Iraq Declares its First National Park
On 23rd July 2013, the Iraqi Council of Ministers approved the designation of the Central Marshes of Iraq as the country’s first National Park. The Mesopotamian Marshlands of southern Iraq were once the 3rd largest wetlands in the world, originally extending between twelve and fifteen thousand square kilometers and partially covering the three southern governorates of Iraq (Missan, Thi Qar & Basrah). The Marshes was globally important for large numbers of migrant and wintering birds, but also as a a vital resource for regional fisheries, reeds, and other natural resources; the home of the indigenous Ma’dan Marsh Arab culture, which is directly linked to ancient Sumeria.
In the early 1990s, the Marshes were nearly destroyed by a series of water manipulations devastating this ecologically and culturally important region, leading to one of the most severe "ecocides" in history.
The full press release from Nature Iraq can be found here».
18 September 2013 by Fennoscandian LWfG conservation project
Piskulka.net update status
The revamped piskulka.net is still under development. A lot still remains to be reformatted from the old site before import into the databases. So far only ¼ of the references are imported. This is a slow process since we simultaneously collects/scans the literature into pdf format. Also the observation and site databases have quite a lot of data to be imported. Among the countries, we hope to have the Poland data fully imported soon. Then there is ongoing work to digitalize all LWfG sites in Asia and get these into the sites database. We work closely with our partners in the EU Life project so many people are involved in getting this to be useful.
9 August 2013 by Fennoscandian LWfG conservation project
Piskulka.net revamped!
Today we are happy to launch a redesigned and highly developed site devoted to the collection and dissemination of data on the Lesser White-fronted Goose. The site is constructed around two essential sql-databases on observations and sites. With these in place we will continue to add functionality and possibilities for use of the data in research and conservation work. However, to make these databases and the site useful for the conservation of the Lesser White-fronted Goose, we will need your contribution! With the input of observers, research scientists and conservationists, we hope to take further positive steps to save this nice species from extinction. Every bit helps!
27 May 2013 by Fennoscandian LWfG conservation project
Piskulka pages under reconstruction!
The piskulka.net pages are now being udpated to fulfill new needs. We have created an SQL-database for online collection of observations, and will continue to add more search capabilities in the database. We are also creating a searchable literature database with possibilties for upload/download of pdf-files. We hope you find the new stuff useful. If you have suggestions or additions, please contact us at either tomas@birdlife.no or peter@birdlife.no.
23 May 2012 by Tomas Aarvak BirdLife Norway
Closing of spring hunting in 2012, Kalmikia Republic
In early March news were received that the spring huning of waterfowl were closed for the whole territory of Kalmikia Republic in 2012 (Decree of Government of Kalmikia republic from 02 March 2012 No 44). This is indeed a positive development for the conservation of LWfGs in this part of the world.
0 March 2012 by Sonia Rozenfeld Institute of ecology and evolution, Russian academy of sciences