The LARGE HERBIVORES, Eurasian Support Network: towards a renewed in-situ and ex-situ cooperation

5 July 2010

On the 1st of July 2010 the Large Herbivore Foundation (LHF) joined the ECNC-European Centre for Nature Conservation.

ECNC is an international expertise centre for biodiversity and sustainable development, with its headquarters in Tilburg, the Netherlands. ECNC has 20 staff located in Tilburg and one staff member based in the European Topic Centre for Biological Diversity in Paris. In order to join forces, ECNC and the Coastal and Marine Union (EUCC) created the ECNC Group last year, consisting of a “blue” and a “green” pillar.

LHF is now the “LARGE HERBIVORES Eurasian Support Network”

The foundation LHF is closed, but the LHF mission continues in the new ECNC Programmes as part of the green pillar of the ECNC Group. LHF’s Network has found its new place in the independently functioning ECNC “LARGE HERBIVORES Eurasian Support Network”, of which Hans Kampf is its first director.

LHF’s Chairman – Magnus Sylvén – joined the ECNC Board and Hartmut Jungius in his function as Chairman of LHF’s Advisory Council became member of ECNC’s Scientific Council.

Rob Wolters (director ECNC) and Hans Kampf (right) signing the contract

The LARGE HERBIVORES website will continue to serve as one of the main tools of the future work; a WIKI-like platform for everyone interested in the large herbivores in Eurasia with a lot of information about the species and their landscapes, leading to project ideas, factsheets and portfolios. As a source for fundraising and as a base for concrete results: between the hand-on actions in the field and the long-term policy developments on national and even global levels.

The focus of the work for the coming years

• To strengthen the Network, building partnerships with the most important organizations and experts in the field of large herbivore conservation across Eurasia, and mobilising “herbivore ambassadors”, including the zoo's.
• With help of this new easy accessible, interactive, open source website, to create the best available source of information on the large herbivore species in Eurasia, matched with particularly important “hot spots” and “nature development areas”.
• Identify priority projects (portfolio's) in the field of large herbivores, ecosystems and their functioning.
• Develop and implement a sound communication strategy to influence key audiences, strengthen the policy developments, and to improve the management situations on the ground
• To combine the efforts through in-situ and ex-situ conservation and restoration strategies.

The region

We recognize circa 57 countries in our region (the Eurasian part of the Palaearctic ecoregion, excluding Northern China/Tibet, but including a few countries south of the Caspian sea to underline the connectivity between Turkey and countries as Turkmenistan.

The species

We selected 36 species of herbivores, including the wild boar and the beaver as important “ecosystem builders”. The large herbivores are an important prey for the large carnivores, and important food for the carrion eaters, a still undervalued part of our biodiversity.

Based on the factsheets of the IUCN Red List for Endangered species (with many thanks to IUCN, and its Species Survival Commission) we found that only 25% of the large herbivore species in Eurasia count a total population larger than 250,000 animals; but even more than 30% are occurring in numbers lower than 10,000 animals, at a meta-population level. These numbers are shocking numbers, especially for large herbivores that should occur in numbers in the range of may 100,000s or even millions.

Within a few weeks we will present more figures for each of the species regarding their numbers, the level of protection or how threatened they are, based on the IUCN criteria of threatened species, and their developments as well. These first figures are still under discussion, but the trends seem clear, and have to be changed from a negative into a positive spiral.

The landscapes

Large carnivores need large herbivores, and large herbivores need vast landscapes.

Therefore vast landscapes / robust ecosystems have to be recognized and protected by spatial planning or reconstructed by connectivity with as one of the instruments the Pan European Ecological Network, in combination with Natura 2000 and Emerald. This is also an answer from nature protection and development on the risks of climate change.

Fare well meeting in the dunes of Overveen. From left to the right: Hans Kampf, Michel van Delft, Waltraut Zimmermann, Magnus Sylvén, Rob Wolters, and two staff members of the Kraansvlak dune area

Towards a renewed cooperation

The LARGE HERBIVORES Eurasian Support Network hopes to fulfil a niche in the coming years in Eurasia, working in a large and wide network, where specialists and enthusiast people meet.

Tags: The LARGE HERBIVORES, Eurasian Support Network, towards a renewed in-situ and ex-situ cooperation, LHF, Large Herbivore Foundation