September webflash

European Bee-eater. Credit: Laurent Zettler

Fighting to save the Ria de Alvor

A Rocha’s original study site in Portugal is the Quinta da Rocha and the adjacent Ria de Alvor, the most important coastal wetland for wildlife in the Western Algarve. It is now under threat from tourist developments and so A Rocha Portugal is campaigning for the establishment of a Protected Area. This month they will be drawing the attention of the media to the richness of the site, using A Rocha studies carried out over more than twenty years and a new website (with text in Portuguese and English) at www.riadealvor.org

Here are just a few of the conservation reasons for protecting the Ria de Alvor:

• It is a region of over 15 habitats recognised under European wildlife legislation, including ‘fixed coastal dunes’ and ‘coastal lagoon’, both of highest priority.
• It is a crucial staging post for many thousands of waders migrating between northern Europe and west Africa.
• It is a breeding site of national significance for Little Tern Sterna albifrons, Kentish Plover Charadrius alexandrinus and Black-winged Stilt Himantopus himantopus.
• It holds an important fish nursery and a shell-fishery of high socio-economic value.
• Numerous species with popular appeal are enjoyed here by locals and visitors alike: eg Otter Lutra lutra, Chameleon Chamaeleo chamaeleon, European Bee-eater Merops apiaster, Swallowtail butterfly Papilio machaon and ten species of orchids.

New centre in India

The A Rocha India team now has the ideal base for their research into elephant/human conflict issues at Bannerghatta National Park and their environmental education work with children and teenagers. Their centre is a typical Indian village house set in an acre of grounds, close to a lake with abundant birdlife. It is just 30 km from Bangalore city and 1 km from the edge of the park, so they are enjoying welcoming many groups from local villages and the city, and showing them the beauty and vulnerability of the area’s wildlife.

Want to help A Rocha?

A Rocha’s International Annual Review 2006 is now online. Read how our teams around the world have been protecting wildlife and important habitats; bringing benefits to local communities; encouraging creation care in church and nation. Read about the ways in which you can help us to be even more effective.