African Wildlife and Environment Issue 66

CONSERVATION

CONSERVATION

These were the words of legendary conservationist Ian Player, on visiting Quiçama National Park, Angola, in 1966, at the invitation of the Portuguese colonial government. Player convinced the Portuguese to recruit an ecologist to assist in planning the development of Quiçama and the country’s other half-dozen parks and reserves, together covering some six million hectares of wilderness. So it was, on a sultry August evening in 1971, that my wife and I arrived in Luanda, Angola, for me to take up the post of ecologist in the Serviços de Veterinária , Angola’s national parks authority. We were soon settled in Parque National da Quiçama , a block of 990 000 ha, established in 1938 as a game reserve. Flanked by the mighty Cuanza River in the north and east, the Longa River floodplains in the south, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and a dense mix of thickets and dry forests linking the Cuanza to the Longa, Quiçama had as perfect ecological limits as one could wish for in a national park. Herds of elephant, red (dwarf) buffalo, eland, roan, harnessed bushbuck and reedbuck occupied the extensive sweet grasslands of the plateau and floodplains. Player remarked: “I have yet to see any place that compares with it.” The early 1970s proved to be the belle époque of Angola, a period of peace and prosperity between the colony’s long history of slavery, penal settlement, forced labour and rebellion, and the bloody proxy and civil wars that were to follow independence in 1975. For four years we travelled extensively across the country, from the arid southwest to the equatorial rainforests of Cabinda, and across the miombo woodlands of the interior plateau to the Congo and Zambezi headwaters. With a carte blanche to explore and develop the country’s protected area system, what greater opportunity could a young couple wish for? Our programme became a seasonal peregrination around the major reserves: Quiçama, Luando, Bicuar and Iona, with sorties up Morro Moco , the country’s highest peak (reaching 2 680 metres), to the far reaches of the Congo basin in Lunda, and to the terras do fim do mundo , ‘land at the end of the world’- the Cuando Cubango. Iona National Park stretches across 1 550 000 ha of theNamibDesert between the Cunene and Curoca rivers Angola: IS THIS THE END OF THE GAME? “What a wonderful challenge for someone to develop a Park like this. There is a lifetime of work ahead for a keen man and I really envy him.” Brian J Huntley

geometric accuracy now available with BirdLasser adds substantial value. Some downside of this App-era though is ‘pocket records’ and ‘thick finger inputs’ that do require review, which lazy administrators do not always do. It is especially species such as ‘African Penguin, Abdim’s Stork, African Barred Owlet...’ - all starting with an ‘A’ that slip through, and return as embarrassing ORFs. Birds of the Magalies John Wesson, our Birdlife Harties Club chair, is a pioneer of many conservation initiatives, and his plan to update the ‘Birds of the Magaliesberg Bird-list’ was supported by the ‘favourites option’ on the SABAP2 website (www.sabap2.org.za).

FIXING THE HOLE IN COVERAGE ON BBD2010 It might have been the BIG HAIRY AUDACIOUS GOAL of reaching 50% coverage of our country before the end of 2010 set by SABAP2 leadership. It might have been the enthusiastic motivational articles by Les, spurring us on to go wide and reach new virgin pentads. Or it might have just been our normal ‘wanderlust’ and the urge we all have to be FIRST. Whatever the driver, when our planning for Birding Big Day for 2010 started there was a very obvious hole in SABAP2 coverage just north of Brits. We had to fix it!

Some final thoughts The SABAP2 project makes a difference as one of the most successful crowd-sourcing initiatives involving citizen scientists. It contributes and addresses some of the biggest issues of our time with actual and near real-time data, so that the impact of climate change, conservation initiatives, and sustainable development can be measured. Equally important, by doing a hobby which should be called ‘Birding with a purpose’ as a Citizen Scientist it made a difference to our lives and can do the same for many. We want to motivate others to become involved in ‘atlassing’ in support of SABAP2. • Register as citizen scientist at www.sabap2.org.za • Download BirdLasser for your smartphone or I-phone at https://www.birdlasser.com/ • It’s easy, just do it, and you will love it. Birds of the Magaliesberg which was funded by Sasol, Rotary and contributions by Pam Golding and several others.

Jannie Jansen, Hennie Peters, Jaco Bekker and myself made up the privileged team to provide SABAP2 with quality cards for 3 pentads, including fixing the hole in seamless coverage of pentads including the whole of Gauteng and an increasing area of the eastern part of the Northwest Province. Looking back, the big kick of being FIRST is surpassed by the knowledge that we are contributing as a team towards the bigger picture, and underlined by being there in nature, hearing, seeing, and feeling the amazing creation around us. The team soon found the reason for this remaining ‘hole’ amongst pentads with exceptional species abundance. The pentad is covered almost exclusively by nature reserves with limited access.

Photography It was inevitable, I had to get better pics to support our ORF motivations and this required improved camera equipment, and with that the photography bug bites hard and deep! This led to participating in the ‘Birds Captured’ game, hosted by Michelle Nel and her team of administrators on Facebook. What a pleasure it is to return from a week-end (or maybe weeks) of fun in the field, and posting one’s ‘pics’ on this page. The advice of experts like Niall Perrins and Etienne Marais (to name but two) in this game, added much value and fun, and learning. Birdlasser One’s atlassing can truly be defined as ‘BB’ (Before BirdLasser) and ‘AB’ (After BirdLasser). The difference that this App made to the pleasure of Atlassing can hardly be over-emphasized, thanks toHenkNel andhis team. Initially lists had to be written down, (secretary

Millene made this ‘do able’, and only protested when entering a new pentad and restarting with bulbuls and doves!). Then exporting this to the ADU through the DMS system took many hours. The digital recorder process offered some respite to the secretary only... And then there was BIRDLASSER! Point data with high

Further Reading Cohen, Spottiswood and Rossouw, 2017. Southern African Birdfinder - where to find 1400 bird species in southern Africa and Madagascar; Struik, Cape Town. ISBN 978-1-8687-272-5.

Renier and Millene Balt Citizen scientists, SABAP2 renierbalt@gmail.com

Birdlasser records from a trip to Namibia

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21 | African Wildlife & Environment | 66 (2017)