IAF June 2019 eBulletin

Thanks to volunteer translators, this eBulletin is available in other languages. If you would like to take part, email muehle@iaf.org . If your language does not appear, we load  late translations onto the Facebook page

Success of the IAF Translation Working Group

This group has grown to over 120 members with a realized capacity for translations in: English, German, Spanish, French, Arabic, Russian, Dutch, Hindi, Mongolian, Greek, Portuguese, Korean, Czech, Urdu, Khowar, Polish, Kazakh, Chinese, Japanese, Bengali, Indonesian, Slovenian and Italian.

Due to the reorganization of IAF under the vision of IAF President H.E. Majed Al Mansouri (who took office this January) into a working group-based model, the Translations Working Group is now one of the 5 sub-sections of the IAF Education Working Group, which has the mandate to develop strategy and coordinate its activities on behalf of IAF.

The translations working group is invaluable, it has increased our IAF global footprint exponentially since it grew out of volunteers from the 2017 International Falconry Festival in Abu Dhabi. In April, it even had the honour of checking the content of an IUCN website, enabling falconers to make sure that falconry and sustainable use were positively reflected in the word choices. This group is evolving and maturing quickly in terms of its expertise; translators who have made several translations have noticed that it gets easier as they do more. The ITWG has elaborated over 300 translations of IAF documents, eBulletins and articles to date and continues increasing its output.

It is good practice and an amazing way to get involved with IAF and do something for the future of our art. Many falconers are content to fly and hunt with their birds and not get involved with their clubs or with IAF. In the end, that is what it is all about for us as falconers, our hearts never soar higher than when we watch our hunting partner chase quarry and succeed. However, many falconers also take this privilege for granted.

It is NOT something we can take for granted. In many countries’ falconry is under siege by animal rights groups, by some political parties and by other enemies. I have lived in countries where there are efforts to ban falconry and there is a long list of countries where falconry is either already illegal or organized interest groups are working toward the prohibition of our art.

Therefore, it is so important to participate in something positive for falconry, to contribute in some way to its future, for this is what we owe our global family in other countries, and this is what we owe all those falconers who have come before us and passed-on the hood and the glove on to us. The work that our translators do in making IAF material accessible to all, is what gives us hope that in 200 years, falconry will still be practiced in your country, just as it has throughout the world for the last 4000 years. Thank you for this!

Julian Mühle and Farooq Khan, IAF Translations Working Group.

2019 Council of Delegates Meeting 1st-6th December, Carmona, Spain

To register to attend the IAF Council of Delegates Meeting (delegates, official club representatives and invited observers) please complete the online form.

For information on registering for the AECCA hunting and social events, please click here.

Brief report on EBRDAM

IAF is working hard to promote our IUCN Resolution on “Preventing electrocution and collision impacts of power infrastructure on birds”, which we proposed as a result of our involvement in the Saker Global Action Plan.

The Resolution is aimed at financial institutions to take responsibility for electrocution and collisions when financing infrastructure. We prepared a dedicated website, a special brochure in 14 languages and are now looking at all the possibilities for implementation of this Resolution.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is an international financial institution, one of ten main multilateral developmental investment banks. Initially focused on the countries of the former Eastern Bloc, it expanded into more than 30 countries from Central Europe to Central Asia. Incidentally that covers most of the saker’s breeding range.  The EBRD has members from all over the world (North America, Africa, Asia and Australia), with the biggest shareholder being the United States. EBRD is owned by 69 countries and two EU institutions. Despite its public sector shareholders, it invests in private enterprises, together with commercial partners.

EBRD holds its Annual Meetings as a place of networking for its partners, clients and governments. EBRD is specially focused on green economy and is very concerned about ecology. It has a partnership with WWF and cooperates with many NGO’s.

IAF Vice-president and Conservation Officer, Janusz Sielicki attended the meeting to promote the Resolution and to seek an opportunity to find a right partner to help spread this to other large financial institutions.  He took part in numerous panels and presentations and in some there was a possibility to talk about the problem of electrocution. A key person for us will be Dr. Dariusz Prasek, Director of Operations in Environment and Sustainability Department. His department is responsible for directions for Good Practice Notes regarding environment protection.

Dr Prasek declared his interest in this problem. We are at the right moment, as the EBRD is preparing the new Good Practice Notes, which will be used in the working group of large and international banks on the environmental policy, which would give us access to other financial institutions with the same message.

We very much hope that this will give us an opportunity to implement the Resolution into real life. Any help is welcome.

2019 International Journal of Falconry

The International Journal of Falconry, the IAF flagship publication is available soon, 84 pages, full-color. Estimated publishing date - July 2019 .  Pre-order here. Orders received before the publishing date will be posted free of charge by standard surface post! Hurry up! Orders before June 30 are posted by surface mail free of charge. We ask all clubs to inform their members about the possibility to buy Journals now, ordering online to receive this beautiful coffee-table printed publication.

Individual Subscribers

Individual Subscribers assist IAF financially, there are a number of options beiginning at €30. They receive a copy of the annual International Journal of Falconry (see above) and can attend the Council of Delegates Meetings of IAF, where they have automatic Observer status. Please click on the green button.

They receive log-in details to the IAF members page on www.iaf.org to access areas of the site not open to non-IAF. 

A new page for donations is now open and member organizations, non members and individual subscribers a can all can make donations to specific projects in which IAF is directly involved: .General purposes, DOD's, Saker Falcons, Preventing Electrocutions, Pedix Portal, Schools Links Project and Vultures

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