Dear distinguished experts and researchers,

With intense human intervention, such as the modern cultivating methods, and the consistent reclamation of undulating plains and other suitable habitants, the Great Bustard (Otis tarda) underwent dramatic decrease in the second half of twentieth century, and held an unpleasant situation nowadays. Although a relatively inspiring research result pointed out that the population of Otis tarda tarda in Europe experienced an ease decade, both of the two subspecies in Asia still continued to bear the tough threatened condition inherited from the late 1980s.

The issue of world wide protection on Great Bustard is vital in both its current living and fatality. If those detrimental aspects that threaten the survival and reproduction of Great Bustard still exist, the seal of extinction on this elegant species is always ready to be affixed.

This symposium, under such circumstance, mainly aims at building a network and forming a platform through which all the researchers working on protecting Great Bustard can share their latest works and progresses. Besides, a scheme is expected to be put forward to clarify the useful procedures and methods in protecting Great Bustard in both habitant and population level. It will also provide the advances for every participant to access to the latest research information and techniques they need, and more importantly, the meeting and acquaintance with the most ever researchers mastering in this field.

We are expecting to greet you in Beijing!

Organizer
State Forestry Administration, P. R. China

Co-organizer
Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, China

Supporter(s)
Forestry Bureau of Heibei Province, China
Tumuji National Nature Reserve, Inner Mongolia, China

Chairmen: Lei Guangchun

Organizing Committee: Wang Wei, Song Weiming, Wang Weisheng, Lei Guangchun, Zhang Dehui, Shi Kun, Wu Minglu, Yi Guoliang, Ximeng (Evgeny Simonov), Chen Chengyan, Guo Yumin  

Theme: Enhance the international collaboration on protecting Great Bustard, and establish a world-wide network in national level in order to communicate the latest research and conservational information more efficiently.

Download here First Circular, Call for Pre-registration and Papers >>
5 pages, MS Word format (59 kB)

By the end of the summer of 2006 the overall extension of the fields which are directly involved in the protection of Great Bustard in Hungary has reached almost 1500 hectares.

The fields, that have been purchased within the framework of the LIFE Programme for the Conservation of the Great Bustard in Hungary, are cultivated according to the ecological needs of the species, under the control of the regional experts of the program. Management practices on the fields for nature conservation purposes are include grassland restoration, creation of alfalfa and rape stands, late mowing and grazing.
It is expected that another 500 hectares of arable fields and grasslands will be bought at the most important display, nesting and wintering sites of the species as part of the LIFE project implemented with the financial contribution of the European Union’s LIFE Nature Programme and that of the Hungarian Ministry of Environment and Water.

Is the export of chicks to England endangering the Russian population of Great Bustard? - one of the questions that had to be answered by great bustard conservation experts of MME (Hungarian Ornithological Society), who were requested to help the conservation work with their experiences in the region of Saratov, Russia by BirdLife International.

The Saratov region is the habitat for the world’s 2nd most dense population of Great Bustard, with an estimated number of 6000-7000 individuals. As bustards nest on arable fields, fallows or grasslands, the main threats for the brood are fallow-cultivation, the ploughing of uncultivated fields, and the follow-up works of these.

Rescue of the eggs

From the nests discovered in time eggs are taken out and they are transported to the project field station in Diakovka, which has been equipped and developed with British financial support. The chicks hatched in the incubators here then go to Salisbury in England, where British conservationists try to „recreate” the bustard population of the British Islands, became extinct in 1832.

„The number of chicks rescued from the tractors is very low in proportion to the whole population, it is only a few dozen. The fact that they will not be released on this site, scarcely influences the population here. - said Béla Motkó, contributor of the Hungarian LIFE Programme for the Protection of Great Bustard. As in Saratov the is no professional background for their repatriation, recently the best „utilisation” of the rescued chicks is the repatriation programme in England.

Methods of conservation

During the last 15 years, since the Hungarian Ornithological Society deals with the conservation of the Great Bustard within the framework of a special programme, the Hungarian experts developed several management methods and treatments that can be utilized well in other countries.

In Hungary an important part of the work for bustards’ conservation is that regional experts build good relations with farmers, inform them and get them to cooperate. Farmers can do much even if they only contact the conservation experts in case of finding a nest, or they leave a buffer zone around the nest found at harvest or disking. However it is a hard task in Russia, as the huge parcels are cultivated with tractors which are monstrous compared to the Hungarian ones, and additionally the disk and harrow cultivators are much more wider, which make turning uneasy, so it is quite difficult to make manoeuvers with them around a nest.

Photo: Béla Motkó

Mobile phone for tractor drivers

The rescue methods which are „classical” in Hungary, such as leaving a buffer zone, cover-up of the nests, or changing the real eggs with wooden ones, haven’t been used before in Saratov. This year however at one of the most important nesting site of the bustards tractor drivers have been equipped with mobile phones, so if a nest is found during the work they can contact the experts immediately.

Rooks and Hooded crows as well as other nest predators are keen on following agricultural machinery like anywhere else. Therefore Hungarian experts have drawn their Russian colleges’ attention to the fact, that covering the nest up - for example by throwing a handful of grass on the eggs - can significantly reduce the loss caused by the predators.

Unlike the rest of the Europaean bustards, the population in the Saratov region is migrating. In autumn they gather into flocks in the surroundings of Saratov, and start their migration heading west, south-west to the Crimean Peninsula. Experts of the Hungarian Ornithological Society and the LIFE Programme for the Protection of Great Bustard will visit Saratov again this autumn, in order to help in the survey of the population, which provides the background for the conservation programme.

The status of Great Bustard in Great Britain

The Great Bustard became extinct in the British Islands in 1832, mainly due to the intensive trophy hunting. The British Great Bustard Group (GBG) has launched its programme for the repatriation of Great Bustard in 2003. In this programme they try to establish a new population of the species on the Plain of Salisbury. Last year 33 bustard chicks from Russia were released in the region.

Snowploughs are used on Great Bustard conservation sites for clearing the snow away, as the thick layer of snow hinders bustards to reach their food sources, plants on ground surface especially when the surface of the snow becomes icy.

In protected areas those rape fields are to be cleared, which are planted for them, in order to prevent the birds from dying and migrating because of the lack of food. When hard winters occur, and the birds are forced to migrate, many of them weakens and perish. Moreover, in spite of the fact, that Great Bustard is considered as a globally endangered species and is protected by several international conventions, local people of the southern countries often shoot them if they can.

Hungary has a huge role and responsibility in the protection of the species, as the strongest population in Central Europe lives here. The latest Great Bustard census was organized in the middle of January. Conservation experts registered 1300 individuals which is a better result than compared to the census of last year.

This growth is good news, a result of systematic conservation work for decades performed by the experts of Birdlife Hungary (MME) and the national parks.
The conservation of Great Bustard is supported by the European Union from 2004. The so called LIFE Nature Fund supports the conservation activity with almost 500 million forint, thus the LIFE Conservation Programme for Great Bustard is the biggest national conservation programme supported from EU Funds.

Due to the clearing the snow away and foddering at the same time this winter expectedly will not cause significant losses in the Hungarian population.