Lawrence Luhanga, Malawi

Lawrence Luhanga, Dip. Wild. Cons., AMCSSA, CTIA, Cert. (ESRI) 2001-c_p 2001-s_a

2001 Scholar Report

(from Convis, 2001 "Conservation Geography", Chapter 10, "International")

Malawi Ornithological Society

Lawrence Luhanga, Dip. Wild. Cons., AMCSSA, CTIA, Cert. (ESRI)

There are more than six hundred species roaming the mountainous greens and the rolling hills of Malawi. Those that scout the savanna land, such as the ground hornbill, do so majestically. Those that take refuge in the lake do it with glamour. But there are also those that are rare and must painstakingly survive the disparaging forces of the human world.

Malawi ornithology goes back many years. Sir Charles Frederic Belcher is probably well known for his publication of what might be the first literature on the birds of Malawi, the Nyasaland birds, in 1930. Since then, occasional surveys or expeditions have been conducted, some of which are well documented and some not known. An important publication came out in 1966 by the Bensons, whose checklist is still used today as a major reference. A few ornithologists have published short or noncomprehensive publications on birds of Malawi including Stewart–Johnston and Bob Medland. Presently, Robert Dowsette and F. Dowsette–Lemaire are working on what will probably be the most updated reference guide to Malawi birds.

But then this brings us to one important question: where does all this leave the country’s ornithology? We all know that for conservation, research, and ornithology as a whole to step forward, we can never be successful without precise/accurate or cross-referenced data. Malawi may have had expeditions, it may have had a couple of publications on her birds, but if this information is not easily accessible or not available, then we are regarded as being unprogressive.

The Malawi Ornithological Society (MOS) formed in 1996 with the following objectives: to promote Malawi ornithology in a general scope, to promote avian recreational activities (such as bird walks, etc.), to promote conservation and preservation awareness, and to promote ornithological research and development of a database bank. MOS believes that by developing an ornithological database bank where all available and known ornithological data and literature will be centralized would help achieve not only its goals and objectives but also help the world of ornithology and avian conservation globally.

It is this activity that profoundly concerns MOS today. How will we do this? MOS’s preliminary goal is to act as a communication and networking facility mediating between the members (local birders network) and MOS’s central ornithological data (the National Ornithological Database Bank of Malawi, dubbed Nodab). MOS is working on two powerful computers (to be housed at Museums of Malawi, as Nodab base). Since 1998, MOS has worked harder in an attempt to locate any known available information on Malawi birds, scientific and nonscientific. Some of this has been easily located, obtained, and entered but some has not been easily obtained or is not accessible. Many of these data owners want to be paid for the work they did in Malawi for which the Society has no funds. Some of the data requires a long process of legal jumble in order to turn the data over to Malawi. Whichever the case, sooner or later MOS believes that Nodab will succeed and everyone will have equal access to Malawi ornithology and its database for conservation and other related purposes.

There are a number of strategies used in achieving Nodab, included in which is applying the use of GIS. In 2002, MOS will start using GIS in mapping bird species in major IBAs in Malawi. Depending on volunteers and funds, MOS believes that the use of GIS not only gives us accurate data but may bring us in the vicinity of precise species status. The Nodab database will include the most detailed GIS-based birds’ atlas of Malawi. By using Mosnet, MOS will distribute GPS units to all local birders who will be taking coordinates of each and every observation they encounter. These coordinates will be used in GIS analyses together with the existing database to produce the atlas. It is estimated that it will take six months to complete a midsize IBA like Thyolo and approximately ten years to complete 60 percent of the known distribution nationally.

This is our story, our dream, and passion, and we believe and live to achieve it!