Because the world’s most bird-diverse nation, Colombia is residence to 1,969 recorded chicken species. Many of those birds inhabit landscapes that overlap with practically 1.5 million acres of oil palm plantations, making the sector a key alternative to advance biodiversity-friendly manufacturing throughout 4 main areas.
Nationwide Audubon Society and Fedepalma – Colombia’s Nationwide Federation of Oil Palm Growers- current Birds and Oil Palm: Cultivating Sustainable Landscapes, a guide constructed on a easy however highly effective premise: palm manufacturing and chicken conservation usually are not opposing objectives. They’ll, and will, go hand in hand.
Birds as allies, not occasional guests
The guide paperwork 745 chicken species reported throughout the nation’s 4 palm-growing zones (Northern, Central, Jap, and Southwestern), of which 88% are resident species, and 12% are migratory. Amongst them are endemic and threatened species, in addition to others that carry out important ecological features: insect management, seed dispersal, pollination, and even panorama sanitation carried out by scavenging birds.
Every of those features instantly helps the productiveness and resilience of the crop. Insectivorous birds can contribute to the pure management of bugs probably dangerous to the plantation, whereas frugivorous species assist disperse seeds and assist the regeneration of pure vegetation.
From principle to follow
The technical core of the guide contains seven instruments that any palm farm can implement, tailored to its personal context: safety and enrichment of forest fragments, restoration of riparian buffer zones, organic corridors, residing fences, scattered bushes, nectar-producing crops, and chicken gardens. Every instrument consists of concrete advantages for the farm, advantages for birds, and sensible implementation suggestions.
These instruments are primarily based on the teachings discovered from the Biodiversity Palm Panorama Mission, applied by Fedepalma between 2012 and 2018, and complemented by the Excessive Conservation Worth (HCV) framework. Whereas the Excessive Conservation Worth (HCV) framework helps determine the panorama parts that needs to be conserved for his or her ecological, social, or cultural significance, Habitat Administration Practices (HMPs) present sensible steerage for managing, restoring, and connecting these parts inside oil palm landscapes.
This guide arrives at a pivotal second for Colombia’s palm oil sector, which has been strengthening a sustainability imaginative and prescient aligned with worldwide requirements such because the Roundtable on Sustainable Oil Palm, the Decalogue of Ideas for Sustainable Oil Palm in Colombia, and the sector’s prior advances in biodiversity. Inside this framework, birds usually are not an impediment to manufacturing, they’re allies and indicators of the well being of the panorama.
Obtain the playbook here
