Saker Conservation and Falconry

This is a site of the Saker Task Force (STF) which was set up under the Raptors MOU of the Convention on Conservation of Migratory Species (CMS). The site is run by IUCN for the International Association for Falconry and Conservation of Birds of Prey (IAF), working together with CMS and Birdlife International, in a Flagship Project which reported in 2017

 

During 2012-14, the CMS-STF worked with researchers, falconers and other conservationists to draft a Saker Falcon Global Action Plan (SakerGAP), of which this site for researchers, veterinarians and other practitioners, is part of the first project. It is part of a multilingual network which links regional and national sites in each language, and was launched in Abu Dhabi at a workshop in August 2019.

 
Evgeny Alexandrovich Bragin 1954-2020
26 Aug 2020

Prof Dr Evgeny Bragin was a superb field-scientist from the start of his career. Working at Naurzum reserve in northern Kazakhstan, he studied raptors nesting in the sparse stands of trees that fringed the open steppe to the south, using motorbikes with side-cars for colleagues and stability. He was always courteous, gentle to offer practical advice, pragmatic in terms of support for sustainable-use as a conservation technique and reliable as a friend and scientist. It is therefore no surprise that he became a pillar of the academic establishment in Kazakhstan. Colleagues have prepared a more detailed obituary in Russian on Facebook and in translation as a download. Complications from a Covid-19 infection took him from us on 25 August 2020, leaving his wife Prof Dr Tatyana Bragina to help us remember him.

 
Workshop in Abu Dhabi on Bird Trade
27 Aug 2019

A lot of ‘wildlife crime’ occurs because local traditions are rendered illegal by decisions made in English at international conventions without the awareness, let alone with consultation in their own language, of those affected. Such crime can be addressed by giving more scope for local people to act legally and explaining in local languages why that is important. Recommendations to that effect were one outcome of a workshop organised on 27 August in Abu Dhabi by the International Association for Falconry and Conservation of Birds of Prey, the Convention on Conservation of Migratory Species and the Bern Convention. After a talk by members of European Sustainable Use Group and IUCN, the network to promote legal use of Saker Falcons was re-launched in 10 languages by Emirati diplomat, HE Awadh Ali Saleh, by pressing the button to publish www.sakernet.org.

 
SUME at RRF 2018
14 Nov 2018

A SUME talk covering the Sakernet and Perdixnet portal operations was given for the Raptor Research Foundation conference of 2018 at Kruger National Park in South Africa.

 
Survey Goes Officially Online
20 Apr 2015

After a a month of testing the Practitioner Portal and Survey in Arabic, Pashto, Persian and Russian, the Board Meeting in Brussels of the International Association for Falconry and Conservation of Birds of Prey authorises launch. Here is an English version of the site, and publicity material for the survey, and the site, in English, Arabic, Pashto, Persian and Russian.

 
Raptor Experts Gather in Abu Dhabi
15 Mar 2015

Delegates gather in Abu Dabi for the Second Meeting of the Technical Advisory Group to the CMS Raptors MOU during 16-19 March 2015.

 

 

This site is part of a network for falconers, trappers, veteriarians, land managers and local communities across Asia and North Africa. The multilingual hub carries much information on wild and trained sakers, their breeding, migration, health and the results of a survey during 2016 and 2017 of those whose passion and livelihoods involve the Saker Falcon. The network is in Arabic, English, Farsi, French, Hindi, Mandarin, Mongolian, Pashto, Russian and Urdu, thanks to the efforts of Aamir Khan, Akanksha Singh, Dashka Tserendeleg, Farooq Khan, Julian Mühle, Kamran Khan, Omar Ahmad, Reza Kiamarzy, Sara Ichinkhorloo, Tetiana Gardashuk, Véronique Blontrock & Zhenwei Mann. 

 

The hub is linked to satellites run by stakeholders, eventually for each language, as one of several networked assemblies of satellites and hubs run by IUCN-SUMEThis site is also a resource for those wishing for links to Saker project information, to partners in this project and to reports and scientific articles on the Saker Falcon, including a bibliography of 844 papers. There is also a 2-page factsheet that gives a useful overview of the SakerGAP.