This is the second of two blog posts about the IWSG conference, read the first post by Mike Smart.
When do we reach the tipping point beyond which there is no option but to act with urgency, determination and vision? From the statistics we are already there, and have been for some time, but on the ground, are we in crisis mode?
Back in 2003, the annual International Wader Study Group (IWSG) conference began with a presentation that is all too familiar in 2024. It highlighted the decline of waders worldwide:
In 2002, world leaders expressed their desire to achieve "a significant reduction in the current rate of loss of biological diversity" by 2010. The previous year, the Heads of European Union Member States had expressed their intention "that biodiversity decline should be halted... by 2010." New information, presented to an international conference in Cadiz, Spain, indicates declines of a significant proportion of the world's waders (shorebirds) and suggests that, for these birds at least, it will be extremely challenging to achieve these targets without significant investments and highly focussed conservation activity by governments in all continents.
The majority of populations of waders of known population trend are in decline all around the world - a matter of international conservation concern. Of populations with known trends, 48% are declining, in contrast to just 16% which are increasing: thus three times as many populations are in decline as are increasing. The reasons for these declines are diverse and poorly understood.
Twenty years later in 2023, the journal Ornithological Applications published a paper that stated:
“Between 1980 and 2019, 26 of the 28 shorebird species analyzed were found to be declining with more than half of the species losing more than half of their abundance. Furthermore, estimated rates of decline have accelerated during the last three generations for most species.”
The website of Wader Quest, a charity dedicated to supporting wader projects worldwide, lays out the plight of waders, including the main reasons for the declines, which are now much better understood:
The dubious accolade of being the biggest threat to wader populations, of multiple species, goes to habitat loss, be it by destruction or degradation. This scourge manifests itself in a variety of devastating, human initiated actions; intertidal reclamation, changes in agricultural practices, drainage, pollution, disturbance, afforestation, dredging, river management and ploughing up of grasslands are some of the more obvious actions that are seriously affecting waders, of all kinds, everywhere. Add to this the background threat of the effect of climate change altering the environment, a rather more chronic problem, which is never far away, and you’ll discover that every habitat in which waders exist is under threat in one way or another.
….. across the world, study after study is recording declines in wader populations. Some flyways are losing as much as eighty-six per cent of their waders, others may be losing just thirty-three per cent, but the average loss across the board shows that nearly half of our waders have already disappeared! Across North America seventy per cent of waders have been lost, especially Arctic breeding species. In the UK alone Northern Lapwings have declined by eighty per cent over the last fifty years. Eurasian Curlews have undergone a similar decline in England, Wales and Scotland, while Ireland has lost a staggering ninety-seven per cent of its breeding Eurasian Curlew population.
This was echoed in the 2024 IWSG meeting held in Montpellier, France, when Paul Smith from the Canadian Wildlife Service presented on the dire situation for American waders (shorebirds).
Why, he wondered, given what we know is happening, is the IWSG not rapidly transitioning away from a primary focus on biological science towards more concerted, urgent conservation science and action? He suggested we revitalise an American 1980s initiative called “Road to Recovery” which urges “a purposeful integration of biological and social science targeted at identifying and addressing specific causes of declines.” (Note the inclusion of social science as an essential component to understanding the human aspect of conservation, the subject of a Curlew Action webinar in September 2024.)
A Road to Recovery is desperately needed for waders. This most mysterious and enigmatic species of Curlew species, the Slender-billed Curlew, bred in the Asian Steppes and wintered in the Mediterranean region, where it was intensively hunted and is now most likely extinct. The last irrefutable confirmed sighting was in 1995, but despite extensive searches since then it hasn’t been found. We have transitioned from a desperate hope that a few stragglers remain to a cold, deadening acceptance that they have gone. The Slender-billed Curlew joins the American Eskimo Curlew on the roll call of the lost. There are six Curlew species remaining on earth and all are in varying degrees of peril.
It seems to me that we are in a crisis so profound and so shocking that we are numbed by the enormity of it all, and our response is to carry on as normal. Despite staggering losses of both the Eurasian and Far Eastern Curlews, as much as 98% in some areas, with the Far Eastern Curlew hot on the heels of the Slender-billed in heading for extinction, we are not behaving as though we are in the midst of a major calamity. What will it take to set us on the Road to Recovery? And if we do snap into action, are we ready for the challenge?
A crisis situation requires a crisis response, which means having a clear vision of what is needed and strong, unwavering leadership to take us there. In other words, we must launch a wader rescue mission that cannot fail.
“For scientific discovery give me Scott, for speed and efficiency of travel give me Amundsen; but when disaster strikes and all hope is gone, get down on your knees and pray for Shackleton”.
So said Sir Raymond Priestly, an Antarctic explorer who had experienced Shackleton’s leadership on the Nimrod expedition between 1909-1907. He knew that Shackleton was a flawed hero, but a hero of monumental proportions, nonetheless.
Just 5 years later in November 1914, Shackleton left South Georgia on the Imperial Trans-Arctic Expedition with 28 men on board the Endurance. The plan was to trek across the Antarctic Continent from coast to coast, via the South Pole. By January 1915, after sailing into the Antarctic Circle, Endurance became trapped in drifting ice and eventually sank in November, taking most of the supplies with it. It was over 2000 miles off course and the team were marooned, with no way to communicate with the world.
When all hope is gone….
As the ice floe the men were camped on began to break up, Shackleton put everyone into lifeboats and rowed for 7 days to the uninhabited Elephant Island. Leaving 22 men there, he took a small crew of six and rowed 1,299 km in 17 days, through gigantic and stormy seas, back to South Georgia. Shackleton was heading for a whaling station, but the fierce weather forced the boat to land on the opposite side of the island. He selected three men and, taking no rations or tent, led them across the mountains that form the centre of the island. 36 hours later, they made it to the station. After aborted attempts to set out to rescue the stranded men on Elephant Island, they eventually reached them 128 days later. Not a single man died during the whole mission. Throughout, Shackleton showed leadership skills that we are still learning from today. It ranks as the most audacious and inspiring rescue missions of recorded time.
Much has been written about how he kept an exhausted, starved and frostbitten team motivated, focussed, hopeful and cooperative when all seemed lost. He immediately banished any dissent; no one was allowed to become dominant, and no one was considered inferior. Everyone was given a valuable role, and personal agendas were sacrificed for the greater good. Shackleton was called “The Boss” but he was renowned for his compassion for the weaker members and his willingness to serve everyone ahead of himself. He never showed despair and never wavered, believing, and making others believe, failure was not an option. As conditions changed, often bringing more challenges, he adapted his course, but not the goal. He earned everyone’s trust and in the process each man became more than they imagined they could be.
It is a story about the transformative power of a clear vision. It creates the framework for a plan, and it instils the courage, hope and determination to see it through. As American author and business consultant Warren Bennis says, “Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality…to have others willingly come when you call, and it is having inspired followers.”
It seems a far cry from the world of wader conservation, but the principles are sound. We certainly have a crisis – declining species are heading into oblivion, and the clock is ticking. But is there a vision, a plan and an inspired team, or teams, determined to rescue them? Are wader scientists, conservationists, environmental organisations and charities working in cooperative, cohesive groups, focussed and determined to succeed no matter what it takes? Is the greater good more important than any individual team member? Or are we still a collection of individual organisations operating on a business model, protective of their own brands, too often distrustful and judgemental of others and far too often unwilling to share resources and information? Is it possible to break this mould?
If there is an environmental Ernest Shackleton out there, please step forward now.
A more likely scenario, however, is that we just start, in earnest, with where we are. The 1939 children’s fantasy film The Wizard of Oz gives a different model of leadership, but in fact has many of the same messages as the Shackleton example. Packaged in a homely form it attests to the imperative of having a goal and a plan to get there. It is also a tender portrayal of imperfect characters rising to the occasion, buoyed by the faith of the others. The message to the viewer - you are more than you think you are, you don’t have to be a great person to be a greater leader, working together is better than being alone, even if it means working with people unlike yourself, and that compassion, kindness, determination and courage win out.
The Wizard of Oz centres around Dorothy Gale, a young girl from Kansas who is stranded in an unknown country “beyond the rainbow” and desperate to find her way home. The only way to do that, she is told, is to follow a yellow brick road to the Emerald City, where a wizard can organise her safe passage. The road winds for miles through unknown territory, and there are dangers and enemies all along the way, but she is determined to stay on the path. She meets three characters who want to join her. They are incongruous companions for a hazardous and demanding journey, they lack self-confidence and have no obvious skills: a scarecrow with no brain, a tin man with no heart and a lion with no courage. But as the journey develops it turns out that they have exactly what is needed, and each comes to the fore at different times with inspiring and creative solutions to their many problems. Dorothy is a compassionate (but somewhat annoying!) leader, and the others grow and fulfil their potential under her leadership. It is a tale of unlikely individuals working together to achieve a vision and, despite personal flaws, succeeding.
I sometimes wonder if conservation organisations feel they lack the power and the wherewithal to be courageous, to dare to fail and to set out on a mission alongside others, and that includes all of us - scientists, conservationists, artists, writers, businesses, storytellers and many more. All too often it is easier to carry on with what is known and stick to the familiar protocols, stay within our tribes and hope for better times.
I have probably pushed these analogies as far as they can possibly go! But I hope my point is clear. In a crisis, a business-as-usual model can’t deliver an audacious goal, there is too much self-interest and lack of focus on the end point. A group of individuals, no matter how well meaning and caring, must put aside differences and stand shoulder to shoulder to get to bigger and better places. That can happen if the vision is clear and strong, but if we don’t have a clear understanding of what we want to achieve, and no one is willing to take risks, we will potter along the road to disaster.
There are signs that times are changing, though, and Curlew Action is part of that. We have been involved in a number of high-profile meetings that brought a range of people together to make a plan to save Curlews. Our recent European Fieldworker Workshop was highly successful and gathered fieldworkers from across the continent to share experiences and ideas, encouraging a wide, shared vision for Eurasian Curlew recovery that went beyond individual projects or countries.
Our Online European Headstarting Workshop in February will do the same, focussing on a crisis conservation technique that is growing in importance. Plans are afoot for a World Curlew Symposium that will inspire cooperation across Curlew flyways around the world. These initiatives, alongside others, are part of forming a clear vision for recovery and could form the first steps on the yellow brick road. We are obviously not alone, there are inspiring examples elsewhere, including the ground-breaking Birdeyes in The Netherlands, which brings a host of different ideas to wader conservation, including the arts. We are part of a sea change that I hope will grow and grow.
I don’t know whether all of us who love waders will succeed in making the changes needed to launch a successful rescue mission, but for sure the status quo is not working. Taking some tentative steps on the road to recovery has to be better than standing still.