Black Cockatoo Preservation
Society (BCPS)
The Carnaby’s Cockatoo is receiving a lot of attention from the public, media and relevant government agencies, as the plight of the Carnaby’s has reached a point of no return. Relevant stakeholders have now identified that if a conservation plan is not put in place these birds will be lost.
Dr Denis Saunder; President of WWF Australia (and leading expert in the field) has responded to the plight of the birds saying; “The most ominous sign of looming extinction is a gradual drop in the growth rates of chicks, caused by a lack of food: "It marked the beginning of the end for many flocks." the bird's only hope is for humans to preserve habitats important to their survival. If we don't set boundaries on coastline development and land clearing in every area of this eco-region we will almost certainly lose Carnaby's black cockatoo. But it will only be one such casualty.” And "If today's politicians are prepared to let Carnaby's black cockatoo go the way of the Tasmanian tiger, then the state should be prepared to lose many more rare species. Imagine what future generations would think of a government that allowed greed to wipe out a magnificent long-lived bird that is emblematic of the state.”
Further substantiating Dr Saunder’s claims, the 2009 WA Auditor Generals Report (conservation threatened species of Flora or Fauna) (WA AGR) identified the following :
- The people of WA are increasingly interested in our biodiversity, and thousands of community volunteers help the government to conserve our native species.
- Many areas within our relevant government agencies is not effectively protecting and recovering threatened species. The number of threatened species is rising and only a few species are improving. Recovery action is not happening for most threatened species. The majority of resources and effort are allocated to critically endangered species, placing vulnerable and endangered species at risk of further decline.
The Black Cockatoo Preservation Society (BCPS) are a group volunteers (97 and 860 sub volunteers) from community who are working hard on every aspect to protect and preserve all three species of Black Cockatoo’s (Carnaby’s, Baudin’s and Red Tail), of which are all listed as threatened with both the Commonwealth and State. We are trying to bridge that gap with the Government agencies to assist our Government agencies towards a successful recovery of the Black Cockatoo’s. We are self funded and rely in the main on grants and donations.
BCPS objective is to conserve and rehabilitate, inturn our group has a vested interest in ensuring these above mentioned processes are effectively conserving critical habitat.
Aside from the following activities in which we participate:
- rescuing, rehabilitating and releasing Black Cockatoo’s back to flocks since 1998;
- volunteers are on call 24/7 to the Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC) and have self funded our expenses to travel on average 50,000km every 18 months for related Black Cockatoo recovery activities;
- our partnerships include the Perth Zoo, who has been critical to ensuring the injured birds are in the first critical hours cared for by the experts and other partners include DEC Nature Wildlife Protection Branch;
- since 2007, BCPS has rescued over 200 birds and have on average per year completed 70 black cockatoo releases back to their natural habitat;
- during the rehabilitation process our aim is to successfully bring the birds back to health and focus on release, it can take up to a year to rehabilitate and create flocks for release;
- BCPS together with its partners have established a research centre and through our research we have provided pivotal information and ground breaking result to the Black Cockatoo academics;
- we have 97 volunteers + 860 sub volunteers from various community associations. Our dedicated volunteers have acquired the relevant wildlife care certifications to enable them to assist with recovery of injured birds. Our volunteers are self funded and contribute up to 16 hours of daily care. Other members of the BCPS and volunteers spend round the clock care to the young and injured birds;
- We have 3 education Black Cockatoos, which we use for public presentations at schools, fetes and conferences, to increase community education, awareness and conservation;
- The BCPS won the Telstra 2008 Environment Award, covered extensively in the media and also on the television show Totally Wild.
The BCPS is also focusing on:
- improving the processes such as development assessment processes, for the preservation and conservation of the birds, development cannot cease however measures can be implemented to ensure the survival for these species whilst at the same time conserving various other species of flora and fauna;
- long term commitment by securing 40 acres remnant bushland site which was formally the Cohuna Wildlife Park. Surrounded by Parks and Recreation and National Parks, it is the best location for rehabilitation, recovery and research;
- our facility is preparing to expand by placing pivotal crown land that is currently unmanaged, to under management of the Black Cockatoo Preservation Trust, ensuring conservation for many species within these locations.
When a decision making process is arbitrary, without consideration of the wealth of potential local knowledge or expertise in various locations, the broader political and ethical values of the relevant publics can easily be overlooked, misunderstood or ignored and conflicts may follow. There is a great deal of public interest vested in the survival of the Black Cockatoos, BCPS are people from the general public, our facilities and committee understand that we have a wealth of knowledge within our volunteers and networks and many of the longevity ideas for the recovery and facilities that has been proposed, to us make business sense and is purely in the best interest of the Black Cockatoo conservation.
BCPS require support and assistance from the public, relevant stakeholders and State and Commonwealth representatives. The Black Cockatoos survival and our success will be measured by the current rate of habitat destruction and numbers within the flocks.
From 2001 to 2004, almost 1000ha of native vegetation was cleared every year in the Perth metropolitan region – that’s more than one football oval every day (June 2010 Birds of Australia Cocky Newsletter).
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