Clarke's Weaver (Ploceus golandi)

Mohamed bin Zayed Species project number 10251558

Mission and objectives The ‘headline’ mission is: Connecting Nature and People to take action for biodiversity conservation. In pursuing this mission, Nature Kenya strives to: build a strong constituency for conservation across the country; enhance knowledge of Kenya’s biodiversity; advocate policies favourable to biodiversity conservation; promote conservation of key species, sites, and habitats and encourage community participation in conservation through promotion of sustainable benefits. To achieve these objectives Nature Kenya strives to generate some key results: Key biodiversity conservation sites prioritised, studied, documented—and findings disseminated; Action for protection of key species, sites, and habitats specified and initiated; Nature Kenya’s influence on decisions affecting biodiversity increased; Public awareness of the global, national, and local values of biodiversity increased; Larger, broader, and active membership base developed; Funding increased from diversified sources. Nature Kenya is also BirdLife in Kenya. BirdLife International is a global network of national NGOs (Partners), supported by a Secretariat with headquarters in Cambridge, UK. A regional supporting Secretariat for the Africa Partnership is based in Nairobi, Kenya. As BirdLife in Kenya, Nature Kenya shares the mission of BirdLife International “to conserve wild birds, their habitats and global biodiversity, working with people towards sustainability in the use of natural resources”. In particular, in the context of this proposal, it shares BirdLife's aim to prevent the extinction of any bird species. Date of establishment The East Africa Natural History Society (now better known as Nature Kenya) was established in 1909. It joined the BirdLife Partnership in 1998 Geographic area Kenya, East Africa Target species/habitat Clarke’s Weaver (Ploceus golandi) is classified by IUCN as Endangered, with a small and fragmented range restricted to coastal Kenya. It is only known from two sites, with a large population in Arabuko-Sokoke Forest (ASF), and scattered sightings in the Dakatcha Woodlands to the north west of ASF. However it does not breed in ASF and is variably absent during the rains (October-November or April - July), when it presumably nests and raises young elsewhere. Adults were seen feeding young in Dakatcha in July 1994 and several times since, and the species has been recorded there repeatedly since regular surveys began in 2005, but not in 2009 when the major rains were poor. The breeding site is still unknown, and the entire area of Dakatcha Woodland and vicinity is currently threatened by plans to establish industrial plantations of Jatropha curcas for biofuel. The ASF population of Clarke’s Weaver was estimated to be not more than 1000-2000 pairs in the 1980s and there has not been a comprehensive census since then. Outside the Arabuko-Sokoke Forest, the species has been recorded in lowland Brachystegia woodland. Within the ASF, it has been recorded from all forest habitats, although it is commonest in the Brachystegia zone. It occurs in noisy but somewhat erratic flocks of 5-150 birds and is also sometimes observed in mixed species flocks. It feeds high up in the canopy on beetles, caterpillars and fruit. It presumably nests with the onset of suitable rains. (http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/species/index.html?action=SpcHTMDetails.asp&sid=8532&m=0.)