Rare bird species at risk in SW China

Here is a recent English article about the Oriental Pied Hornbills in Guangxi and last month's conference in Nanning on the Xinhua News Net.

 广西林业新闻网上有关于中国犀鸟研究与保育研过会的新闻。

中国犀鸟保育与研究国际研讨会在南宁举行

（2011-4-1 9:25:20）

文：自治区林业厅保护处 黎斌 摄：《广西林业》编辑室 何乃缘

3月20日至22日，由广西野生动植物保护协会与香港嘉道理农场暨植物园联合举办的首届“中国犀鸟保育与研究国际研讨会”在南宁举行。自治区林业厅副厅长、广西野生动植物保护协会会长刘中奇出席研讨会开幕式并致辞。泰国犀鸟研究基金会、新加坡雀鸟生态研究组、香港地区和国内鸟类专家等40多人参加了研讨会。

看本文章。 

There is an article on Guangxi's Forestry News website about the "Workshop on the Conservation and Study of Hornbills in China" that was held in Nanning last month. The translated article is below.

 "Workshop on the Conservation and Study of Hornbills in China" is held in Nanning

（2011-4-1 9:25:20）

Author: Guangxi Forestry Bureau, Conservation Section, Li Bin Editor: "Guangxi Forestry" Editorial Section: He Naiyuan

From March 20th to 22nd, Guangxi Wildlife Conservation Association and Hong Kong's Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden co-sponsored the first "Workshop on the Study and Conservation of Hornbills in China" in Nanning. Deputy-Director of Forestry and head of the Wildlife Conservation Association, Mr. Liu Zhongqi, opened the event. Dr. Pilai Poonswad from Thailand's Hornbill Research Association, as well as a representative from Singapore's Bird Ecology Work Group and more than 40 other experts from China and abroad attended the event.

Deputy Director Liu Zhongqi stated that this is the first ever workshop or conference dedicated to studying Chornbills in China, its purpose, to share research and conservation with Chinese and foreign experts, create a platform for discussing the study and conservation of hornbills in China, as well as look at measure for protecting Xidamingshan and China's hornbill species. He emphasized that the various departments of the Forestry Bureau need to communicate and cooperate more, learn from experience and move to the next step in protecting the Oriental Pied Hornbill in Guangxi.

The Chinese and foreign experts looked at the current state of hornbill conservation and research in Thailand, Singapore's Oriental Pied Hornbill study and conservation situation, China's hornbill status and distribution as well as current measures to protect the Oriental Pied Hornbill in Guangxi. After discussion, the conference members declared is to continue to support the Guangxi Xidamingshan Oriental Pied Hornbill Project (that's us!) and at the same time work hard to complete the job of protecting China's hornbills and their habitat.

The Workshop on the Conservation and Study of Hornbills in China is in the news. The article on the Guangxi News Net discusses China's disappearing hornbills and Xidamingshan's position as one of the last refuges for Oriental-Pied Hornbills in China. They quote Thai hornbill expert Pilai Poonswad from Mahidol University, "With so much pressure from hunting, the survival of this precious hornbill species is precarious and in order to ensure its survival, their natural forest habitat must be protected." The article mentions that the Xidamingshan Nature Reserve was originally set up in the 1970s to protect the hornbill but only recently with the start of the hornbill project has real research and conservation work started.

12月份广西西大明山冠斑犀鸟项目在广西隆安县坪山乡中心小学搞了一个犀鸟宣传教育活动。被一位老师报告在隆安教育信息网上。

Back in December we held a hornbill awareness event at Pingshan Primary School in Long'an County, Guangxi. It seems the event was reported on by one of teachers. The photos and a short article were posted on the Long'an Education News site. Have a look at the photos, I'll translate the article into English asap.

More oriental-pied hornbills (Anthococeros albirostris) are in the news. Modern Life Daily has another article focusing on our bird expert Que and all the hard work he has put into this project over the years. Here is the original article in Chinese.

又有广西西大明山冠斑犀鸟 (Anthococeros albirostris) 的新闻。当代生活报有一个文章关于项目鸟类专家阙先生的7年多努力研究和保护西大明山冠斑犀鸟的工作。看一下本文章。

Guangxi's Oriental-pied Hornbill Photographed

Last week, our Nanning bird expert Que was hiking in Xidamingshan with some bird watchers and got to hear, see and even photograph some Oriental-pied Hornbills. This article posted on Sina talks about finding the hornbills, how rare they are and some of what's being done to protect them.

揭开广西冠斑犀鸟神秘面纱首张照片

上周在广西西大明山项目的来自南宁的阙先生和几个观鸟者听见了，看到了由拍到了冠斑犀鸟。这篇新郎科技网上的文章介绍了他们的活动与冠斑犀鸟的主体情况。

Back in January, Xidamingshan and the Oriental-pied hornbills were mentioned in the news, locally and nationally. This is the original article in Modern Weekly in Chinese. I've translated some with a summary of the rest below.

最近在广西当代生活报中有一篇文章关于西大明山冠斑犀鸟的保护。

Guangxi's 40 or so remaining wild Oriental-pied Hornbills, or "Love Birds", are a rare sight in the mountains

www.gx.xinhuanet.com　 2011年01月02日 09:25:27 　Modern Life Daily

New Year's Day, Nanning Zoo

'"Daddy, look at that bird's huge beak!" the little boy shouted while holding his father's hand, both investigating the big bird on the branch in front of them. "That's an Oriental-pied Hornbill from our beautiful Xidaming Mountain..." the dad told his son.  As the old poem goes "Even though I can't fly with you, we still have a magical connection" and it's the perfect description for oriental-pied hornbills, birds that mate for life. If their mate dies they spend the rest of the life alone, mateless. They are true "love birds".'

Summary

The rest of the article talks about their rarity in China and what is being done to protect them. Volunteer Mike from the USA (that's me) leads fun and exciting hornbill education and outreach events such as the one in December in Pingshan. Hornbills are called "Airplane Birds" by the locals and the students are learning to protect them. Volunteer Que often leads survey trips searching for the hornbills. It is difficult, often fruitless work, as they are so rare and hard to find, whole days spent in the field sun up to sun down without seeing anything, hoping to see something the next day. The final part talks about Nanning Zoo's hornbills exhibit and success with breeding, although they also only have about 20 or 30 oriental-pied hornbills.

Wishing a late but heartfelt Happy Lunar New Year to everyone. Since to tomorrow is the last day of the New Year festival, I think it still officially counts. Our work at Xidamingshan protecting the hornbills and their habitat is just getting started, but will certainly bear fruit. Thank you very much to the hard working nature lovers, volunteers, bird watchers, scientists, conservationists, forest rangers, teachers, students, villagers and everyone else who have helped with this project in the past year. Thanks especially to our bird guy Que, all of the staff at the Zhongdong Forestry Office and to everyone at Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden in Hong Kong. Wishing all of you lots of luck, fortune, health and happiness in the Year of Rabbit! (Mike)

祝大家新年快乐！不好意思晚点，但还应该算应为明天是元宵，对吧。我们的保护犀鸟的工作开始不久但应该快就会有成果。非常感谢努力做环保工作的个位志愿者，观鸟人，科学家，环保者，护林员，司机，老师，学生，村民和领导。要特别谢谢我们的鸟类专家阙先生，中东林业局和香港嘉道理农场与植物园的所有人。祝大家恭喜发财，兔年吉祥！（麦克）

Our project's first volunteer was "Little Panda", a birder and nature-lover from Nanning. Since he's a doctor, he's a very busy guy. The young doctors like him always get the most work and the worst shifts. Despite his busy schedule and big load of responsibilities, whenever he has free time, he is out in nature, often doing something useful to make sure more people love and protect China's wildlife and wild places. Little Panda takes lots of great photos on his many adventures. He shares his stories and photos on his blog. Thanks to Little Panda for helping make more people love and protect nature!

Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden(KFBG) is a Hong Kong-based Non-Governmental Organization and charity founded by the Kadoorie Brothers, Sir Horace Kadoorie and Lord Lawrence Kadoorie. KFBG is located on the slopes of Hong Kong's tallest mountain, Mt. Tai Mo, the the New Territories.

Its original incarnation was founded in 1951 as the Kadoorie Agricultural Aid Association, providing agricultural training and farming aid to farmers as a means of alleviating poverty. Today, with its roots still firmly connected with sustainable farming and development, KFBG has morphed into one of the leaders in biodiversity conservation and environmental education in Hong Kong and South China. They support numerous Hong Kong and China-based green living, poverty alleviation, and biodiversity conservation programs, including this one.

In the 1950s, the Kadoorie Brothers, successful Hong Kong businessmen and philanthropists, as well as founding members Mr Norman Wright and Mr Woo Ting Sang were conserned about the poor farmers in Hong Kong's New Territories. They knew that by helping the farmers find better ways to farm, they could help the farmers improve their lives and the farming community as a whole. As the old saying goes, "give a man a fish, feed him for a day, teach a man a fish, feed him for a lifetime". In this case, it was pigs instead of fish. One of their first projects was to improve local pig breeds by hybridizing them with larger hardier breeds. These pigs, along with chickens and cows, were donated to local farmers, giving them a source of profit and means to help themselves. The farm also acted as a training and demonstration centre for best agricultural practices.  

As the New Territories' economy moved away from agriculture, KFBGs mission evolved to include all sustainable development, green living, and biodiversity conservation. They became a major green force in Hong Kong's environmental movement. KFBG is a center for environmental educaton and conservation science. They are an active leader in flora and fauna conservation, run the Wild Animal Rescue Centre, and through their Environmental Advisory Program share information and cooperate with numerous governments and NGOs.

Since 1998, their China Program has been one of the leading forces for biodiversity conservation in South China. They have done more than 50 biodiversity surveys and countless other work in Guangdong, Guangxi, and Hainan Provinces and have been a driving force in protecting South China's biodiversity hotspots. KFBG's China Programe has played key roles in rediscovering and protecting the Hainan Gibbon, preserving Hainan's rainforests, educating people about why and how nature must be protected, and much more. In 2009, with KFBG's support and expertise, the Xidamingshan Hornbill Project was started. The continued success of this project and other projects like them is because of the resources and amazing dedication of KFBG and their fantastic staff.

Please learn more about KFBG and the projects and programmes they support. Go visit them in Hong Kong as well, the farm is great!

I know, I know, everyday is Earthday. 知道了。。。每天都是地球日

80年代申兰田和李汉华发了一个文件关于冠斑犀鸟的情况。看一下。可以比较现在冠斑犀鸟的情况有什么变化。20世纪好还是21世纪好呢？

In 1981 Shen Lantian and Li Hanhua published a paper covering the situation of the Oriental Pied Hornbill in China. The article is in Chinese. I will add some translated excerpts from it here soon.