SCF’s ostrich recovery project in Niger (further information) continues to attract strong support from a growing number of enthusiastic partners. As part of its small grants program the French Global Environment Facility (FFEM) has just announced funding support of €33,000 to SCF and its main NGO partner in Niger, the Coopérative pour l’Exploitation des Ressources Naturelles du Koutous (CERNK).

By working closely with local ostrich breeders, SCF hopes to build up numbers of the critically endangered North African race of the ostrich and eventually release them back into the wild within secure protected areas. To prepare for this, SCF works closely with Niger’s Wildlife and Protected Areas departments, as well as the local communities across whose land the ostrich will roam.

SCF is helping CERNK develop the infrastructure and management capacity at its main project site at Kellé in Eastern Niger. FFEM funds will be used along with funding already obtained from Disney’s Worldwide Conservation Fund, Planète Sauvage in France, San Diego Zoo’s Wild Animal Park, St Louis Zoo and Houston Zoo’s Zoos and Aquariums Caring for Conservation (ZACC) fund for the construction of holding pens, as well the provision of veterinary care, equipment, supplies and training in husbandry and incubation. FFEM resources will also be used to complement those of the John Ball Zoological Society to help implement an education and public awareness campaign and the printing and distribution of posters and flyers to local schools.

Funding obtained last year from AZA’s Conservation Endowment Fund has allowed SCF with the help of the Smithsonian’s Center for Conservation and Evolutionary Genetics and the AZA’s Ratite Taxon Advisory Group to conduct health checks, mark birds and develop genetic profiles for many of the ostrich in private facilities in Niger and to ensure that any birds used in the program are pure North African ostriches and not hybrids.

To complement the work in Africa, SCF is also keen to see the world zoo community increase its efforts to maintain and increase healthy populations of the North African ostrich in their collections. Spearheaded by the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and the San Diego Zoo’s Wild Animal Park, a consortium of zoological organizations with large landholdings is looking into how this can be done on a hitherto untried scale.

SCF is extremely grateful for all the ongoing support and the new funding provided by FFEM. As one of SCF’s major partners in the implementation of its wildlife conservation project in Niger’s Termit and Tin Toumma regions (more information) we are especially grateful for this further strengthening of the excellent relationship between our two organizations.

If you would like more information on the ostrich recovery project please don’t hesitate to contact our Project Coordinator in Niger (Kelley Bishop) or SCF’s Representative for West Africa (Thomas Rabeil).

John Newby (25 October 2009)