Fauna & Flora International helps to define Amazonian park’s management activities

After over three years of hard work by Fauna & Flora International (FFI) and other organisations, the management plan for Brazil’s 184,000-hectare Cristalino State Park has finally been completed.

The park is on the southern edge of the Amazon rainforest, where there is the highest threat of encroaching cattle, soya and other destructive agriculture.

The State government, which manages the park, asked FFI and our partner the Cristalino Ecological Foundation to facilitate the planning process. Our thorough knowledge of both the forest and the communities’ lives and concerns enabled us to engage all stakeholders in a constructive process, with excellent results.

A critically endangered Iberian lynx has been recorded in Portugal for the first time since 2001.

The Portuguese State Conservation Agency (ICNB) and Junta de Andalucia, Spain, have announced that an Iberian lynx has been officially recorded in Portugal. This is the first such record since 2001.

The lynx, which was tracked using a radio collar, crossed the border into Portugal and stayed in the Moura/Barrancos region. Historically, Iberian lynx roamed all over Spain and Portugal.

The lynx, which is listed as Critically Endangered by the IUCN, was seen in the same Portuguese territory in which FFI, together with our partner the League for the Protection of Nature (LPN), have been working with landowners for the last five years to secure habitat.

The critically endangered mountain gorilla’s current status is to be revealed through a new census.

The critically endangered mountain gorilla’s current status is to be revealed through a new census to determine its population size in the Virunga Volcanoes, the International Gorilla Conservation Programme (IGCP) announced yesterday.

The Virunga Volcanoes, an area that straddles the borders of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Rwanda and Uganda in Eastern and Central Africa, is one of only two locations where mountain gorillas live. It is home to an estimated population of 680 gorillas. Though the area is now relatively calm, recent conflict has left the gorillas there vulnerable.

In November, FFI teams arrested two men - one a known tiger dealer, the second a professional poacher who also traded tigers - after a lengthy and dangerous undercover investigation by our tiger programme rangers.

The men had major links to the national and international wildlife trade. We know from past experience that arrests of this nature have a very significant deterrent effect on wildlife crime locally and in surrounding areas.

Strengthening the skills of conservationists around the world is critical if we are to make sure conservation lasts in the long term.

FFI’s Conservation Leadership Programme (CLP) plays a crucial role in doing just that.

The CLP has had a busy few months, holding three workshops to train field conservationists in key skills sets.

The first, held in Kenya, was on Biostatistics and was attended by several FFI partners, including the East African Wildlife Society and the Pemba Flying Fox Conservation Project. The second was on Proposal Writing and held in Indonesia – also attended by FFI staff from the Kerinci tiger programme.

FFI reports on the status of wildlife in one of Indochina’s most biodiversity-rich spots.

A new report from FFI highlights the biodiversity values and threats in Vietnam’s stunning Hoang Lien-Van Ban Nature Reserve, with a particular focus on the critically endangered western black crested gibbon.

The survey results suggest that only 5 to 11 of these gibbons live in the reserve in only 2 to 5 family groups. Population estimates of the gibbon are extremely difficult as they live high up in the forest canopy so their calls must be used to determine their numbers.