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If you are already on your mobile phone and prefer clicking links: French, Spanish, German, Arabic, Urdu, Mongolian, Greek, Polish, Korean

If more translations arrive, we will put them on the IAF Facebook page.

Thanks to a large team of  volunteer translators, assembled mostly from among the Youth Participants in the 2017 International Falconry Festival, working under the initiative of Julian Mühle, we are able to offer this eBulletin in many languages If your language does not appear, it is simply because no-one has volunteered to translate.

The translations Facebook group can be reached by clicking this link IAF Falconry Translations - Disseminating our Intangible Cultural Heritage 

UNESCO General Assembley of the 2003 Convention on the Intangible Cultural Heritage

Falconry is the face of UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage. This week in UNESCO headquarters in Paris, they independently selected a falconry image from among several thousand other elements, to decorate a 4m high banner in the entrance lobby to welcome national delegations, ambassadors and NGOs to the General Assembly of the 2003 Convention for Intangible Cultural Heritage. This is very high level, very positive exposure for falconry. Thanks to all the many countries and individuals who have worked on this since 2004, and to Abdelkak Turleybayev, our great friend from Kazakhstan, for being this iconic image.

IAF, as an Accredited NGO to the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Committee, we sit in the NGO Forum and we were invited to hold a side event in the main lobby showing posters, leaflets and artifacts related to falconry and promoting the element along with other NGOs, staging a colourful display of cultures from all over the globe.

The Polish Government hosted an exhibition of its entire list of elements inscribed on its national list of ICH, inluding falconry. It was not possible to go anywhere in the public areas of the UNESCO  ICH complex without seeing a positive image of falconry;

IAF BIodiversity Group Relaunches

On the 2nd June the second meeting of the European IAF Biodiversity Working group took place in the new Headquarters of the IAF. Dr. Michael Greshake (IAF) made a presentation on the state of the partridge in Europe, with special emphasis on the necessary measures that are known to improve not only the conservation status of this species, but also of all other types of open Agricultural landscapes.

The principle speaker of the day was Dr. David Scallan from FACE, the Federation of European Hunters, who is noted not only for his profound knowledge about the EU Agricultural policy, but also for his clear statement on the radical change of the Environmental protection measures in the Agriculture sector. This change can only be achieved with the Farmers as partners. His presentation was especially pertinent as the proposal from the EU Agriculture Commission had been published the day before. A proposal which would most likely lead to a deterioration of the situation.

We are extremely pleased at the opportunity to build on previous collaborations between IAF and FACE, a collaboration that is based on our MOU from 2015, and which has been nurtured by IAF.  Dr. Igor Tavcar (Slovenia)  shared views about the state of partridges in his country. Daniell Bellekens, an enthusiastic partridge conservationist presented the measures being undertaken to support partridges on his land at the gates of Brussels. Don Ryan, who had intended to present the Irish Hawking clubs newly founded Snipe Conservation Alliance project, had to cancel the day before, and his project was briefly described in his absence. Prof. Dr. Robert Kenward, the Father of the PERDIX Portal could also not attend due to health reasons and was sorely missed. In his absence, greetings from him were read out.

The day concluded with a brainstorming session about the future of our group. As before, we are looking for falconers who are willing to engage with this group. One would think that all falconers would find themselves affected by the decrease in game species, as ever fewer falconers can actively hunt game due to low numbers. This is the real danger to falconry. Your engagement is very welcome, regardless of how small your collaboration may be, and we seek to particularly engage with biologists, environmental engineers, farmers or anyone else who has expertise in this field. With www.perdixnet.org, an international website dedicated to the conservation of partridges was created and has by now been translated into nearly 20 European languages.

With http/:perdix-de.sycl.net the specific problems facing Germany are demonstrated and perdix-uk.sycl.net illustrates these challenges for England. In the future, we aim to create websites for Poland, France, Hungary, Denmark, Croatia etc. Who feels a calling to help with this? Please do not be shy in sharing your ideas: greshake.greven@gmail.com.

Yours, Michael Greshake

Auction Sale of Important Falconry Manuscripts and Artwork

Count Umberto Caproni di Taliedo has informed us of his forthcoming sale of his library at Bonhams' in London. Umberto has been a friend to IAF over all the years of our existence and is known to many of us from his attendance at Council of Delegates Meetings. 

The link to the sale is accessible by clicking here. This link brings it directly to the first lot 151 of his books, paintings and prints at this Bonhams sale.

The IAF has possibilities to inform its members of this and similar occasions, when an interesting opportunity to acquire rare falconry related objects or books are coming on the market.

Official Notices for the IAF Council of Delegates Meeting

IAF Board and AC meeting - Sunday 21st October (closed or by  invitation of IAF President). IAF Council of Delegates Meeting - Monday 22nd and Tuesday 23rd October (open to Board, Advisory Committee, IAF Individual Subscribers and others by special invitation of the President of IAF)

Venue for all the meetings: Welcome Kongresshotel Bamberg, Mußstraße 7, 96047 Bamberg

The deadline for the receipt of nominations for candidatures, 31st May, has been passed and is now closed. Candidates will be notified to delegates directly by email and in a future eBulletin.

The following items, must be sent to info@iaf.org, to arrive one month before the meeting i.e., before 21st September:

1. Proxy instructions (if required), if any delegate cannot attend
2. Any items for discussion on the agenda of the meetings,
3. New membership applications requiring decisions

NB If you know your IAF delegate has changed, or if there have been major changes in your board, please notify us at info@iaf.org. It is important that this reaches the right person in your club.

Some useful information on Brexit

1. The current Brexit transition deal lasts until December 31st 2020. During the transition period, the majority of EU law will continue to apply to the UK, and the UK will remain under the supervisory, judiciary and enforcement mechanisms of the EU and will still be subject to the jurisdiction of the Court of Justice of the European Union

2. Even after the end of the transition deal, it is expected that the UK and the EU will maintain a very close relationship and continued cooperation for reasons of close geographical proximity and mutual borders

3. The EU is very much an agenda setter and it sets standards at most international levels, due to the block voting of the 28 countries. We have seen this as particularly relevant with:

4. CITES over the peregrine downlisting issue. It is almost certain that, even after Brexit, the UK vote will still be heavily influenced by the new block of 27

5 The World organization for Animal Health (OIE), the main objective of which is to control epizootic diseases and prevent their spread e.g., bird flu

6. IPPC - International Plant Protection Convention (control of pesticides) relevant to us in our biodiversity projects

7. The Codex Alimentarius (the international safe food codex), which has particular relevance for issues related to biodiversity, animal health, animal feed, pesticides, veterinary drugs, among others

8. No plans are at hand for UK to leave the Bern Convention, which covers much more than just the EU. It also includes all the non- EU countries on the European continent – Albania, Armenia. Belarus, Gibraltar, Iceland, Kosovo, Lichtenstein, Macedonia, Norway, Russian Federation, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, and the Holy See. The Bern Convention even includes part of North Africa and Transcaucasia.

9. While parts of the Birds and Habitats Directive (one of several directives that Bern Convention worked on for the EU) may be changed to be adapted into new UK laws, it is expected that any changes will actually be to make the UK laws even stricter.

10. The EU is a major contributor, both for the budgets and ad hoc projects, of many international organisations and agreements on these topics plus it is the major contributor to the Convention on Migratory Species and the Convention on Biodiversity, to both of which the UK will continue as signatory. CMS and CBD are both come under UNESCO Science and Education Programme, but rely a lot on EU funding.

11. Animal health and welfare is a competence shared between the Member States and the Commission. Usually, the Member States participate in the international organisations and agreements, but they still vote as a block. Therefore, it is relevant to monitor the developments at the EU level, in order to know how 27 Contracting Parties of the international agreements will vote.

Here is a link to a stakeholders’ notice from DG SANTE on the withdrawal with respect to the UK and the EU rules on animal health and welfare and public health as related to the movement of live animals, which might be useful, in order to showcase potential future interactions between the EU and the UK. Another stakeholders’ notice to keep on file is on the withdrawal of the UK and the EU rules on trade in protected species of wild fauna and flora.

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