12th Pan-African Ornithological Congress
South Africa, 7-12 September 2008

List of Symposia

The PAOC12 Scientific Programme Committee has nominated the following symposium topics for the 12th Pan-African Ornithological Congress. To find out what each symposium incorporates click on the symposium title; titles not hyperlinked do not have outlines at present but will be added in due course.

Should a symposium not be listed that you would like to nominate for inclusion please contact the Chair of the Scientific Programme Committee, Doug Harebottle before 30 November 2007.

PLEASE NOTE:

(1) the final list of symposia selected for the congress programme will depend on each symposia receiving a maximum of five papers;
(2) should a symposium receive more than five papers a double session may be considered;
(3) should a symposium not receive enough submissions those papers will be considered under the 'General' section or as posters;
(4) the final selection of papers and symposia will be at the discretion of the Scientific Programme Committee.

Symposium outlines

Serious climate change challenges for birds and other biodiversity in Africa are much less well understood than those in Europe, North America and Australia. Given the magnitude of these challenges in Africa, especially as compounded by existing conservation threats from land use change, invasive species, pollution and harvesting, a focus on the vulnerability of African birds and bird habitats is critical. We propose drawing on the insights from detailed biodiversity/climate change work in Europe and Australia to kick-start a wave of accelerated, collaborative and more detailed demographic, behavioural, ecological, biogeographic and conservation research on the vulnerability of African birds and bird habitats to climate change. We also hope to supplement and follow the symposium with an in-depth round-table discussion on this theme.

This symposium will focus on current research and conservation efforts of the Greater and Lesser Flamingo, and in particular look at the threats currently facing populations of each species.

In recent years Ethnoornithology has emerged as a valuable source of ethnobiological research, partly for its potential to be able to make a valuable contribution to bird conservation and also as a means of empowering people of all cultures preserve, re-examine and discover the connections between individuals, groups and cultures and the birds that people hunt, venerate and cherish. In this seminar it is proposed to examine, through a variety of oral presentations, current ethnoornithological research in Africa, future directions for proposed research and support and professional development, particularly in the area of methodology, will also be considered.

Many bird species in Africa are caught in the wild and used for traditional purposes, eaten or domesticated. A large number are also sold either legally or illegally into the local, regional or international captive markets. The impact of this removal from the wild on wild populations is poorly understood but an understanding of the economic and social reasons for capture provides a basis for mitigation measures that are effective and efficient. A symposium on work already done on some species and some of the broader issues which ultimately affect this capture from the wild will highlight concerns and hopefully provide a platform for further work on the continent. It will also provide an opportunity to share information on the mitigation measures and how others can become involved.

This symposium will focus on current research and conservation efforts of raptors and vultures in Africa and in particular look at population trends, and the threats currently facing raptor/vulture populations across the continent.

Ringing activities have been conducted in Africa for 60 years, and ringing is an important tool in continuing studies on the biology, survival and movement of birds. Ringing has often been used in survey work, particularly in forest habitats. This symposium endeavours to present overviews of some recent work, showing how ringing will still be relevant as a tool to study African birds for decades to come. 2008 marks the 60th anniversary of SAFRING, thus the PAOC is an appropriate time to review ringing activities.

Across the world, the Highly Pathogenic strain of Avian Influenza H5N1 has had enormous impacts on people, through policies that affect poultry and backyard farming, wild bird trade and hunting, and wetlands and protected areas, whilst there have also been human cases of the disease, with fatalities. H5N1 arrived in Africa in early 2006, and soon affected several countries. It was initially widely assumed that migratory wild birds had carried H5N1 from outbreak areas of eastern Europe, though it now appears that combinations of poor biosecurity and poultry trade have been largely responsible for most outbreaks in Africa. Nevertheless, wild birds form an important part of the avian influenza equation, and a range of emergency efforts were made to investigate their role in the potential spread of the disease. This symposium will examine these efforts and the impacts of avian influenza on wild bird utilization and conservation in Africa.

Africa supports a wide variety of seabirds ranging from tropical to sub-Antarctic forms, many of which have an unfavourable conservation status. Factors that are adversely influencing their conservation, through affecting either breeding success, recruitment or mortality, include the degradation and modification of breeding habitat and ecosystems, oiling and other forms of pollution, introduced predators, disturbance by humans, disease, climate change, competition with fisheries for food and mortality in fisheries. The symposium will consider these and other threats and research that is being undertaken to establish means by which their impacts on seabirds can be mitigated.

Farmland is the great neglected habitat for research in Africa, yet represents one of the most widespread and increasing habitat types, and is particularly the habitat in which most Africans get to know and relate to birds. Much of the avian biodiversity in Africa in the future will have to depend on farmland either as their primary habitat or as a habitat abutting reserved areas and that must be crossed during dispersal. There are few people working on at any high level on biodiversity in agricultural habitats in Africa (Nigeria, South Africa & Kenya), yet there seem to be many lower level workers thrroughout Africa that are involved in surveying the effects of agriculture (or at least anthropogenic habitat change that is often associated with agricultural development). Therefore a symposium would act as a good focus for workers on the conservation problems and opportunities associated with agriculture, and an opportunity to establish a network.

The designation of sites of global significance for bird conservation as Important Bird Areas (IBAs) has gained tremendous currency over the last decade. This has led to the expansion of the concept to the identification of sites of global significance for biodiversity conservation generally – Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) – which in turn has increased the impact of these approaches in informing international development goals. Particularly significant among these are the Millennium Development Goals, especially goal #7 on environmental sustainability, and the 2010 Target of the Convention on Biological Diversity. With the target dates for these international agreements fast approaching, the aim of this symposium is to take stock of the ways in which IBAs and KBAs have influenced these broad societal agendas, and discuss what steps are necessary to further maximize these impacts.

Significant advances in evolutionary biology are coming from studies of speciation processes among birds on oceanic islands. Oceanic islands are ideal because of their inherent simplicity, with well-defined boundaries and depauperate biota. Hitherto, much of our understanding has come from studies on remote archipelagos in the Pacific. This symposium reviews studies of speciation patterns and processes on islands in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans that differ greatly in their isolation from each other and the African mainland. It will discuss how molecular phylogenies and ecological data yield insights into the relative roles of isolation and secondary contact between insular and mainland populations in driving diversification, with isolation playing an important role though speciation in sympatry cannot be ruled out. Molecular phylogenies also reveal that previous systematic assessments based on phenotypic characters were often incorrect and that high levels of phenotypic differentiation can evolve in very short periods.

Bird interactions with industry e.g. power lines and aircraft is an important factor to consider both from a conservation as well as an industry safety and quality of supply perspective. Little has been done on the African continent with respect to bird power line and bird aircraft interactions. In South Africa the Endangered Wildlife Trust has pioneered the establishment of two unique industry partnerships to forge relationships with industry and to establish programs to effectively deal with the issue. As more and more power lines are constructed across the African continent and airports adhere to international safety standards, knowledge needs to be shared and assistance provided on how to deal with bird industry interactions! The aim of such a symposium will be to present papers from what has been achieved in Africa and to plan what still needs to be done.

Much of avian life history theory has been developed from studies of birds in temperate climates of the northern hemisphere, where food availability is regarded as a critical driver of life history variation. Yet, nearly two-thirds of the word’s bird species are confined to the tropics and temperate regions of the southern hemisphere, where they exhibit life histories that differ from north-temperate birds. Also, traditional life history theory regards age-specific survival as the key driver of life history variation. This symposium will highlight the insights that recent studies of ‘southern’, particularly African birds, provide to our understanding of global drivers of avian life history variation, and the conservation implications thereof.

This symposium focuses on gamebird utilisation in Africa, particularly South Africa, drawing on research from elsewhere. This symposium will increase the level of understanding and awareness of gamebird utilisation in Africa, and particularly about the scope of the gamebird shooting industry in South Africa. Whilst irresponsible utilisation can threaten gamebird species, this symposium will seek to inform the scientific and conservation community about the actual and potential contributions of sustainable and ethical gamebird utilisation to yield social, economic and conservation benefits, drawing in such issues as gamebird pest species and the uncontrolled killing of gamebirds using poison.

This symposium will have a relatively broad theme, but will focus primarily on the evolutionary ecology of cooperative breeding, mate choice, and brood parasitism.

The symposium is open to topics covering energetics of birds in terms of two broad themes – dietery energetics and thermal energetics.

Land bird monitoring is a vital tool in tracking changes in populations, in determining conservation priorities, identifying threats and constructing policy-relevant indicators. Monitoring schemes, however, may overlook widespread birds; we sometimes know more about trends of rare species than common ones, and yet their trends show us how the environment is changing and tell us about the sustainability of human lifestyles. Where monitoring has occurred, many widespread species have been found to be in severe decline and in need of conservation action. These schemes can be used to raise awareness of biodiversity issues using familiar species and indicators derived from such data have proven excellent tools for communicating the state nature to a wide audience. Such surveys use simple methods and do not require high levels of expertise; hence, they can be aimed at volunteers and can be low-cost and sustainable. By focussing on species that may be easily observed, monitoring of common birds can raise public interest in simple and enjoyable conservation activity and increase participation in other conservation activities.

The Great Rift Valley (GRV) is one of the most important global highways of migrating birds. It stretches from Taurus Mountains in Turkey to Mozambique 7,200 kilometres long, including 22 countries. UNESCO, World Heritage Centre, is considering declaring the GRV as a World Heritage Site based on serial nomination network.In the symposium, we will discuss how to develop an action plan between the countries along the GRV, based on BirdLife International partners, Governments and other organizations to protect the migrating birds and their habitat. We are planning to develop an interdisciplinary concept which will connect the countries along the GRV, a network of research, education, eco-tourism, solving problems of conflicts between man and birds (like agriculture, flight safety, electrocution etc,) on a regional/continental level. Partners will develop an action plan to advance the idea and fulfil the concept until the next PAOC meeting.

Rarity is an attribute that predisposes species to being of conservation concern. However, reactions to rarity are often ‘knee-jerk’ in nature, without any solid understanding of the nature (i.e. cause) of rarity. Some species, e.g. taxa restricted to small islands or those with extremely specialized ecological requirements, may be naturally rare, whereas others are driven to rarity (and sometimes extinction) by human activities. Africa is unusual in not having experienced a single mainland bird extinction in the last 400 years, although its satellite islands have experienced many. Nonetheless, many African birds are now Endangered or Critically Endangered and, for effective conservation, a scientific understanding of how they came to reach this parlous state is essential. The purpose of this symposium is to encourage either single-species or cross-taxon analyses of how and why some birds are or become rare and why others appear relatively resilient to population or range decreases. Hopefully, it might also stimulate submission/discussion about which taxa should be of the greatest conservation concern and why (i.e. ecological role vs taxonomic status).

Globally, wetlands are amongst the most threatened habitats for wildlife. Many are drained and filled for development while others are polluted or overfished. This symposium will deal with current research that aims to identify and describe important wetlands for waterbirds in Africa and highlight how this network of wetland sites is critical for their survival. Contributions from site/flyway-based census work and/or species-based research (e.g. migration or moult studies) are welcome.

Moreau, in his classic 1966 book The Bird Faunas of Africa and its Islands, summarized what was then known about intra-African migration. Illustrated by a African Pitta fluttering against his window at night he stated, “…it would be surprising if the movements of birds within the Ethiopian region did not show something of the amplitude and complexity of those in Europe…”. We now know that long-distance intra-African movements are performed seasonally by a wide range of taxa and by both Afrotropical species and immigrant Palearctic visitors alike. Some patterns and ecological correlates of sub-Saharan bird migration are already well established but much more remains to be understood, for example, how reproduction and moult are scheduled around migration in the annual cycle. This is an opportunity to highlight a phenomenon that probably involves a majority of species in Africa, and to which all African ornithologists can contribute to understanding.

Weavers are a large, diverse family with some 112 species, found predominantly in Africa. Weavers have played an important role in ornithological research, for example, Red-billed Quelea is one of the world’s most abundant avian pest species, the Sociable Weaver is a well known cooperative breeder, while Euplectes species have interesting signalling and sexual selection behaviours. This symposium invites research papers on any aspect of weavers in Africa.

Open sessions will be available for those papers that do not form part of a specific symposium, or where particular symposia do not meet the required maximum of five papers