The African Raptor DataBank (ARDB) was an innovative project designed to ascertain the conservation status of raptors and their habitats across Africa.
which species are monitored?
A full listing of African raptor species is provided here.
progress
The ARDB has now been merged with the Global Raptor Impact Network (GRiN). For more information about this or to request data please contact grin@peregrinefund.org.
what is the ARDB?
The ARDB aimed to ascertain the conservation status of raptors and their habitats across Africa, and to help build the local expertise needed to monitor these indicator species in the future and implement a sound strategy for their effective safeguarding. The project was completed in two phases. The first phase involved building a database over a period of five years (2013 – 2018). The second phase involved distribution modelling of each species in relation to the availability of its habitat and production of a conservation atlas for African raptors, online and hard copy. The project is managed by Habitat INFO and co-funded by The Peregrine Fund who act as the regional coordinators for East Africa (along with National Museums of Kenya). The Bird of Prey Working Group (Endangered Wildlife Trust, South Africa) acts as the regional coordinator for southern Africa, while the West African region is coordinated by Ralph Buij (Centre for Environment and Development Studies, Cameroon), Joost Brouwer (NiBDaB – Niger Bird DataBase) and Clive Barlow (Senegambia). North Africa is coordinated by Hichem Azafzaf of Birdlife Tunisia (AAO).
ESRI software providers have helped the ARDB by granting us access to state of the art mapping software through the ESRI Grant Scheme.
The Convention on Migratory Species, Memorandum of Understanding on the Conservation of Migratory Bird of Prey in Africa and Eurasia (Raptors MoU) and Kurt Eckerstrom Consulting have supported the development of the Android App.
Data exchange mechanisms are being investigated with the following similar recording programmes: Namibian Avifauna Database, South African Bird Atlas, Tanzanian Bird Atlas, G-bird. Pilot studies on distribution modelling have been conducted at the Universities of Pretoria and Cape Town.
There are six objectives:-
- to establish a secure and easy to use communal store for data and observations on African raptors across their distribution ranges
- to use this live data observatory to continually assess the status of raptor populations in Africa and to rank the immediacy of the threats that they face notably: habitat loss, poisoning, trade etc.
- to use these observations to identify the exact habitat of each species and use the improving environmental datasets to assess the past, present and future conditions of that habitat and so improve our conservation assessments for each species
- to use these observations to study seasonal and inter-annual movement patterns of raptors across Africa and help identify locations of risk to migrants
- to use raptors to identify key habitat strongholds for their populations and by default populations of many other wildlife species in Africa both inside and outside protected areas
- to build a community of raptor enthusiasts and experts across Africa who can lobby for the preservation of those habitat strongholds and key migratory sites.
The following documents provide more information about the project and how the data collected will be used:
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