African Bird Club
The African Bird Club is a UK registered Charity with a written constitution meeting the strict requirements of the Charity Commissioners for England and Wales, who entered ABC in the Central Register of Charities on 20 March 1996, Registered Charity Number 1053920.
Purpose and origins
The African Bird Club was launched in March 1994 at a gathering of some 180 people at the Friends’ Meeting House on Euston Road, London to concern itself with all things to do with African birds and bird watching in Africa. It had been conceived in the summer of 1992, when a group of enthusiasts with a special interest in African ornithology decided to do for the birds of the Afrotropical region what the Oriental Bird Club had done for Asia.
There were already a number of clubs covering particular parts of Africa. But no umbrella organisation covered the continent as a whole. Political developments, not least in South Africa, meant that certain parts of the continent which had previously been difficult of access were opening up to visiting ornithologists, and in ornithological terms it was becoming possible to view the continent as a single unit, rather than a collection of self-contained sub-regions.
The Club’s purpose was defined inside the front cover of the first issue of the ABC Bulletin in the following terms:
“The ABC aims to:
- provide a worldwide focus for African ornithology
- encourage an interest in the conservation of the birds of the region
- liaise with and promote the work of existing regional societies
- publish a twice-yearly colour bulletin
- encourage observers to visit lesser known areas of the region
- encourage observers to actively search for globally threatened and near threatened species
- develop a Conservation Research Fund”.
The ABC club logo was chosen to be an Egyptian Plover, a charismatic and readily recognisable African bird. Wording under the logo was added in 2014 to emphasise the club’s continued commitment to African birds and conservation1.
Membership
The Club’s Launch Committee contacted everyone they could think of with a known interest in African birds, inviting them to subscribe £30 to become founder members. 191 one had done so by the time of that inaugural meeting in March 1994. A further 88 were to join them before the Founder Member scheme closed at the end of 1994. More than half of those 279 remain members in 2014.
By the time of the March 1994 inaugural meeting 376 people had signed up as members (including the 191 founder members). Numbers increased steadily from then on, passing 800 in the first year. By 1996 the Club had over 1,000 members and membership in recent years has fluctuated around 1200.
Members have come from 92 different countries and from all five continents. From Africa, the ABC has had members from 42 countries including all the mainland countries except Libya, Lesotho, Guinea Bissau, Niger, Chad, Central African Republic and Equatorial Guinea. The 50 non-African countries include 24 in Europe, 19 in Asia, three in Latin America and two each in North America and Australasia. Special efforts have been made to enable African members to join through local payment arrangements and through the supported and associate membership schemes.
Engagement with a widely scattered membership was originally expected to take the form of regular meetings in Africa as well as in the UK and possibly in other European countries. In the UK a day-long programme has been arranged every year to coincide with the AGM, usually somewhere in London. These meetings have generally been successful but they have been accessible to only a small proportion of the membership. There have also been occasional evening meetings held in conjunction with local bird clubs. Arranging meetings in Africa though has proved more problematic. However, members of the ABC Council have been present at all six of the Pan African Ornithological Congresses that have been held since the Club was founded, and at the 1998 International Ornithological Congress held in Durban.
Whilst the logistics of organising meetings in Africa have proved to be beyond the Club’s capabilities, an annual opportunity for international co-operation has arisen, as well as for Council members to interact with the wider membership, with the growth in popularity of the annual British Birdwatching Fair at Rutland Water. This event has been increasingly well attended both by people with an interest in birds in the UK and by international organizations, tour companies, national and regional wildlife and bodies and many other businesses related to the natural world, whether in Africa or elsewhere. ABC has had a stand at the fair every year since 1994 and as the fair has expanded in size over the years, so more and more people representing entities concerned with African natural history and nature tourism have attended, as well as ABC members, from the UK and the rest of the world, have attended this event.
The Bulletin of the ABC
At the Club’s foundation in 1994, written publications, dispatched by post around the world, were expected to be the main means of communication with the membership. Such publications, in the form of the twice-yearly ABC Bulletin, have indeed proved important, though the Internet has come to be at least equally important.
An editorial subcommittee was set up to recommend what sort of publications the Club should aim for. The initial thought was that the Club might publish an annual peer-reviewed scientific journal and a separate members’ bulletin containing news about the Club’s activities and non-scientific material such as site guides and book reviews. However this plan met with objections from the editors and publishers of journals such as Ostrich and Malimbus, who argued that there were already enough publications competing to publish the limited amount of scientific material that was available. The idea of a journal was dropped therefore and it was decided just to publish a twice yearly Bulletin which would include members’ news and views, a round-up of recent sightings, species identification guides and site guides.
The first Bulletin was a 52-page magazine containing 13 articles that included features on specific species (Ground Hornbills and Shoebills) and groups of species (bulbuls of Upper Guinea), on a site of special interest (Mount Kupe in Cameroon), book reviews, a round-up of recent ornithological news from Africa and an article by John Fanshawe summarising the birding infrastructure of all 61 of the countries and archipelagos included within the Club’s remit.
The first seven issues were produced by the editorial sub-committee of the Council. But as the workload increased it became clear that production was proving too heavy a commitment for a voluntary, unpaid team working in their spare time. In 1997 a decision was therefore taken to appoint a professional editor on a fee-paid basis to manage the production process, with the Bulletin Editorial Board providing policy guidance. Guy Kirwan was appointed to this role, later supported by Ron Demey, and since then they have been responsible for bringing out on time 38 further issues of ever increasing size – a typical recent issue consists of 128 pages covering more than 20 features and articles.
Over the years the Bulletin has fulfilled an invaluable role in putting on record a steady flow of new information about the distribution and behaviour of Africa’s birds: additions to national lists, range extensions and even the discovery of new species. The very first issue contained the “unofficial background story” of the discovery by Thomas Lehmberg and Lars Dinesen (both founder members of ABC) of the Udzungwa Forest Partridge Xenoperdix udzungwensis, a species, indeed a genus, new to science (their first sight of it was in the form of “two small chicken-like feet….at the bottom of the pot” in which their evening meal had been cooked at their campsite. See Bull. ABC 1: 24-25 and Ibis 136(1): 3-11)
ABC on the Web and in social media
The Club first launched an Internet site in May 1995, at a time when the web was still so much of a novelty that, in announcing the news to the membership in Bulletin 2.2, the Club found it necessary to explain what the Internet was. This first website was shared with the three other UK-based international bird clubs Oriental Bird Club, Neotropical Bird Club and the Ornithological Society of the Middle East. It initially attracted around 500 hits a month, a strike rate that was to grow to 36,000 “page views” a month within ten years. By 1997, the need for more internet capacity led to much-expanded web space under the Club’s own domain name, www.africanbirdclub.org.
Since then the site has continued to expand, with new features added at regular intervals. In September 2003 a secure payment facility was added to allow subscriptions and purchases of Club merchandise to be paid for online. In 2004 a searchable database of literature on African ornithology was launched and a start was made on building up a collection of individual pages for every African country containing detailed information on local services relevant to the needs of visiting birders plus information on the local avifauna.
African Bird Club image database
In 2005 the African Bird Image Database (AFBID) was launched as a joint operation funded by Bird Explorers and with help from Birding Africa. Within three months of the launch, 117 photographers had contributed 2314 images of 930 species. At the latest count, over 900 photographers have between them contributed 24,041 images of 2194 species.
African Bird Club bird songs and calls database
In 2008, ABC participated in the launch of a website devoted to African bird songs and calls. This was done in partnership with Xeno-canto and by 2016, there were 18,601 recordings of 1,820 bird species from 53 African countries submitted by 216 recordists.
African Bird Club country checklists
A very useful feature for the travelling birdwatcher is the facility to download bird checklists for every country in Africa, with translations of key pages into French and Portuguese.
African Bird Club website updates and maintenance
In 2012 a professional website development company was commissioned in 2012 to build a new website and to move all content onto it. This brought together all the features of the previous site in a logically constructed, simple to navigate and easy to use site. The redesigned site became operational in March 2013. Further progress was made during 2015 when an update to the AFBID image database was necessary and this launched formally in late September 2015, with several photographers adding larger and higher quality images. A pragmatic approach to taxonomy has been followed, with new species being added to the database if at least two of the taxonomies of IOC, BirdLife and Clements taxonomies include them.
An e-mail discussion group, [], was initiated and moderated by ABC. It is used to disseminate new information quickly and act as a question and answer forum for topics such as species identification and travel.
An ABC Facebook page was launched in 2011 and in 2016 had 3728 members. This is moderated by trustees of Council and is very popular with members everywhere. It attracts very good photographs and connects members with other Facebook pages in the same genre.
An ABC Twitter account was launched in 2015 and in 2016 had 474 followers. It disseminates ornithological and conservation news from Africa and around the world.
Conservation
From the outset the Club’s founders were determined that it should not just be a club for people who wanted to observe and study birds in Africa but that it should actively promote the well-being of birds and their habitats – that it should be seen to be, in the words of its logo, “Working for birds in Africa”. To this end, the Club has sought to increase awareness of threats to birds in Africa, to encourage people to visit some of the lesser known areas of the continent and to gather information about the state of birds in such places, to support local birding and conservation organizations and in many other ways to promote knowledge of and concern for bird populations.
The Club operates the ABC Conservation Programme, financed from the ABC Conservation Fund. The establishment of such a fund was anticipated in the original statement of the Club’s objectives in 1994 and the fund itself was formally launched at the 9th Pan African Ornithological Congress in Ghana in late 1996, with an initial allocation of £2000 from the Club’s reserves, followed by a further allocation of £8000 in 1997. Since then the resources of the fund have been provided by profits from sales of Club merchandise, by donations from individual Club members and by sponsorship by both companies[1] and individuals of selected projects. The ABC Conservation Tours, initiated in 2006, have proved to be another useful source of funding. Under this scheme, tours are arranged to parts of Africa not usually covered by the standard African birding itineraries. The tour organisers agree to donate a share of the profits to the ABC Conservation Fund. The fund has also benefited from income raised by local payment schemes. In countries where these have been set up subscription income in local currency has been used to finance in-country conservation projects.
Early examples of the application of the Conservation Programme included support for the attendance of Africans at the PAOC in Ghana; a grant of £770 to the Ornithological Association of Zimbabwe, to help cover the costs of a training course for 15 A-level or undergraduate students interested in birds and their conservation; environmental education to research on endangered species.Ten years after the initial launch, over 80 projects in 27 countries had been supported to a total value of more than £50,000.
The development of the Club's Conservation Programme has been overseen by the African Bird Club Conservation Fund, chaired initially by Rob Lucking (1998-2002); by Steph Tyler (2002-2010) and currently by Chris Magin. By the end of 2006, ten years after the initial launch, over 80 projects in 27 countries had been supported to a total value of more than £50,000 and by the end of 2015 over £225,000 had been distributed among 204 projects in 41 countries.[2] Much of this expansion has been made possible by generous sponsorship provided by companies and private individuals.
ABC Expedition awards were made available for groups organizing ornithological expeditions to or within Africa. Unlike the standard Conservation Fund Awards, which are only available to residents of African countries, the expedition awards are open to anybody. The first award in 2000 was made towards the costs of a multidisciplinary expedition to the island of Annobon in Equatorial Guinea, carried out by a joint team of Spanish and local biologists. Among other work, the team conducted a census of seabird populations on the island and carried out research into the habitat requirements of five passerine species endemic to the Gulf of Guinea islands.
Subsequent awards have included contributions to the costs of an Oxford University expedition in collaboration with the Rare and Endangered Species Trust to determine population densities of three vulture species in the Waterberg Plateau Park in Namibia, a Glasgow University expedition to study two rare endemics in southern Ethiopia, in collaboration with the Ethiopian Wildlife and Natural History Society, and an expedition organized jointly by Cambridge University and the Society for the Conservation of Nature in Liberia to search for the Liberian Greenbul Phyllastrephus leocolepsis a species only known from the type specimen collected in 1984. Check the Conservation Fund News to find out if they succeeded.
The subjects which have been studied are extremely varied and interesting (table below). In addition to those projects studying the biology and ecology of individual species and specific sites, ABC especially aims to support educational projects in schools and nature reserve centres. In 2014, ABC marked its 20th anniversary with a donation of £25,000 in a total of £100,000 towards a 20-year land lease in the Taita Hills in Kenya. This was done in collaboration with the RSPB and World Land Trust and was the ABC's biggest single donation to a conservation project.
Other recent projects include funding field guides to support the training of student guides in Uganda, supporting survey work on the critically endangered Taita Thrush (Turdus helleri) in Kenya and funding satellite tagging of Steppe Whimbrel (Numenius phaeopus alboaxillaris) with a view to discovering the breeding grounds of this very rare subspecies. Details of the Conservation Fund including a list of all past awards can be found on the club's website at www.africanbirdclub.org.
Corporate Sponsors of the African Bird Club
Corporate sponsors contribute to the Conservation Fund and full details are given on the ABC website. Sponsors may choose one of three categories - gold, silver and bronze.
The African Bird Club today
The achievements of the ABC have been largely due to the unpaid efforts of the many volunteers. Over sixty individuals have at one time or another served on the ABC Council, some of whom are listed below. The Club also has overseas representatives - 42 at the latest count - working to maintain the ABC's membership, to keep us informed of developments in their countries and to offer support to visiting ABC members when requested.
ABC Strategy to 2020
Under the leadership of Paul Buckley, Vice-President, and Nigel Birch, Country Representatives Coordinator, Council discussed the way ahead for the Club up to 2020. The Strategy can be summarised as follows:
| External ambitions | Governance & Management |
|---|---|
| Conservation awards | Membership development |
| Networking in Africa | Maintain and expand the Club's resources |
| Mentoring/capacity building | Support and expand the Club's Country Representatives |
| ABC as knowledge source | Maintain the current level of governance & administration |
ABC Club Presidents and Executive Officers
Some of the Trustees who have run the everyday affairs of the Club on a voluntary basis are listed below. The first Chairman of the Club was Martin Woodcock, who contributed greatly in its early days and has maintained a close interest ever since, becoming the first President after stepping down as Chairman in 1998 and continued in that post for the full ten years allowed by the Club’s Constitution. He was succeeded as President by Tasso Leventis, a Founder Member of ABC, a director of the worldwide Leventis Group of companies and an active participant in international activities to encourage sustainable development.
| Executive Officers of the African Bird Club 1994-2014
Chairman Vice-Chairman Martin Woodcock 1994-1998 Geoff Randall 1998-2000 Phil Atkinson 1998-2005 Keith Betton 2002-2006 Richard Webb 2005-2008 Phil Atkinson 2008-2010 Keith Betton 2008-2013 John Caddick 2010-13 Richard Charles 2013- Paul Buckley 2013- Treasurer Secretary Colin Humpage 1994-1997 Richard Webb 1994-1996 Jonathan Gibbons 1997-1998 Bill Quantrill 1996-2002 Alan Williams 1998-2004 Julie Childs 2002-2003 John Caddick 2004-2010 Flip Bruce-Lockhart 2003-2005 Alan Williams 2010-2013 Geoff Randall 2005-2010 Stephen Pringle 2013-2014 Sue Walsh 2010-2012 Chris Spooner 2014- Geoff Orton 2012-2013 Phil Hyde 2013- |