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The world's largest bird conservation programme targets 189 most endangered birds.

Bengal Florican facts

The Bengal Florican is the world’s rarest bustard. The bird has a very small, rapidly declining population largely as a result of widespread loss of its grassland habitat. It is listed as Critically Endangered by BirdLife International.
The rise in dry-season rice production involves the use of strip dams – deep ditches cut into the land that trap water as seasonal waters recede. This practice leads to wholesale conversion of grassland ecosystems, impacting heavily on bird species and nearby human communities who depend on them.
Floricans rely heavily on traditional agricultural practices – grazing, burning and scrub-clearance – which provide exposed areas for foraging and in which males can display to females via their elaborate leaping and parachuting display.

Notes on Restinga Antwren:

This Critically Endangered bird is confined to a 10km strip of beach scrub habitat in Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil. Its habitat faces intense pressure from clearance for beachfront housing and salt-industry developments.

August 2007. A new programme that mirrors the London Zoological Society’s EDGE initiative has been launched by Birdlife International. The initiative aims to save the world’s 189 most endangered species, starting with The Bengal Florican, one of the world’s most threatened birds.

With less than 1,000 individual birds remaining, Bengal Florican had been given just five years before disappearing forever from its stronghold, the floodplain of the Tonle Sap lake in Cambodia. The florican will benefit from the groundbreaking new ‘BirdLife Species Champions’ approach; whereby ‘Champions’ are being sought for Critically Endangered birds, to fund identified conservation programmes that will pull each species back from the brink of extinction. The ‘Species Champion’ for Bengal Florican will be the British Birdwatching Fair 2007, contributing toward conservation works being undertaken by ‘Species Guardians’ working in Cambodia.

Since being re-discovered in Cambodia in 1999, Bengal Florican numbers have plummeted due to unregulated land conversion for intensive agriculture. Three other Critically Endangered birds will also benefit: Belding’s Yellowthroat (Mexico), Djibouti Francolin (Djibouti), Restinga Antwren (Brazil). The BirdLife Species Champions funding will contribute toward the government-approved ‘Integrated Farming and Biodiversity Areas’ programme in Cambodia, encouraging communities to favour ‘low-impact’ traditional farming techniques over intensive non-sustainable dry-season rice production.

’We know the priority conservation actions needed for each species – what we need now is the support of companies, organisations or even individuals –Species Champions.’ he added. ‘This is an enormous challenge, but one that we are fully committed to achieving in our efforts to save the world’s birds from extinction.’

The BirdLife Species Champion initiative will be launched officially at this year's British Birdwatching Fair at Rutland Water (August 19-21), co-organised by the RSPB (BirdLife in the UK) and the Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust.

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