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Birds
and Tree Plantations South
Africa[1]
has been blessed with 40 or so endemic bird species.
Twelve of these - Rudd’s Lark, Southern Bald Ibis, Botha’s Lark,
Yellowbreasted Pipit, Blue Korhaan, Buffstreaked Chat, Orangebreasted Rockjumper, Mountain
Pipit, Drakensberg Siskin, Sentinel Rock Thrush, Eastern Longbilled Lark and Drakensberg
Prinia - are endemic to the Grassland Biome (Harrison, et al, 1997).
The first nine of these are listed as globally threatened or near threatened
by BirdLife International (Collar, et al, 1994). Rudd’s Lark is the only species occurring in
South Africa to be listed as Critically Threatened on a global scale. All
the endemic grassland birds listed above occur in the high altitude, moist grassland of
the eastern escarpment. These grasslands have
been listed as an Endemic Bird Area by BirdLife International, i.e. an area containing at
least two species whose global distribution falls within an area smaller than 50 000 km2
(Stattersfield, et al., 1998). Other threatened birds that occur in this area
include Blue Swallow, Blue Crane, Wattled Crane - all listed as globally threatened and
Grey Crowned Crane which is now listed as Nationally Threatened. Most
South African tree plantations have been planted in what were formerly high altitude,
moist grasslands containing all or many of the species mentioned above. This has had a devastating effect on the bird life
of these areas. A glance at the distribution
maps in the Southern African Bird Atlas and any field guide to southern African birds for
Rudd’s Lark, for example, indicates how the range of this species has become
fragmented. Blue Swallows, often cited as
proof of the Timber Industry’s concern for the environment, is now down to between 40
and 50 pairs left breeding in South Africa - less than 10% of the original population. The near extinction of this species in South
Africa has been laid almost solely at the door of the Timber Industry. A
study using Southern African Bird Atlas Data (Allan, et
al, 1997) illustrated the effect that tree plantations had on these species in
particular and bird life in general. The
grassland birds themselves became locally extinct in heavily planted areas. Even in relatively lightly planted areas where
only 10% of a quarter degree square (an area of roughly 600 km2) there was a
negative impact on bird diversity in general. Unpublished
data collected in the grasslands of southern Mpumalanga indicates that the diversity of
bird species in the near pristine grasslands around Wakkerstroom is around 170 species/km2. As one nears the intensely farmed areas around
Amersfoort (mainly maize farming) the bird diversity drops to around 120 species/km2. In the areas around Panbult which have been
heavily planted to trees the density drops to around 90 species/km2. Perhaps more significantly the composition of the
bird communities changes from one dominated by larks, pipits and cisticolas to one
dominated by doves and canaries. Interestingly the drop in species numbers conforms to
data collected in natural forests and plantations in western Kenya. The
importance of the South Africa’s endemic birds to the country’s rapidly growing
eco-tourism industry should not be underestimated. Dr
Ceballos-Lascurain, a Mexican, and advisor to the United Nations on eco-tourism, addressed
an eco-tourism conference in Midrand. He
maintained that bird watching or birding was by far the biggest sector of the eco-tourism
market. A study commissioned by Time Magazine indicated that there were between 40
and 50 million birders in the USA and Canada alone. Around
28 million of these spent at least one week birding away from home annually. American bird watchers or birders are well known
for their penchant for collecting or listing new birds for their lifelists (a list of
birds seen during a birders life). If they
want to see the birds endemic to South Africa’s grasslands they have to visit
these. It is commonly felt that the revenue
(and concomitant job and entrepreneural opportunities) generated by eco-tourism to South
Africa will soon exceed that earned by the Mining Industry let alone the Timber Industry. For
the reasons outlined above, if for no other, the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry
and its outgoing Minister are to be congratulated of the job they have done over the past
five years. It is sincerely hoped that the
incoming Minister and the Timber Industry will carry on with the good work initiated by
Professor Asmal and his Department. Recommended
Reading Allan,
D. G., Harrison, J. A., Navarro, R. A. and van Wilgen, B. W. 1997. The
impact of commercial afforestation on bird populations in Mpumalanga Province, South
Africa - insights from bird atlas data. Biological Conservation 79; 173-185. Collar,
N. J., Crosby, M. J. and Stattersfield, A. J. 1994. Birds to
watch 2. The world list of threatened birds. BirdLife International, Cambridge. Duthie,
A. 1992.
Wood for the trees. Bushcall. June:6-7. Harrison,
J. A., Allan, D. G., Underhill, L. G., Herremans, M., Tree, A. J., Parker, V. and Brow, C.
J. (eds.). 1997. The atlas of
southern African birds. Vols. 1 & 2. BirdLife South Africa, Johannesburg. Stattersfield,
A. J., Crosby, M. J., Long, A. J. and Wege, D. C. 1998. Endemic
Bird Areas of the world: priorities for biodiversity conservation. BirdLife Conservation Series no. 7. BirdLife International, Cambridge. Tarboton, W. R. 1993. The Blue Swallow - still so precarious. In: Cadell E M(ed.) Vision of Wildlife, Eco-tourism and the Environment in Southern Africa. Endangered Wildlife Trust. Johannesburg. 41-44.
[1] Including the Republic of South Africa and the Kingdoms of Lesotho and Swaziland. John
McAllister P O Box 249, Wakkerstroom, 2480.
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