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).
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.