March webflash

Read the A Rocha story

Kingfisher’s Fire – a story of hope for God’s earth by A Rocha’s President, Peter Harris, tells the story of the last ten years, during which A Rocha has grown from one field study centre in Portugal to a family of national organisations in eighteen countries. Peter vividly blends humorous accounts of his own visits to the new teams with explanations for the distinctive Christian basis of the projects. To read an excerpt, see A Rocha International News February 2008.

Available from: www.lionhudson.com. Price £7.99. Paperback, 221 pp, 35 colour photos. ISBN 978 1 85424 848 0. It will be published in the USA in August 2008.

Planetwise: Dare to care for God’s world by Dave Bookless, founder and National Director of A Rocha UK, is in two sections. The first is a clear and concise formation of creation care theology and the second part suggests ways in which a proper understanding of the biblical teaching about the natural world can influence discipleship, worship, lifestyle and mission. Available from: www.ivpbooks.com Price £7.99. Paperback, 160 pp. ISBN 1844742512.

Kenya’s Tana River Delta under threat

A major sugarcane project is threatening to destroy the biggest freshwater wetland in Kenya: the Tana River Delta, 150 km north of Watamu. The delta ecosystem is an expansive patchwork of savannah, forests, beaches, lakes, mangrove swamps and the river itself. It is internationally recognised as an Important Bird Area: at least thirteen species of the breeding birds gather in numbers exceeding five thousand individuals and it is important too for many migrants. The A Rocha team’s waterfowl count in January 2008 found the largest number of Pacific Golden Plovers Pluvialis fulva ever recorded in Kenya. The Tana River Cisticola Cisticola restrictus is extremely local and on the verge of extinction. Rare primates include the Tana Red Colobus Procolobus rufomitratus and the Tana Crested Mangabey Cercocebus galeritus.

The government is planning a sugar plantation which will cover 20,000ha (50,000 acres) as well as new sugar factories and bio-fuel plants, which will have massively damaging environmental and social impacts.

The large local community, primarily pastoralists whose culture has evolved around the seasonal ebb and flow of the wetlands, is campaigning hard and needs all the support they can get. A Rocha Kenya is working closely with other conservation organisations, including BirdLife International, and invites you to send an e-mail of support. For more information and e-mail addresses, see Tanzanian Bird Atlas.

Asian Elephant Elephas maximus

Protecting elephants and villagers in Africa and India

A Rocha teams in India and Ghana are studying elephants and experimenting with ways of reducing conflict between the animals and the farmers who live in their territories. A Rocha India has been carrying out intensive research in Bannerghatta National Park, Bangalore, since 2004 and is now sharing ideas with the team in Ghana who began a new project last year, aimed at determining the number and distribution of elephants in the forests along the border with the Ivory Coast. In India, the team is testing chilli-tobacco mixtures as a deterrent around crops, a method which has worked well in many parts of Africa, for elephants have a well-developed sense of smell.