Bern Convention Expert Group on Invasive Alien Species
IAF's presentation at the event:
"The use of voluntary tools and guidelines is important and it can be very effective to involve the NGOs.
Within the falconry community itself, there are those who are romantically opposed to the flying of exotics, so we do have internal pressure to take this issue seriously, and the IAF has been monitoring evidence of introgression. Our expert on this topic, Prof. Matthew Gage, who is here, worked on the 2017 Code of Conduct for Hunting and Invasive Alien Species.
The chance of an ex-falconry falcon hybridizing with a native wild species is limited, but the possibility of any risk of the introduction of non-native genes through falconry is still taken into account. IAF has had ONE report of an ex-falconry bird living in nature and interfering with a breeding pair of peregrines in Northern France. That bird was trapped and removed by falconers. Other examples of escaped falconry birds may exist, but we know they are rare, and the escaped bird is either recovered or it dies.
In the Code of Conduct, it was established that any threats arising from falconry are due to bad practice, so the IAF encouraged the adoption its own Code of Conduct, widely circulated to falconers, internationally, since 2014, placed on our website and distributed to new clubs and organizations joining us.
In the years since the code came into practice, several Countries (UK, Spain and others) established systems for aiding the recovery of lost falconry birds, with the help of Apps and social media platforms. The use of radio telemetry and GPS tracking is now widespread, being less expensive than formerly, and there is great peer pressure from other falconers to use it. This has rendered unintentional escapes even less likely than before.
Since we introduced our policy, exotic loss is very low and there are no records of exotics causing problems in the wild and becoming INVASIVE, but we still continue to watch. Scientific papers in highly respected peer-reviewed journals have examined whether exotics from falconry have had impacts. Examples being:
- Nittinger et al in Molecular Ecology found no evidence of a genetic signature of introgression in saker falcons from lost falconry birds in Arab countries.
- Fleming et al in Endangered Species Research, found low and declining rates of falconry loss encountered in the wild, less than 1% of birds registered for falconry – and even lower now due to GPS.
IN CONCLUSION: despite a long history of flying exotics, no bird from falconry has ever become INVASIVE. Numbers are tiny compared with other issues, like feral cats and salmon farming. Therefore, the current situation represents successful and effective implementation of the guiding principles by voluntary tools and self-regulation."
The achievement of the meeting was that a plan was developed where genuine conservation and biodiversity can be promoted over politics.
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