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The Seminal Legacy of the Southern African Bird Atlas Project

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The Seminal Legacy of the Southern African Bird Atlas Project 82 South African Journal of Science 104, March/April 2008 Research in Action tion, confirming the status of the Atlas as a The seminal legacy of the Southern standard reference. It is worth noting that the Atlas did not African Bird Atlas Project provide information on distribution alone. It presented important new infor- a a* b,c mation and analyses on the seasonality of J.A. Harrison , L.G. Underhill and P. Barnard breeding, and the direction and seasonality of migration. The Atlas has therefore proved an essential reference for all re- HE FIRST SOUTHERN AFRICAN BIRD ATLAS projects globally.5 It was a lengthy search involving these fundamental as- Project was launched in 1986 and gath- endeavour, but then it did cover six pects of avian biology. Tered bird distribution data from six southern African countries (Botswana, countries of southern Africa. The project Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa, Swazi- The SABAP database culminated with the publication of The Atlas of Southern African Birds in 1997. The database land, and Zimbabwe) and it was the first The SABAP database has been used in generated by the project, seven million bird time a biological survey had been various ways for a variety of purposes. distribution records, has been widely used by attempted on anything like that scale in Four main user constituencies can be four groups: environmental consultants (for Africa. Indeed, SABAP remains one of the identified: environmental consultants, example, to locate electricity transmission largest completed projects of its kind, conservationists, research scientists and lines), conservationists (planning conserva- even globally. birders. Environmental consultants form tion strategies), research scientists (especially SABAP delivered two material products: by far the largest group in terms of macro-ecologists and biogeographers) and birders (ecotourism materials). By 2007, the a database of seven million peer-reviewed number of requests for data. More than database had spawned 50 research publica- distribution records, and a two-volume, 200 requests for data from this group have tions and eight Ph.D.s and master’s degrees. 1500-page publication which presented been serviced by the Animal Demogra- These products are a tribute to the more than the results of the project, and much more phy Unit (ADU) in the past 10 years. The 5000 ‘citizen scientists’, who gathered the besides.4 As with all scientific information, most frequent user has been the national bulk of the data. The atlas concept has been the value of these products can be assessed electricity supplier Eskom; this utility com- extended to frogs, reptiles, spiders and butter- only in terms of the use to which they pany uses data on the distribution of cer- flies; a second bird atlas started in 2007 and have been put and the degree to which tain key species in planning mitigation will, for example, facilitate knowledge of the impact of environmental change on birds. The they have exerted an influence on further measures for its power transmission lines. South African National Biodiversity Institute scientific endeavour and societal aware- Data needed by environmental consul- is playing a lead role in initiating these new ness of scientific issues. This essay reflects tants are typically lists of species, and their projects. on that use, as well as the impact that relative abundance, for specific grid cells. SABAP has had on scientific activity in the As groups, conservationists and research Twenty-one years have passed since the region. scientists overlap to some degree, so it is Southern African Bird Atlas Project perhaps more instructive to speak in (SABAP) was launched in 1986, Africa’s The bird atlas publication terms of the type of use. The uses can be biggest public-participation biodiversity summarized as conservation planning, database. In July 2007, South Africa In principle it should be easy to obtain a ecological/biogeographical studies, and launched a follow-up project: SABAP2. It measure of the use to which a publication single-species ecological studies. The is opportune, therefore, to evaluate the has been put by consulting citation indi- last-mentioned data need is largely met legacy of SABAP1 and ask whether all the ces. However, the bird atlas is a multi- by the atlas publication,4 so the number of excitement and enthusiasm generated by authored work (62 authors and seven requests for more detailed information on the first project, as well as its cost, was editors) and it explicitly recommended single species has been relatively small. justified. This article complements two citation by chapter. Most citations there- On the other hand, macro-ecology and global reviews of bird atlases, which fore refer to specific chapters and species conservation planning typically involve respectively considered methodological accounts by the names of their specific analyses of data sets spanning many or all developments, based on 411 bird atlases,1 authors, making a comprehensive mea- species in a group. Almost all the South and the applicatioins to which bird atlas sure of citation frequency practically African provincial nature conservation data had been put, based on 272 bird impossible. It would be true to say, how- agencies and three national institutions in atlases.2 ever, that most papers dealing with the the five other participating countries SABAP ran its course from 1986 to 1997, ecology or distribution of a species of have acquired or further developed the and gathered data across the region on bird in southern Africa has, since 1997, 4 bird atlas data sets for their specific use distribution and abundance of 932 bird cited The Atlas of Southern African Birds. in internal research and conservation species in the region.3,4 This was accom- For example, 170 full-length papers (on planning. For example, the Namibian plished mainly by mobilizing an amateur any topic) were published in the journal Avifaunal Database, a multifaceted bio- army of more than five thousand bird- Ostrich between 1999 and March 2006. Of diversity database built around the coun- watchers. These ‘citizen scientists’ have these, 60 cited the Atlas, making it the try’s atlas contributions to SABAP, is made a major contribution to bird atlas most cited reference in the journal over this period, with the sixth edition of one of Namibia’s strongest biodiversity a Animal Demography Unit, Department of Zoology, Uni- 6 versity of Cape Town, Rondebosch 7701, South Africa. Roberts’ Birds of Southern Africa in second information systems (www.met.gov.na/ bGlobal Change Research Group, South African National place with 44 citations. The seventh edi- programmes/biodiversity/infosys.htm). Biodiversity Institute, Private Bag X7, Claremont 7735, 7 South Africa. tion of Roberts’ – a comprehensive hand- In South Africa, in addition to provincial cDST/NRF Centre of Excellence at the Percy FitzPatrick book in which the Atlas distribution maps analyses, there have been national analy- Institute of African Ornithology, University of Cape Town. *Author for correspondence. are recycled – has about 900 references to ses, the most important of which is proba- E-mail: [email protected] the Atlas,8 more than to any other publica- bly the South African National Spatial Research in Action South African Journal of Science 104, March/April 2008 83 Biodiversity Assessment (NSBA), an ness of birds and their attendant conser- Coordinated Waterbird Counts (CWAC), initiative commissioned by the national vation issues has not been measured the Birds in Reserves Project (BIRP), Department of Environmental Affairs across society, nor would it be easy to do and Coordinated Avifaunal Roadcounts and Tourism.9,10 The NSBA provides a so. Nevertheless, there is unanimity (CAR).40 These three projects are ongoing broad framework for the prioritization of within birding, ornithology and conserva- and have each accumulated more that 10 conservation effort in the country. This tion circles that SABAP had an enormous years of invaluable biodiversity monitor- major analysis used seven South African influence on birders and others in South ing data. biodiversity databases of 14 originally Africa and beyond. There were more than considered for use in the terrestrial com- 5000 direct contributors to SABAP. In Further atlases and a new era ponent of the analysis.10 Of the seven addition to these, many citizens were Beyond bird-related projects, the success eventually chosen, because they were aware of the project, especially rural land- of SABAP provided encouragement to sufficiently comprehensive, one was the owners, who frequently allowed atlasers other specialists that comparable projects SABAP database. Another was the frog to explore their properties. This aware- could be successfully organized for their atlas database, which we discuss below. ness on the part of landowners alone taxon groups, and that they could bring to Two publications of direct importance probably had a salutary effect on their their disciplines the benefits of such a to the national and regional conservation sense of their role as stewards of the broad-scope survey. The Protea Atlas of birds are The Important Bird Areas of region’s biodiversity. Project (1991–2001) was the first to be Southern Africa11 and the Eskom Red Data Many birders testify that atlasing be- launched, followed by the Southern Book of Birds of South Africa, Lesotho and came, for them, a more rewarding form of African Frog Atlas Project (SAFAP; 1995– Swaziland.12 Both of these analyses drew their hobby because it had a clear and a 2004)41 and, more recently, the Southern heavily on information in the SABAP larger purpose. Both the concept and the African Reptile Conservation Assessment database. activities of the atlas helped them to see (SARCA; 2005–09) and South African Among macro-ecologists, local and birds and their hobby in the context of National Survey of Arachnida (SANSA; international interest in the SABAP data- broader ecological issues.
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