Update: development versus Africa’s flamingos
May 6, 2008
Posted in Conservation
The Sunday Times reports that a R2-billion development is planned for Kamfers Dam in the Northern Cape town of Kimberley, the site of the biggest breeding colony of lesser flamingos in South Africa. It is one of only four breeding colonies for this species of bird in the whole of Africa. Environmentalists fear the new development will destroy the breeding colony, which appears to have benefited greatly from the recent building of an artificial island.
Meanwhile, in Tanzania, a state firm has rejected the concerns of environmentalists that a soda ash plant planned for Lake Natron will damage the soda lake’s fragile ecosystem, Reuters reports. Three quarters of the world’s lesser flamingos breed on Lake Natron.
A spokesman for Tanzania’s state-run National Development Corporation (NDC), which is building the plant with an Indian partner, Tata Chemicals, said there were plans to shift the plant 35km from the lakeshore, which would help preserve the birds. But conservationists fear the plant’s operations may kill the algae on which the flamingos feed. The conservationists say that the lesser flamingo could become extinct in five years if its habitat is destroyed, Reuters reports.
Update: Lake Natron flamingoes
February 2, 2008
Posted in Conservation
Communities living around Tanzania’s Lake Natron have publicly opposed a plan to build a soda ash plant in the area. The communities do not believe the proposed factory will provide them with jobs but instead fear they could lose tourism-related employment, which is an important source of income in the area, Birdlife reports.
“It’s our sincere hope that our government will carefully analyse and hear all interested and affected stakeholders views before making a final decision on this issue,” said Lota Melamari, CEO of WCST (Birdlife in Tanzania).
Chicks galore at Africa’s newest flamingo breeding colony in Kimberley
January 22, 2008
Posted in Conservation
Lesser flamingos have started to breed on a specially constructed artificial island at Kamfers Dam near Kimberley in the Northern Cape. The first chicks are thought to have hatched at the end of December and Mark Anderson, an ornithologist monitoring the birds, thinks there may be up to 1,000 chicks “hidden among the masses of adults” on the S-shaped island .
This is the first time that lesser flamingos have successfully bred in South Africa and the first time that they have bred on an artificial island, Anderson says.
Kamfers Dam is now the fourth breeding colony for this species of bird in Africa (there are two others in India). They also breed at Sua Pan in Botswana, Etosha Pan in Namibia and Lake Natron in Tanzania. All of these breeding sites are threatened by various human-induced factors, says Anderson, so it is critically important that lesser flamingos have another breeding site.
At present there are said to be about 50,000 lesser flamingos on Kamfers Dam. The dam is a Natural Heritage Site and an Important Bird Area.
For pictures and regular news updates on the Kamfer Dam breeding colony visit Mark Anderson’s website.
Pink alert for East African flamingos
November 27, 2007
Posted in Green News, Transport
Danger is looming over the horizon for the lesser flamingos of Lake Natron, one of Africa’s most spectacular birdy tourist attractions.
Plans to build a massive soda ash plant on the Rift Valley lake in northern Tanzania, where up to a million of the pink birds breed, have been temporarily halted while the developers, Lake Natron Resources, produce a “new and better environmental statement and consider other sites for soda ash extraction”, BirdLife International reports.
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