MANIFESTO OF SAVING ASIA’S VULTURES FROM EXTINCTION ‘SAVE’
Populations of three formerly abundant species of vultures endemic to Asia* collapsed in the 1990s and have not recovered. The area over which populations are known to have been affected is huge; comprising India, Nepal and Pakistan. Scientific research has identified the cause of these population declines and practical ways to arrest and reverse them. However, the most recent information indicates that declines are still continuing because of the limited effectiveness of implementation.
For this reason, we feel that governments, agencies and organisations with a stake in resolving this major problem for conservation and environmental services need a clear statement of the principal actions required. This document, prepared by the Saving Asia’s Vultures from Extinction (SAVE) consortium+, sets out the programme needed to achieve vulture recovery.
Since the discovery of its effects in 2003, convincing evidence has accumulated that the main, and probably the sole cause of the vulture decline is the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) diclofenac. When this drug is injected into livestock, it remains active in the animal’s body for a few days. If the animal dies in this time and is eaten by vultures, they in turn receive sufficient amounts of the drug to kill them. Vultures are unusually sensitive to the drug, compared to other animals. The enormously wide use of the drug, millions of doses administered per year across the subcontinent, ensured a rapid decline in vulture numbers – populations fell by more than 97% in ten years. If we are to save Asia’s vultures, and avoid the environmental problems that their loss will cause, we have first to solve the problem of diclofenac contamination of their food supply and then to prevent its replacement in veterinary use by other drugs toxic to vultures. It will also be necessary to identify and counter any emerging threats to vultures; including those occasioned by their low population density and the development of alternative ways of disposing of carrion.
Following publication of the scientific evidence about the effect of diclofenac in 2004, the governments of India, Nepal and Pakistan acted with commendable speed to ban the manufacture and use of diclofenac for veterinary purposes in 2006. However, despite this prompt beginning, there is still a long way to go. Five years after the ban, the amount of diclofenac in the food of wild vultures in India has fallen by about half. This is encouraging, but this level is still much too high for vulture populations to survive in the wild. Illegal dispensing and use of the drug on livestock remains widespread, with diclofenac now mainly derived from formulations intended for human use.
Vulture recovery will therefore depend upon successful implementation of the following actions:
1. We need conservation breeding of vultures collected from the wild. This is essential because the continuing delay in removing diclofenac from the food of wild vultures means that the species must be protected from contamination and bred in sufficient numbers to restock the wild when diclofenac and other drugs toxic to vultures can no longer enter their food supply. Conservation breeding centres have been established in India, Nepal and Pakistan as a result of the joint efforts of governmental and nongovernmental organisations. Vultures taken from the wild have survived well in captivity and young vultures of all three of the critically endangered species have already been bred and reared successfully. However, continued and increased support from governments and donors is needed if these centres are to have the facilities and expertise they require to produce sufficient vultures for future re-establishment of wild populations.
2. We must proceed especially quickly to remove diclofenac and other drugs toxic to vultures from their food supply in areas where reasonable numbers of vultures still remain. Targeted community action is required to raise awareness, to replace diclofenac and other toxic drugs with the vulture-safe drug meloxicam or other drugs of proven safety, and to provide uncontaminated food in ‘Vulture Safe Havens’. It may also be necessary to minimise other sources of vulture mortality or low breeding success, such as deliberate poisoning of carnivores. The concept of Vulture Safe Havens was pioneered in Nepal, where they are producing promising results. Several are also now being established in India, with the engagement of local groups. However, vultures seek food over huge areas, covering thousands of square kilometres, so Vulture Safe Havens must be large and will often need to cross state or national borders. We need partnerships between government, at national and local levels, local community groups and conservation agencies to create, monitor and maintain more and larger Vulture Safe Havens.
3. We must complete the removal of diclofenac from the vulture food supply throughout the species’ range so that birds can spread out from remaining populations protected in Vulture Safe Havens. This will require appropriate regulations, monitoring of their effectiveness and enforcement. As well as this, we must also prevent the replacement of diclofenac by other veterinary drugs that are also toxic to vultures. The drug ketoprofen was shown in 2009 to be toxic to vultures, and in consequence, its veterinary use has not been permitted in Nepal, but it is in widespread, increasing and unrestricted use on livestock in India. There are several other drugs in widespread veterinary use whose toxicity to vultures is as yet unknown. Government agencies and the pharmaceutical industry need to develop a mechanism that ensures that all veterinary drugs used on animals available as food for vultures are not toxic at levels likely to be encountered by wild birds. In practice, this means establishing standards for acceptable levels of toxicity of veterinary drugs to vultures, safety testing of products on vultures, and withholding or withdrawing approval from those found to be toxic.
The catastrophic decline of vultures across Asia is of international concern.
To provide a strategic framework through which the problem can be addressed across national boundaries, the consortium SAVE was established in 2011.
The consortium consists of a partnership of organisations, all concerned with preventing the extinction of the three critically endangered species and achieving their recovery.
SAVE co-ordinates recovery efforts across vulture-range countries, provides scientific and other advice, and helps with publicity and fund-raising. It is not a legally constituted body and does not have an office or independent staff. It is open to new partners.
If you would like to become involved at any level, please consult the SAVE website or contact the SAVE partners in your country.
*Oriental white-backed vulture Gyps bengalensis, long-billed vulture Gyps indicus and slender-billed vulture Gyps tenuirostris are all listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List. They occur as breeding residents in India, Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Bhutan and Cambodia. They also have non-breeding or marginal status in: Afghanistan, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam.
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