EAZA Silent Forest Campaign

Asian Songbird Crisis

Songbirds in Asia are threatened with extinction due to excessive and strongly cultural rooted consumption of wild songbirds for trade, songbird competitions, pets, export, traditional medicine and food. The SILENT  FOREST CAMPAIGN (2017-2019) aims to save a growing number of songbirds by increasing knowledge, awareness and commitment to do action within and beyond the zoo community.

Above: the southeast Asian region 

About the campaign

Songbirds in Southeast Asia have become the subject of an excessive but culturally deep-rooted consumption for trade, singing competitions, pets, status symbols, export, traditional medicine and food. Demand for songbirds in Southeast Asia is extremely high, affecting hundreds of species and involving millions of individual birds, annually. The trade is often illegal and evidently unsustainable; thus, it has been recognised as a primary threat for many species in Southeast Asia, particularly the Greater Sunda region. Comprising of Brunei, western Indonesia (Bali, Java, Kalimantan and Sumatra), Singapore, Malaysia, southern Myanmar and southern Thailand, the Greater Sundas are an ecologically diverse region, home to more than 850 bird species, and globally recognised as a biodiversity hotspot with high levels of endemism. Currently, Indonesia has one of the highest number of bird species assessed as threatened with global extinction in the world and the highest one in Asia (Critically Endangered, Endangered or Vulnerable; IUCN Red List, 2017). [Read more here...]

The campaign focuses on following activities:

within the EAZA region:

• Increase awareness in the general public and within the zoo world.
• Fundraise for conservation efforts to prevent extinctions.
• Provide ideas and information to enable environmental education in zoos.
• Provide know-how, mentorship and manpower to support and initiate conservation breeding programs and related ex-situ research activities.

within the natural range:

• Increase regional awareness and implement environmental education strategies in cooperation with local and international stakeholders.
• Develop regionally relevant husbandry guidelines for all focus species, and support their legal scientifically managed breeding in-region.
• Build awareness and capacity for law enforcement within the region.
• Initiate, develop and support in-region conservation breeding centres where this is deemed necessary.
• Support research initiatives designed to improve the scientific basis of reintroduction programmes

The Campaign will run from 1 October 2017 to 30 September 2019.

Flagship species

Silent Forest will run for two years, and is aimed at raising €400,000 from European zoos and their visitors to help save six Critically Endangered flagship species identified by the coalition and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). 

1. Bali Myna, Leucopsar rothschildi – CR
2. Nias Hill myna, Gracula robusta – CR
3. Javan green magpie, Cissa thalassina – CR
4. Sumatran laughinghthrush, Garrulax bicolor -EN
5. Straw-headed bulbul, Pycnonotus zeylandicus – EN
6. White-rumped shama, Kittacincla malabarica – LC

More than just songbirds

Harteman Wildfowl supports the Silent Forest Campaign, not in the least because protecting songbirds and their environment has direct positive effects on biodiversity as a whole, including the 40 species of wildfowl we stand for. 

Wildfowl in the southeast Asia region:

1. Lesser whistling duck, Dendrocygna javanica
2. Spotted whistling duck, Dendrocygna guttata
3. Wandering whistling duck, Dendrocygna arcuata
4. Fulvous whistling duck, Dendrocygna bicolor
5. Swan goose, Anser cygnoides
6. Greylag goose, Anser anser
7. Bar-headed goose, Anser indicus
8. Bean goose, Anser fabalis
9. Greater white-fronted goose, Anser albifrons
10. Comb duck, Sarkidiornis melanotos
11. Ruddy shelduck, Tadorna ferruginea
12. Common shelduck, Tadorna tadorna
13. Radjah shelduck, Tadorna radjah
14. Mandarin duck, Aix galericulata
15. Philippine duck, Anas luzonica 
16. Chinese spot-billed duck, Anas zonorhyncha
17. Indian spot-billed duck, Anas poecilorhyncha 
18. White-winged wood duck, Asarcornis scutulata
19. Cotton pygmy goose, Nettapus coromandelianus
20. Mallard duck, Anas platyrhynchos 
21. Eurasian wigeon, Mareca penelope (Anas penelope) 
22. Falcated duck, Mareca falcata (Anas falcata) 
23. Gadwall, Mareca strepera (Anas strepera) 
24. Baikal teal, Anas formosa
25. Common teal, Anas crecca
26. Northern pintail, Anas acuta 
27. Garganey, Spatula querquedula (Anas querquedula) 
28. Northern shoveler, Spatula clypeata (Anas clypeata) 
29. Andaman teal, Anas albogularis
30. Red-crested pochard, Netta rufina 
31. Common pochard, Aythya ferina 
32. Tufted duck, Aythya fuligula 
33. Ferruginous pochard, Aythya nyroca
34. Baer's pochard, Aythya baeri
35. Greater scaup, Aythya marila 
36. Common goldeneye, Bucephala clangula 
37. Smew, Mergellus albellus 
38. Red-breasted merganser, Mergus serrator
39. Scaly-sided (Chinese) merganser, Mergus squamatus
40. Common merganser (Goosander), Mergus merganser

More information about the campaign: 

https://www.silentforest.eu