Biodiversity Protection Unit of Sri Lanka Customs

Election day – January 26 is also International Customs Day. Here Malaka Rodrigo looks at how the Lanka Customs Biodiversity Protection Unit operates. 

Designated as one of the 34 biodiversity hotspots in the world, Sri Lanka’s wealth of natural resources has also attracted the attention of unscrupulous elements who attempt to rob the country in many ways. Birds’ nests, endemic water plants, butterfly cocoons, undersize shipments of chank are among the recent spoils nabbed by the vigilant eyes of the Customs’ Biodiversity Protection Unit.

Set up in 1993 as a small task force, the Biodiversity Protection Unit (BPU) of the Sri Lanka Customs has been doing a commendable job in combating environmental crime with its limited resources. “This is the first Biodiversity Protection Unit of a customs in the world,” said its head, Samantha Gunasekara. The concept of establishing a special unit to handle biodiversity-related crime was born a long time ago, he says, explaining how after much effort, he started the unit in 1993. A series of eye-opening raids soon highlighted the scale of environmental crimes that threatened Sri Lanka’s valued biodiversity.

In their most recent raid, BPU officials netted in nests of the Edible-nest Swiflet. Soup made of these nests is a delicacy in East Asian countries, so exporting the nests has become a lucrative business for many. The little bird makes its tiny nest by mixing its saliva with moss and other materials. It takes hundreds of nests to make up one kg. A kg of the nests would fetch about Rs.200,000, a BPU official explained.

A shipment of chank that contained more than 75% undersized shells was also detected by the BPU recently. This is not the first such chank shipment to have passed the other hurdles, but being stopped by the BPU. Chank is a slow breeding sea mollusc so the size of shells allowed for export is regulated to ensure sustainability. The catch should be validated by Fisheries Inspectors at the fishing sites, but under-sized chank shipments continue to slip through the net. This particular shipment was headed for Bangladesh, where there is a high demand for making traditional Chank Bengal.

Cocoons of rare butterflies have also been often detected by the BPU. On one occasion, the Biodiversity Protection Unit raided an illegal butterfly garden breeding rare butterflies for export. Butterflies are easy to export during the larvae stage due to the ease with which they can be concealed.

If exports need constant surveillance, so too do imports for various invasive species could be easily be brought into the country, posing a grave threat to our biodiversity. A case in point was the shipments of bumble-bees that had been sent to the country.Highly valuable Edible-bird nests

The main international treaty aimed at stopping the over-exploitation of the endangered animals through trans-boundary trade is the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). The Fauna & Flora Protection Ordinance of Sri Lanka also affords protection to our threatened species.

The first step to stop an environmental crime is to detect it, but it is no easy task to distinguish rare animals or plants from the common ones when the difference could as insignificant as just a few stripes. Officers who investigate the samples must thus have an expert knowledge of rare species as well as a thorough knowledge of the Multilateral Agreements so as to prevent smugglers squeezing through the loopholes. Modern technology is also being used in smuggling.

“Yes, it is not an easy task,” says Samantha recalling the time when the BPU stopped a shipment of the rare kekatiya plant variety that is used in the ornamental fish industry. The removal of the plant from the ecosystem is destructive to the species associated to it, so collection is banned. But the smuggler, a powerful businessman tried to stop the investigation. In the face of many threats, a court battle ensued with the final outcome in favour of Samantha.

The Biodiversity Protection Unit has won several environmental awards, including the Presidential Environment Award in 2005 to Samantha for his contribution to protecting biodiversity through the BPU. 

But awards apart, the BPU’s limited resources have been a major stumbling block to its continued action. “The Biodiversity Protection Unit has done a really good job initially, but it needs to be given enough resources and new officers to sustain its valuable service,” commented environmental Lawyer Jagath Gunawardane. Samantha was made head of the Biodiversity Protection Unit, but the need of the hour is to train new officers to take the helm after him.

Hampering detection raids is the fact that the BPU still does not have its own vehicle. With smugglers resorting to more ingenious methods of smuggling and environmental crimes getting high-tech, it is time to modernize this unit to fight the ever-increasing incidence of such crimes at the port.

published on 24.01.2010 on SundayTimes http://www.sundaytimes.lk/100124/Plus/plus_13.html

Explore Biodiversity with Kids: BUTTERFLIES

Year 2010 – the International Year of Biodiversity dawned with new hopes. It was indeed a happy moment for Puncha & Panchie who planted trees to welcome the Year of Biodiversity. Both of them are now enjoying the gifts given by Santa Claus and exploring biodiversity around them.
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“Aiya… what have you done to my plant?” Panchie started the day with a big complaint. “Look Seeya, aiya has torn the leaves of my plant!” Panchie was about to cry. “I haven’t done anything,” shouted Puncha from the backyard. He was busy observing the birds through his binoculars.

Keeping the newspaper aside, Seeya walked into the garden. “Look Seeya, half of the leaves are missing from the lemon plant that I planted to welcome the Year of Biodiversity.”"Hmm… Let me see…” said Seeya rubbing his long beard. Puncha came too.

“I haven’t done anything Nangi.” Puncha felt sorry for Panchie. Half of the leaves of the lemon plant were gone. Seeya was busy observing and turning the remaining leaves upside down. “Here is the culprit!” Seeya took a half eaten leaf, and twisted it to the other side. “WHERE… WHAT?” Punchie was furious, Puncha was curious.

“Eeeya…. It is a worm!!” Punchie had taken a step back. “Not exactly! It is a caterpillar,” Seeya said wearing his spectacles. “Look, it has hair on its body. You may start itching, if the caterpillar touched your skin”.

“Ohh.. Is it dangerous? Let’s throw it onto the other side of the road,” Puncha suggested. “Yes, the ugly one has eaten my lemon plant,” Panchie nodded. “Hmm…” Seeya again started rubbing his beard and started searching around. There were a few butterflies flying around. “Look, aren’t they beautiful? ” Seeya asked. “Yes, yes.. they are coming to the flowers in our garden.

I like them very much!” shouted Puncha. “Aha… Then you should not throw the caterpillars away,” winked Seeya. “Yes, I like butterflies, but I hate this ugly worm,” said Panchie. “Well…Well…!! Caterpillars are the small stage of butterflies,” Seeya explained. Puncha still didn’t believe it. “But Seeya, they look totally different. Caterpillars don’t have wings”. “Yes, it is a different cycle. Come, I’ll explain.” Both Puncha and Panchie sat on the lawn.

“First the butterfly mother lays tiny eggs on a leaf of a selected tree. After a few days, a tiny caterpillar comes out of the egg. First it eats the shell of the egg and then starts eating the leaf it lives on. After it gets bigger, it suddenly stops feeding and starts making a small enclosure called a Chrysalis which looks like a cocoon. The caterpillar seals itself in this chamber and inside it, the caterpillar changes clothes and turns into a butterfly,” explained Seeya step by step.

“But how does the caterpillar know it’s time to make the chrysalis?” Puncha asked. “The caterpillar has a chemical called juvenile hormone in its body that is made by its brain. Whenever a caterpillar sheds its skin and the juvenile hormone level is high, it goes to the next caterpillar stage. When the juvenile hormone level is low, the caterpillar wanders around to find a site to make its cocoon,” explained Seeya.

“So will the caterpillar that has eaten my lemon leaves turn into a butterfly soon..?” Panchie was now curious… “Yes, if it can escape the birds that come to eat it, then this little caterpillar too will become a butterfly,” explained Seeya.

“But why did he only eat the leaves of my lemon plant? There are more plants nearby,” Panchie was still sad that the caterpillar ate her plant. “The butterfly mother lays eggs on specific plants. For example, this butterfly variety lays eggs only on lemon trees. We call these plants the host plant of that particular butterfly.”"Wait…” Punchie remembered something and ran into her room.

She had a butterfly wing that she had found lying on the ground. “Seeya, I found this a few weeks ago and kept it in my toy box.” She showed her treasure to both Seeya and Puncha. It was a colourful butterfly wing.

“Hey, Punchie… You have lots of dust on your hands. Mother will scold you now,” Puncha had noticed a powder-like dust on his sister’s hand.

“Let me see..” Seeya wanted to check. “This is not dust. Butterfly skin is made out of tiny scales. Your Professor Uncle will call the butterflies scientifically as Lepidoptera.

This name is derived from the Latin language; “lepido” means scale and “ptera” means wing,” explained Seeya.

Now they observed the different coloured butterflies who visited their garden. They sip nectar from one flower and then fly to the other, feeding on the nectar in those flowers. “Do you know this feeding habit of the

butterflies helps plants to pollinate..? Yes, it is very important that the male and female pollen mix in order to produce seeds. So the butterfly helps make sure this function happens properly.”

“Come here little butterfly… Come to me…” Punchie start shouting to the orange colour butterfly that sat on the flower infront of her. “Punchie… Butterflies don’t have ears to hear what you say. However butterflies have sensors in their antennae,” explained Seeya.

Seeya had also drawn a picture of a butterfly with all its parts. Seeya also explained how it drinks nectar from flowers, using a long tube called a proboscis. “Like we drink soft drinks using a straw, the butterfly sips nectar from flowers using its proboscis.”

Punchie came closer to Seeya and asked something shyly. “Ha…Ha… No Punchie… Adult butterflies do not go to the bathroom. Unlike caterpillars that do all of the eating, adults mainly feed on flower nectar. Occasionally adult butterflies drink so much, they must emit a fine liquid spray from the tip of their abdomen but it is almost pure water,” said Seeya.

“Do you know that we have 244 different butterfly varieties in Sri Lanka…? Out of them 20, are endemic, that means these butterfly varieties can be seen only in our country. So it is important that we
protect them. Come, let’s go and place these caterpillars on the large lemon tree full of leaves, so the caterpillar can have enough food and your plant can grow again.” Taking the caterpillar onto a leaf, Seeya got up and walked to big lemon tree.

“Make a wish that this caterpillar will turn into a beautiful butterfly..” Both Puncha & Panchie closed their eyes and made their wish..!!

Some butterflies found in Sri Lanka – Pics by Aruna Seneviratne

 

Published on 17.Jan.2010 on FundayTimes http://www.sundaytimes.lk/100117/FunDay/fut_05.html

Wilpattu Villu Ecosystem to Reopen Soon

Tragic incidents forced the closure of Sri Lanka’s largest National Park – Wilpattu in 2007. But with the conflict behind us plans are underway to reopen it for visitors. Malaka Rodrigo reports 
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Prince Vijaya landed on the north-western coast of Sri Lanka in 543 BC and met Kuveni, the Yakkha princess of the area. Thambapanni – the beach with copper sand and Kali Villu where Kuweni had her palace are located inside the park boundaries of Wilpattu.

These areas of historic significance will soon be accessible to the public as the Wilpattu National Park that has been closed for many years reopens to the public in a few months.

“De-mining in Wilpattu National Park is currently being carried out by the Security Forces. As soon as we get theKudrimalai – where Vijaya is supposed to have landed security clearance; my Department will start rehabilitation work in the park,” said Ananda Wijesuriya, Director General of the Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC). The DWC will first focus on rehabilitating the road network inside the park and then look at developing visitor facilities, he said.

Located adjoining the troubled areas of Wanni and Mannar, Wilpattu had been in the clutches of the LTTE for many years. The park was first closed in 1985 due to the armed conflict and after the ceasefire negotiations in 2002, was reopened in May 2003.

Two tragic incidents resulted in its closure again. In the first incident, a jeep carrying a group of wildlife lovers was blown up in a landmine in May 2006. Among the group was prominent author Nihal De Silva who wrote the Gratiaen Prize winning novel “Road from Elephant Pass”. The second tragic incident in March 2007 cost the life of Wilpattu’s own park warden Wasantha Pushpananda who was ambushed and killed by the LTTE while on an inspection tour with a team of security forces.

The Park has remained closed since then and the DWC is cautious not to open it until it gets the all-clear. The camping sites will be the first to open for the public once the basic facilities are set up, a DWC official said. Most of the Wilpattu camping sites are located near serene villus.

Wilpattu is also famous for its circuit bungalows that overlook the villus. There are seven lodges, located at Maradanmaduwa, Pannikar Villu, Kalli Villu, Mena Villu, Thala Villu, Manikkapola Uttu and Kokmottai, all in need of extensive repair. A few are currently occupied by the Armed Forces, who provide security to the park.

Wilpattu has always been a fantastic experience for wildlife lovers, its key attraction being its leopards. Before the park closed, Wilpattu was ‘the place’ to see leopards. It is believed Wilpattu national park has more leopards than Yala, but this can be clarified only after proper research. 
The park also has a large population of elephants who are bigger in size, perhaps by feeding on the nutrient-rich vegetation of the villus. So the ecotourism value of Wilpattu is also huge.

Wilpattu has a large diversity of ecosystems, but its most unique feature is the presence of many natural lakes or “villus” with fresh or brackish water that had given the park its name. Though they look like lakes, these ‘villus’ are flat basin-like fault depressions on the earth’s surface containing purely rain water. Two of these ‘villus’ are saline. Another equally striking feature, though confined to certain sections of the park is the copper red, loamy soils. The western sector of the park with deeply forested areas and thorny bushes is reminiscent of Yala National Park.

Elephant, sloth bear, sambur, spotted deer are some of the 31 mammalian species that can be easily seen in the Wilpattu national park. The bird diversity within the park is high. Recent research recorded 137 species of birds where 51% out of the breeding resident species of the island had been seen within the park boundaries. The monitor lizard, Mugger crocodile, Common cobra, Indian python and several species of tortoise are among the reptiles that can be found in the Wilpattu villus.

Wilpattu’s cultural heritage too is worth exploring. The ruins of an ancient building found in Kali Villu is believed to be the ruins of Kuveni’s palace. Another ancient love story unveiled 2000 years ago between Saliya – the son of Dutugemunu and Asoka mala has a background of Maradanmaduwa located within the national park. Ruins of pre-Vijayan periods too have been found from the area. Historians believe that Kudrimalai was a famous port in ancient times.

Wilpattu is one of the oldest national parks of the country. It was first declared as a sanctuary in 1905 and its conservation status was elevated to that of a National Park in 1938. Areas to the north were also declared as Wilpattu Sanctuary in 1947 and remain an extension to the National Park.

At present, the park is controlled by the security forces and the DWC presence is restricted to an office near the entrance, but wildlife officers are readying to take up the challenge to protect Wilpattu’s diverse wildlife. “We will do a full assessment of the status of the park before we start operations. We are keen on opening it to the general public,” a wildlife official said.

Published on 17.Jan.2010 http://www.sundaytimes.lk/100117/Plus/plus_11.html 

Ex-situ Conservation to Save Biodiversity

 
This has been published on LakbimaNews on 17.01.2010

Sri Lanka - A Hotspot of Biodiversity

46 on Amazing Biodiversity
Human has been the most complex creation of Earth's Biodiversity who has the power to protect or destroy it. All the characteriscs of the Human decide on DNA that consists of 46 pieces known as Chromosomes that takes the gene pool forward. To stress the power of humanity that should come forward to protect Earth's valued Biodiversity, 46 pieces on interesting aspects of Sri Lanka's biodiversity will be published throughout year 2010. This is the first piece of the series '46 on our Amazing Biodiversity' 
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Biological diversity - or biodiversity - is the term given to the variety of life on Earth and the natural patterns it forms. The biodiversity we see today is the fruit of billions of years of evolution, shaped by natural processes and, increasingly, by the influence of humans. It forms the web of life of which we are an integral part and upon which we so fully depend. But this valued Biodiversity on earth is threatened by our own activities. United Nations, identifying this as a serious threat to our own survival has declared the year 2010 as the International Year of Biodiversity. 

Despite its relatively small land area of 65,610 sq.km, Sri Lanka is blessed with exceptionally high diversity of animals and plants. This made our country being recognized together with Western Ghats of India as an area having one of the richest biodiversity of the world known as biodiversity hotspot. Only 34 such hotspots were identified in the whole world stressing the wealth of the biological diversity treasure of the island called Sri Lanka. 

“Endemic biodiversity in Sri Lanka is exceptionally high” pointed out Vimukthi Weerathunga – the head of Biodiversity Unit of the International Union of Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Sri Lanka. These species we called Endemic are not occurring anywhere in the world, so if they disappear from Sri Lanka, they will be gone forever. According to IUCN who publishes the Red List which is accepted as the status of world species; 27 % of the flowering plants, 84 % of the amphibians, 50% of the reptiles, 54 % of the fresh water fish, 85 % of the land-snails are endemic to Sri Lanka. 

But the most fascinating creatures found in country are Fresh water crabs where all the 51 species discovered in Sri Lanka can not be found elsewhere in the world. “100% of the freshwater crabs are endemic to the island, but Public interest in freshwater crab conservation is unfortunately rather low” said Vimukthi Weeratunga highlighting the need to put more attention on Invertebrate animals, which often escape our attention. Amphibians are another group where Sri Lanka records one of the highest endemism in the whole world. But 17 of these species were also got extinct putting Sri Lanka on the top of the world that lost the highest number of Amphibians during the last century. 

So, according to the above figures, it is obvious that the wealth of our biodiversity lies on these small creatures. But most of the conservation plans are targeting to protect charismatic animals like Elephants or Leopards. When contacted the Department of Wildlife, its Deputy Directory H.D.Ratnayake commented that department takes the approach of conserving habitats as a whole rather than focusing small, small animals individually. “When the ecosystem is protected, the small species live in them will automatically be protected” Ratnayake said. Island of Sri Lanka blessed with vast number of ecosystem diversity due to its geo-climatic variations. Ecosystem diversity is very important part of the biodiversity as every ecosystem has its own unique species diversity. Conservation focus on ecosystem diversity will protect not only the species that inhabit those habitats but also interaction of habitat specific species and their biophysical components as well. 

Sri Lanka also has an unfair balance of protected areas where majority is located in the dry zone. More than 75% of total Endemic Species are restricted to rainforests of wet zone and the cloud forests of montane regions. For example, out of the 830 endemic flowering plants of Sri Lanka, 92% found in the lowland tropical forests that cover only 2% of the total land area. Although vast expense of dry zone covers 65% of the land area, only 8% of the endemic flowering plants are existing in dry zone forest habitats. But wet zone is having only few protected areas. To make the matter worst, there is lots of human pressure on these biodiversity rich rain forests that continues to shrink. Encroachment has been a huge problem and the lowland tea plantations continue to spread further fragmenting the remaining wet zone forests. Tomatoe, livestocks and other farming activities are posing problems to the hill country habitats fragmenting the forest patches. This fragmentation could affect the genetic diversity of the species which is another very important aspect of the Biodiversity. When isolated, the species trapped in a small area continues to breed with a small number of species, hence loosing the chance to mix with other species of its own. 

There are multiple threats to Sri Lanka’s biodiversity other than the habitat loss. Extensive use of Agro-chemicals is another bad habit that pollutes the water and soil eradicating the small animals. The ecosystems in the wet zone are so fragile, that removing of one factor can be catastrophic. One such example is Wilpita Rasbora (Raspora wilpita) one of the endemic freshwater fish discovered in 1990s from a stream in Wildpita in Matara district. When the Wildlife Conservation Society of Galle had done a survey recently, they couldn’t find this small fish in the stream where it was discovered few years ago. This fish that prefers shady streams couldn’t be located, perhaps due to agro chemical use or due to change of the vegetation around the stream. Invasive species that are introduced to accidently or deliberately also puts a huge pressure on biodiversity. Introduced Tillapia fish had removed most of the native fish species from our water bodies. Invasive plants like Lanthana or Eulex are only few examples. 

However, there is a rare positive side too. Discoveries and rediscoveries of Animals continue to strengthen the pool of Sri Lanka’s biodiversity. “We had re-discovered Omestonii’s Oakblue butterfly after 100 years that is believed to be gone extinct recently from Kanneliya. The butterfly was discovered in 1917 in Nakiyadeniya by a naturalist named Omestonii, but when he return to Sri Lanka in 1927, the habitat was destroyed for rubber plantations and butterfly couldn’t be located raising fears of extinction. There were many researches carried out from then, but until recently it escaped the researchers’ watchful eyes. “The availability of new tools and the renewed enthusiasm of researchers are a good sign for biodiversity where a quite a number of new species discovered in recent years” commented Madhura de Silva – the president of the Wildlife Conservation Society of Galle. 

There can be much more hidden biodiversity as such. The Biodiversity Secretariat established under the Environmental Ministry has also doing a commendable job encouraging the new researches to have more focus on small creatures. One such project carried out by the Wildlife Conservation Society of Galle which was funded by the Biodiversity Secretariat ended up discovering 4 new species. Biodiversity secretariat had also published few guide books aiming at giving knowledge to amateur researchers. 

“We need a clear conservation plan to protect our biodiversity and it should goes beyond the traditional approach of saving habitats” says Vimukthi of IUCN. He suggests modern mechanisms such as River Basin conservation approach. According to this methodology the river basins of selected rivers can be developed. A river goes through many ecosystems from Ridges of highlands to the Reefs of ocean. So it flows through different habitats which house a variety of species. Vimukthi also points out the importance of getting the community participation, where human participation for conservation action is very important for the protection of Biodiversity. 

The loss of biodiversity threatens our food supplies, opportunities for recreation and tourism, and sources of wood, medicines and energy. Imagine sudden disappearance of Blue Whales from Mirissa. It will be catastrophic to the budding tourism industry based on whale-watching. Likewise Biodiversity’s economic value too is huge. “Conservation of biological heritage of Sri Lanka is not only a job of conservationists, but also every single citizen has an important role to play” urges Vimukthi Weeratunga. 

Hence the time has come to protect the biodiversity at least thinking in our self-interest. So let’s take the International Year of Biodiversity – the New Year dawn few days ago to get a conscious effort to save our valued biodiversity.  

Sinharaja and Freshwater Crab (c) Vimukthi Weeratunga | Rasbora wilpita (c) Wildlife Conservation Society of Galle 

2010: The Year of Biodiversity

Useful Links to Year of Biodiversity

www.cbd.int/2010  
Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD). Outlines the tenets of the Convention and has many useful pages of information detailing the issues, problems, solutions of biodiversity from islands to invasive species, and coasts to climate change. 

www.countdown2010.net
Countdown 2010. A network of partners working towards 2010 targets to significantly reduce the rate of biodiversity loss. An initiative of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). 

www.iucn.org
IUCN is the oldest and largest global environmental network with 1,000 government and non government organization (NGO) members together with 11,000 volunteer scientists in 160 countries, and 1,000 professional staff in 60 offices worldwide. The website has details of members, Commissions, programmes and publications.

www.arkive.org
A database of downloadable films, photos, sound recordings and information about global species. Billed as ‘a Noah’s Ark for the internet age’, Arkive is very supportive of zoos and aquariums using its content for IYB activities. 

www.bgci.org
BGCI is an international organisation that exists to ensure the world-wide conservation of threatened plants, the continued existence of which are intrinsically linked to global issues including poverty, human well-being and climate change.2

www.biodiversitylibrary.org
A partnership of the world’s 10 major natural history museums (London; Field Museum, Chicago; AMNH, New York; Smithsonian, Washington), botanical libraries (Kew, London; Missouri; New York) and Harvard University to make available online their combined collections of two million biodiversity- related volumes collected over 200 years. 

www.conservation.org/explore/priority_areas/hotspots
Information about biodiversity hotspots from Conservation International. 

http://www.biodiversityhotspots.org
Information about biodiversity hotspots from Conservation International. 

www.eol.org
The Encyclopaedia of Life – an ambitious database that intends, in time, to contain reference material and information about all of the 1.8 million species currently described and named. Also has learning materials. 

www.pbs.org/evolution
There are numerous internet sites about evolution. This one, from the US Public Service Broadcasting, offers a portal of information and learning materials. 

www.ramsar.org
The website of the international, intergovernmental Ramsar Convention on Wetlands.

www.tol.org
The Tree of Life – some overlap with EOL but concentrates more on the relationships and evolutionary history of organisms along with their biological characteristics.

www.unep-wcmc.org
The World Conservation Monitoring Unit of the United Nations Environment Programme is a very sound and current database of species and habitat/ecosystems of conservation importance. articularly good for biodiversityrelated maps. 

www.millenniumecosystemassessment.org
A detailed review and analysis leading to the key findings of this section.

www.bioclimate.org
An embryonic website that will be a major portal for news, information and data concerning the links between climate change and biodiversity. 

www.panda.org/livingplanet
The Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) and Zoological Society of London (ZSL) produce an annual report that outlines trends in biodiversity. Central to the report is the Living Planet Index (LPI) and the Human Ecological Footprint.

www.redlist.org
IUCN’s red lists detail the taxonomic, conservation status and distribution information on species facing the highest risk of extinction. 

www.regionalredlist.com
A new site that collates information about national red lists and action plans. Does your country or region have a red list? Here’s the place to find out. 

www.wildlifepictureindex.org
Initiative of New York’s Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and the Zoological Society of London (ZSL). A database of biodiversity monitoring using camera traps. 

www.edgeofexistence.org
EDGE – a ZSL initiative to rank species according to evolutionary distinctiveness and global endangerment. 

www.cbd.int/education
The Convention on Biological Diversity has a biodiversity education portal on its website. CBD is
also producing an education toolkit for IYB.

www.ceeindia.org
India’s Centre for Environmental Education produces many environmental education resources including a recipe book of zoo education activities from around the world and a CD about master planning available