animals, and Andean Bear Foundation, which • Avoid products containing palm oil: its a commitment made by the 13 tiger range runs a study and rehabilitation centre for the production is the main factor driving forest countries in 2010. 3200tigres.wwf.fr Spectacled Bear. aves.asso.fr clearances in Southeast Asia, home to the • “Non à la disparition programmée du lynx • To France’s Bird Protection League (LPO). Sumatran Orangutan, Elephant and Tiger. dans les Vosges”: launched by French nonprofi t Active in conserving the Atlantic Puffi n, and, in Ferus, and calling on the Environment Ministry to mainland France, the Corncrake. This body also BY BEING A RESPONSIBLE TOURIST pledge protection of the Eurasian Lynx in the works in French overseas territories, which host • Don’t buy just anything. Before purchasing an Vosges Mountains, eastern France. www.ferus.fr more endemic birds than all of mainland Europe. animal, plant or by-product, check whether the • “Le pangolin n’a rien à faire dans une www.lpo.fr species in question is protected by CITES (the assiette”: launched by French nonprofi t Sauvons • To Awely, which specialises in resolving convention on international trade), which regulates la Forêt to save the Pangolin (aka the Scaly human-wildlife confl icts in Africa and Asia. border transit of more than 30,000 wild species Anteater) family from poachers who hunt them for www.awely.org threatened with extinction. If it is, demand a CITES food. www.sauvonslaforet.org • To Noé Conservation, for its international permit, the only document that proves the sale is programmes. www.noeconservation.org legal. If in doubt, don’t do the deal! cites.ecologie. BY MAKING A DONATION gouv.fr or www.wwf.ch/souvenir • To IUCN: enable it to reach the milestone of BY ADOPTING AN ANIMAL • Watch whales respectfully. 160,000 assessed species, or help it develop • Giant Panda, Common Chimpanzee, or one of three In France, this is only assured by operators who conservation projects via SOS – Save Our Species, other WWF protégés. www.wwf.fr display a label (High Quality Whale Watching in the the largest global fund devoted to the cause. • A gibbon taken in by nonprofi t Kalaweit in Borneo Mediterranean, and O2CR in Reunion Island) or have and Sumatra. www.kalaweit.org signed a charter (they operate on the islands of • A Hermann’s, African Spurred, or Radiated Tortoise Guadeloupe and Mayotte, and in the Iroise Sea off taken in by nonprofi t SOPTOM in southern France, Brittany). Senegal or Madagascar. www.villagetortues.com • A Yellow-Tailed Woolly Monkey, a Great Green Macaw and 15 other species are tracked closely by Contribute nonprofi t CoEco and its partners. www.coeco.asso.fr to the Red Lists… BY LENDING A HAND BY TAKING PART IN A PERTICIPATORY • Help French shepherds to protect their fl ocks from SCIENCE PROGRAMME the Grey Wolf in the PastoraLoup programme. Whether you’re a novice or an expert, your Or promote acceptance of the Brown Bear in the biodiversity observations are precious… as long as Pyrenees via the “Bears’ Voices” programme set up you share them with the scientifi c community! by Ferus. www.ferus.fr Collected data, which offer insights into how species • Protect the Fin Whale, the Utila Spiny-tailed populations change in space and time, are useful in Iguana, the Leatherback Turtle, the Tapir, and helping produce the IUCN Red LIsts. The best-known more… Find a species for you among the programme in France is Vigie Nature (“Nature eco-volunteering missions on offer worldwide with Watch”), developed by the National Museum of the nonprofi ts listed below. Natural History (MNHN), which includes monitoring www.participefutur.org ; www.apasdeloup.org ; of common birds over time, a bat observatory, and a www.planete-urgence.org ; www.cybelle-

ILLUSTRATION : PRINCESSH : ILLUSTRATION fl ower watch. vigienature.mnhn.fr planete.org

N°311 Terre Sauvage 93 SHOPPING BY ÉTIENNE HURAULT

Hot on their trail ANIMAL PRINT GUIDE BY THE LPO Do prints in mud or snow leave you scratching your head? Then pull out your print guide, Looking at nature fan out, place the transparent cards directly on the ground, BUDGETING FOR and compare! Handmade in BINOCULARS France, this handsome leather It’s Christmas, so why not give item helps you identify 17 someone else (or yourself) wild animals – mainly forest/ a treat. But what price-tag mountain mammals. Another should you be looking at? It’s design, devoted to birds (20 tricky, because the models on tracks categorised by habitat offer range so widely – from type), is also available from 50 to... 3,000 euros! For the online shop of the LPO, occasional observation – such France’s bird protection body.* as a bit of annual boat-gazing Price: €32 each - www.lpo.fr at the Semaine du Golfe Safe in the saddle * Profi ts go to fund the charity’s work. du Morbihan festival, in CUSTOMISABLE DANDY HORSE Brittany in May – €300 for a BY NATURE & DÉCOUVERTES pair sounds very reasonable. Very much in vogue, this pedal-free bike helps tots (aged Conversely, demanding and/ three and over) to fi nd their balance on two wheels – and or regular users, especially if avoid the need for rollers later on. The one sold by Nature weather or light conditions are & Découvertes stands out with its retro wood build (wheels poor, are unlikely to derive excepted). Even so, the seat is adjustable (three positions) and, much satisfaction without best of all, it can be customised. Get the kit as well (screw-on high-grade gear. But to get and stick-on accessories, for an extra €19.95) and jazz up the quality, you’ll need to splash design: red with white polka dots, motorbike, Vespa or cow. some cash. There’s a whole set Price :€69 - www.natureetdecouvertes.com of criteria – lens and objective cutting precision (their dimensions and surface must It’s your turn! Nice and seedy be perfect) and treatment DÉFIS NATURE / CONTINENTS does it (vacuum applied corrective BY BIOVIVA ÉDITIONS HANGING FEEDER microlayers); the use of This enhanced version of the card game BY HAMIFORM, materials that are lightweight War looks fairly basic, but don’t be AT BOTANIC yet resistant (to pressure, fooled. Available in three versions (Asia, While nice and snug at home, temperature differentials, Americas, and Africa), it lets children spare a thought for those of our water…) or more eco-friendly (aged 7+) discover the animals of these feathered friends which haven’t (bye-bye, lead); the assurance three continents and their conservation fl own south for winter. This of real know-how (for optics, status, while having plenty of fun. To elegant hanging seed feeder, in Europe’s best) or good after- win the game, players bet on the species’ black metal and plexiglass, will sales service – that justify strong points out of fi ve biological do the trick. Common birds higher prices, often hundreds characteristics (length, weight, lifespan…) are sure to be regulars. And of euros more than a pair that and try to turn the tables with the help of if they’re round and about, look identical on paper but the threatened species. Simple, instructive other species – such as coal deliver inferior performance. and enjoyable! tits, Eurasian tree sparrows, € * From 13-19 December, Swarovski Price: 6.99 - On sale in specialist Eurasian bullfi nches and Optik is staging a digiscoping shops and at www.oxybul.com other threatened passerines exhibition in its gallery (9, rue du – will soon pay a visit! Just Faubourg Poissonnière, 75009 Paris, be sure to remove the 11am-6pm). Exhibits will include the winning photos from the last four feeder in early spring, international digiscoping competitions. after the last frosts. Invitations to the opening (12 Price: €31.90 - boutique. December, 8pm) are available by botanic.com request: [email protected]

94 Terre Sauvage N°311 BOOKS BY JEAN-PHILIPPE GRILLET

ENFANT D’ÉLÉPHANTS À LA RECHERCHE Prajna Chowta and Stéphanie DES FÉES DES FLEURS Ledoux, Elytis édition, €23 Cicely Mary Barker, Gründ, €20 L’ARBRE D’OR JOHN VAILLANT “The elephants Here’s a book that is not meant to Les éditions Noir sur Blanc, €22. Originally published could fl y where- be leafed through or skim-read. as The Golden Spruce. ver they wanted, But then again, is it actually a according to the book? When you open it, nature Are you ready to legend.” Born spreads out in three dimensions, “accept the impro- among them, “for real”, as children say! You bable”? To be fi lled “the wise man take a stroll in the treetops, where with wonder at “the Palakapya fed on “fairies often choose to hide overgrown elegance the same plants, and drank from their homes”. You will discover and monumental the same springs, as if he were the rich profusion of plant life complexity of virgin one of them.” Inspired by this where they conceal themselves. forests”? To regret wise man, the author, an Indian In the garden, you will breathe that deforestation is woman, settled in the forest in the the fl owers that they imitate to the prerequisite of south of her country: she engaged “fl it about as they please, without our civilisation? To with his culture and lived with the being seen”. Alongside the path understand that “the Kurubas people, amid the ele- you’ll count butterfl ies, without biggest trees that the phants. Alone at fi rst, then with imagining that they are in reality world has ever seen her daughter, Ojas. With this nar- fairies “whose wings are reminis- have been kept for the rative, illustrated by Stéphanie cent of butterfl ies”. And in the end, for us”? Ledoux’s amazingly powerful and marshland, you will gain access If you are ready for all beautiful watercolours, the book to their hallowed place. Read this of this, then embark on this book’s adventure! You – for children and adults – cele- book – and never again doubt will discover the Queen Charlotte Islands, off British brates the elephants, the forest that fairies exist! Columbia: by virtue of the wealth and originality of and its inhabitants. But will Ojas their landscapes, they are the Canadian Galapagos; but, have to leave again, and rejoin the beautiful yet devastated, they also show “this part of human society that her mother JURA AU FIL DU TEMPS the world before the Europeans came, and a glimpse had wanted to leave behind? Guillaume François. On sale: of what the future could look like”. www.art-tirage-emotions.com With the Haida people, who inhabit this place where € or www.naturejura.com, 23 “everything is myth”, you will love the golden tree which AU NOM DU VIVANT “elevates the temporal towards the divine”, and you will Robert Barbault, Éditions weep like “one of our ancestors”. You will weep because, Buchet/Chastel, €14 in 1997, Grant Hadwin cut it down: a 300-year-old tree more than 50 metres tall, and bearing mysterious golden A young philosopher recently needles, “the only tree on the continent capable of uniting explained that his studies had natives, loggers and environmentalists, not to mention taught him that there is no such scientists, foresters and ordinary citizens, in sorrow and thing as nature: only man exists. outrage”. With his act, Hadwin, a logger and tree lover, A woman politician was saying despaired by their destruction, had that her colleagues could not wanted to raise the alarm about accept that humans and nature Le seul arbre “the abominations towards ama- are interdependent – they found capable d’unir teur life on this planet”. the notion humiliating! What A wild cat advancing amid falling autochtones, History, sacred symbolism, a pleasure it is, in this “plea to snow: the cover photo is well cho- bûcherons et tragedy, mystery – this story has reconcile man and nature”, to sen. It invites you to discover the écologistes all the ingredients, says its author. be re-acquainted with the clear, pictures of a contemplative young Written in powerful, handsome simple tone that you used in your photographer who loves the Jura, prose, excellently rendered in writing, Robert. Your argument his home region. In this, his fi rst translation, it tells of the Haida’s love for their forest is full of convincing examples that book, Guillaume François lays and how it has been degraded by frenzied, indiscriminate show us nature does indeed exist, bare his wildlife encounters and capitalism. Vaillant expands the scope of his thinking but that we are an integral part of it, the beautiful landscapes of a dis- does not lapse into pessimism: he shows that a rebirth and that it is “the very foundation creet and rugged land. An author is possible for the golden tree, for the Haida, and even of our existence”. You remind us to keep an eye on. The foreword for civilisation. of Élisée Reclus’s words: “Man is is by photographer Michel Loup, That, however, would require our society to regain a nature growing aware of itself”. a connoisseur of the region. sense of the sacred, as when humans were an integral To us, you still seem very much The photo on page 12 of this issue part of nature; back then, they respected it, taking what alive… is taken from the book. they needed to live. Nothing more. ■

N°311 Terre Sauvage 95 TRAVEL IDEAS BY PAUL BARLET

Madeira Pearl of the Atlantic You’ve fi nally reached the top of Pico Ruivo, at nearly 1,900 metres altitude, the highest point of the impo- sing ridge that stretches across the island of Madeira. On the horizon, all is calm and the view is clear: seve- VOYAGES ral hundred kilometres sepa- rate you from the Canary CHAMINA Islands, the nearest inha- bited land. You decide to walk back down along paths on the levadas, ancient irrigation canals that drain the island’s hillsides. These small cobbled waterways gradually lead you, through the mist, into a very old forest of laurel and tree heathers. As you pass, handsome Trocaz Pigeons (Columba trocaz) take fl ight. They are endemic to the island, as are the glimmering gold streaks in the R undergrowth: Madeira Firecrests (Regulus madeirensis), their heads 2 U ringed with gleaming crowns. O O Back in Funchal, the capital, you are greeted by the clamour of a C M festival day. and multi-coloured parades stream through the main A avenues, acclaimed by the crowd’s applause: it’s carnival time. And your feeling of wonderment is just beginning… ON “Peaks, levadas and wild coastline” trip, 8 days, with the Chamina-Voyages agency, from €995. M More details: www.chamina-voyages.com / +33 (0)4 66 69 00 44.

DENIS CHEISSOUX France LE SAMEDI DE 14H À 15H The Languedoc highlands on a donkey Depuis 20 ans, CO2 mon amour défriche Winter is closing in, and you’re les champs de la science et de la planète. already thinking about your next summer vacation, in the heat of a dazzling sun. You yearn for the great outdoors, and hikes through the herby fragrance of garrigue scrub- land. But the mere thought of carrying a pack brings you out in a sweat… BALLADANES Help is at hand: the Balladanes agency provides you with exceptional porters –strong-minded, for LA VOIX sure, but ever so kind, and with soft hairy ears. Yes indeed: they are donkeys, those magnifi cent members of the Equidae family, EST smart yet stubborn, which have been man’s companions on trails for a very long time. You’ll head off into the Upper Languedoc LIBRE Regional Park, south-west France, between Cahors, Béziers and Millau. Wander the Black Mountains, the Upper Orb Valley, the franceinter.fr Héric Gorge and Douch, its ghost village. The park’s forests are home to a wild community of Common Genets (Genetta genetta), Long-fi ngered Bats (Myotis capaccinii), and rare Spanish Pond Turtles (Mauremys leprosa). And the donkeys, once relieved of their packs and fed, will stand guard for you overnight. “The grand crossing” bivouac trek, 3 possible packages (5-7 days), with the Balladanes agency, from €400 per adult. More details: www.balladanes.fr / +33 (0)4 67 23 10 53.

96 Terre Sauvage N°311 United States India All that jazz in Louisiana Yoga, beaches and butterfl ies From New Orleans to To truly understand a discipline, Baton Rouge to Lafayette, nothing beats journeying back to you’ll travel in a jazzy its origins. This certainly applies atmosphere as you explore to yoga – and also to India, with Louisiana with Terres which it is inextricably linked.

CONSEIL d’Aventure. Welcome to With Vision Éthique, you head off

this former French colony: in the company of Didier Dozias, EXPRESS along your way, some of a qualified teacher with the the Americans you’ll meet French Yoga Federation (FFY), ETHIQUE - LOUISIANE are Cadiens, or Cajuns, to the small towns of Munnar and

and will speak an old French lingo that you’ll struggle to unders- VISION Varkala, in Kerala state. The set- tand. The beguiling atmosphere begins with the cooking: gumbo, ting, akin to paradise, will deeply infl uence your meditations. jambalaya, sauced stews, shrimp and grilled meat cuts. Meals To clear your mind, take advantage of the quiet beaches and segue into music, and each year several celebrations, including the surf. Or wander the terraces of tea plants, absorbed in your the famous Mardi Gras, punctuate people’s lives in this vast thoughts. Or seek quiet contemplation in one of the millennium- delta formed by the Mississippi’s meanders. The bayou wetlands old Hindu temples dotted here and there. But if the call of the and their cypress trees, over a hundred years old, are the roots wild grows irresistible, you’re never far from one of the famous of old local legends. But it’s after nightfall that you’ll have your backwaters, expanses of lagoons and mangroves that host rich most enjoyable encounters. The fl eeting glimmering of an alli- biodiversity. You can also go for a trek in Eravikulam National gator’s eyes; a twitching branch bearing opossums; and then, Park, where 85 species of butterfl y await you. And 33 species right beside you, a rustling bush – it’s a Nine-Banded Armadillo of reptile too – but don’t expect them to give you a massage… (Dasypus novemcinctus) doing the rounds. “Back to Yoga’s Roots”, 13 days, with Vision Éthique, from €1,380. “Rhythm ’n’ Bayous” trip, 10 days, with Terres d’Aventure, from €1,010. More details: www.vision-ethique.com / +33 (0)9 50 71 66 41. More details: www.terdav.com / 0 825 700 825.

France VOYAGEZ NATURE Studying cetaceans as an eco-volunteer re you a big fan of wildlife documenta- scientifi c study of cetaceans. Your job is to count ries ? Well, now you’re in one! You’ll push all the animals you see, focusing on the marine Aoff from the Côte d’Azur on board one of species. This will refi ne the knowledge we pos- the yachts operated by a charity called Cybelle- sess about cetaceans, thus enabling us to better OIES EN BULGARIE Planète. Alongside an eco-guide, a skipper and a protect them. You’ll sail in the Pelagos Sanctuary, 31/1-6/2 +/-1380€ LOUPS EN BULGARIE team of eco-volunteers, you’ll help to conduct a a protected area of sea that stretches from the € Giens Peninsula in France to Fosso Chiarona in 7-14/2 +/-1350 BALEINES EN BASSE-CALIFORNIE Italy, and also encompasses Sardinia. It’s home 6-20/2 +/- 4900€ to a remarkable ecosystem. SUR LA PISTE DU TIGRE EN INDE This wonderful adventure will involve extensive 27/2 AU 15/3 3850€ observation of iconic Mediterranean species: JUNGLE, VOLCANS DU GUATEMALA the three species of Dolphin – Short-beaked 28/2 AU 15/3 3850€ Common, Striped, and Risso’s (Delphinus delphis, MIGRATION EN BULGARIE Stenella coeruleoalba, Grampus griseus); the myste- 11 AU 18/4 +/- 1380€ rious Cuvier’s Beaked Whale (Ziphius cavirostris, RAPACES EN ESTREMADURE which lives in deep waters, below 1,000 metres); 18 AU 25 /4 1380€ the Long-fi nned Pilot Whale (Globicephala melas), LES MIGRATEURS DE LESBOS € all three handsome tons of it; and the imposing 19/4 AU 26/5 1650 Sperm Whale (Physeter macrocephalus): and – the AIGLES, PYGARGUES EN CROATIE 25/4-2/5 +/-1180€ highlight of your trip, if you’re lucky enough to LE LYNX EN SIERRA MORENA spot it – the Fin Whale (Balaenoptera physalus), 26/4-3/5 1195€ a cool 22 metres in length. And that’s not to ET PUIS : Pologne, Hongrie, Port mention the sea birds, the Mediterranean Monk Leucate, Cantabriques spécial ours, Seals (Monachus monachus), the jellyfi sh… Maures, Brenne, Vercors …

“Cetaceans and biodiversity in the Mediterranean”, 7 days, NATURE ET TERROIR PLANÈTE with Cybelle-Planète, from €1,100. 00 32 71 84 54 80 (Belgique) More details: www.cybelle-planete.org / www.nature-terroir.com

CYBELLE +33 (0)4 67 60 30 15. [email protected] CRÉDIT PHOTO : S SORBI

N°311 Terre Sauvage 97 THE FIREFLY AND THE PHILOSOPHER

BY ALAIN CUGNO Philosopher UNDERSTANDING

L. VILLERET L. DIFFERENTLY

nimal and plant species are threat- tities. The cause is the same: instruments to grasp the ened by extinction. Biodiversity issue are entirely lacking. Nothing, in how a company is tending to diminish, through a operates, provides a handle merely to understand what sort of entropy that is so depleting it is all about. And that is just one case among many. the world that it will ultimately be handed back to us like an apartment I KNOW THREE FORMS of rationality at wrecked by dastardly kids. For it is work in our world. First, instrumental rationality: this well established that we humans are, at best, not at all provides the indivisible link between a cause and its Ato blame; or, at worst, bear complete responsibility. effect, and has presided over the deployment of modern What is disappearing is the beauty of the world, and technology. For a very long time (since 6 August even the possibility of surviving in it, because, among 1945 in Hiroshima, let’s say), other effects, we are at the same time exhausting our What is this rationality has been criti- energy reserves. We’ve been told this ad nauseum – it’s disappearing cised by those terror-stricken certainly one of the most constant themes in our daily is the beauty by technicians’ immoderation. life, and you cannot turn on your computer without one of the world, Next, communicative rationa- of your correspondents sticking in your face a slide- and even the lity: this holds a proposition to show of coral dwellers so beautiful that, right from the possibility of be true when “different parti- fi rst picture, you know it won’t end happily. And so, surviving in it cipants overcome their initially once the last clownfi sh has taken refuge in the last sea subjective views”(2) because they anemone, written across the screen will be the terrible attribute “the rationality of an expression to its ability accusation that you, with your irresponsible behaviour, to be critiqued and justifi ed”. (3) It is this rationality that are the one who is destroying so many wonders. We has ensured the success of politics and democracy, but are saturated by this message; it is surely necessary; it stumbles on the ecology block. Finally, hermeneutic and some effects are starting to take shape. But it is rationality: this knows that “simply by understanding, also pretty inadequate. one understands differently”; and that distance, be it cultural or temporal, “is therefore not an obstacle FOR HERE IS ANOTHER MYSTERY: to be overcome”:(4) It is this rationality that helps us this issue, the most serious and complex of our age, understand other cultures without yielding to either is extremely well known and widespread (albeit with Eurocentrism or to the explosion of meaning. the inevitable parade of negationists), yet it is not at An immense, incredible, thrilling challenge awaits: we the top of the media agenda, which is one thing; and must invent a new form of hermeneutic rationality to nor is it top of the public agenda (especially in parlia- escape both anthropocentrism and the exaltation of nature ment), which is quite another. How is this so? Why do without man. It cannot be detached from spirituality – the books currently selling in the hundreds of thou- and Terre Sauvage is in the vanguard.(5) sands not address this issue? Why do political parties, (1) A French expression – Translator’s Note. which even in their names affi rm that their purpose (2) Jürgen Habermas (1981), Theory of Communicative Action, volume 1, is to take an interest in these matters, not do so – or, Beacon Press, Boston. (3) Ibid. if they actually do, take such an oblique interest that (4) Hans-Georg Gadamer (1960), Truth and Method, Seabury Press, 1975. they are pitiful to listen to? It’s all the more despairing (5) The Bayard group, which owns Terre Sauvage, started out as a religious because most decision-makers in civil society are not publisher in the 1870s and still is today – Translator’s Note. any better equipped to address the environment issue; and because explaining to a business chief that this is today’s big issue often prompts such courteous baffl e- (1) FURTHER READING: For a glimpse of what this paradigm might ment that it calls to mind a hen fi nding a knife, or a be: Augustin Berque, Poétique de la Terre. Histoire naturelle et coati when asked what it thinks about remarkable iden- histoire humaine, essai de mésologie, Paris, Belin, 2014.

98 Terre Sauvage N°311

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