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ROD EAST WINS PETER
SCOTT AWARD
13 June 2006
Dear Dr East
The Sir Peter Scott Award
for Conservation Merit
The IUCN Species Survival Commission
(SSC) is an exceptional network of experts who make their time
and considerable talents available through more than 100 Specialist
Groups and Task Forces. Realizing that the voluntary contributions
of these experts often pass with little formal notice, the SSC
has established an awards system to recognize and celebrate more
publicly the extraordinary contributions of its membership.
The Sir Peter Scott Award is
the "senior" SSC award, dating back to 1984. It is
presented to individuals in recognition of significant and long-term
service to conservation through their work with the SSC or associated
institutions. Achievements are recognizable as considerable and
noteworthy contributions to the conservation of wild fauna and
flora, especially threatened species.
In recognition of your extensive
involvement in the SSC as a long- standing member and Co-Chair
of the Antelope Specialist Group, I hereby present you with the
Sir Peter Scott Award for Conservation Merit for 2006. The Award
consists of a medal bearing the likeness of Sir Peter Scott,
the first Chair of the SSC, and a certificate.
Among your outstanding contributions,
this award recognizes the production of Antelopes: Global Survey
and Regional Action Plans for Africa south of the Sahara, the
African Antelope Database 1998, the series of Antelope Survey
Up- dates, and co-authorship of a wildebeest population survey
(in prep.). In addition, your fund-raising efforts have assisted
the conservation of threatened species that are poorly represented
in or absent from the existing network of protected areas in
Africa, notably field studies of seasonal movements of giant
eland in northern Cameroon, an aerial survey of Western giant
eland in Mali, an anti-poaching feasibility study in eastern
CAR, a survey of gazelles in eastern Sudan, and support of Aders'
duiker conservation efforts.
In accepting this award, you
join the ranks of other distinguished recipients who were honoured
for their extended and significant involvement in conservation.
I do hope that this award conveys the gratitude that I and the
SSC Steering Committee feel for your important contributions
to the knowledge and conservation of the world's antelopes. With
my heartfelt congratulations,
Dr Holly T. Dublin
Chair: IUCN Species Survival Commission
In Praise of Rod
East
This issue is dedicated to Rod East, who has contributed more
to conservation of African antelopes than any other individual.
The Peter Scott Award for Conservation Merit is fitting recognition
of his tireless efforts to monitor the status of African antelopes
and to propose action plans to assure the survival of all the
species and major subspecies.
As the ±72 species of
antelopes dominate sub-Saharan Africa's assemblages of large
mammals, antelope conservation is critical to the future of just
about every protected area on the continent. Indeed Rod's 434-page
magnum opus, African Antelope Database 1998, doubles as a survey
of virtually all the parks and reserves that have significant
populations of antelopes. The survival of the other large mammals
is closely linked to the survival of the antelopes. In fact,
a comparison of key conservation areas for antelope communities
with those for other large mammals is provided in an appendix,
making this publication an invaluable resource for everyone concerned
with the conservation of Africa's large mammals and biodiversity.
Rod's involvement with the ASG
began in 1984, after he volunteered to take on the antelope survey
that became the ASG's primary mission in 1981. A letter he wrote
in May 1983, reprinted in the Gnusletter of that date, read:
"As I mentioned in my earlier letter, I am extremely keen
to assist and I am prepared to put in a major effort. Specifically,
I would be very happy to collate, analyse and edit antelope survey
material and to write to particular individuals within the ASG
and help to track down others who can provide useful information
to the antelope survey."
What an incredibile, open-ended
offer! But what would motivate a New Zealander, gainfully employed
in the Ruakura Soil and Plant Research Station of the Ministry
of Agriculture and Fisheries, who had never done research in
Africa, to volunteer for such a major task? It turned out that
a childhood interest in wildlife became focused on African animals
through reading wildlife magazines and watching TV nature programs.
By the time he contacted the ASG, he had completed a PhD and
already published three papers dealing with the space requirements
and conservation status of Africa's large mammals: (East 1981a
& b, 1983).
Frustratingly, two years were
to pass before Rod, who was quickly designated Compiler and Action
Plan Coordinator of the antelope survey, got possession of the
Antelope Inventory Report Forms that were sent out, beginning
in 1981, to ASG members and others with knowledge of the populations
and conservation status of antelopes in all the different countries
where they occur. All the completed forms had been sent in to
the Species Conservation Monitoring Unit at the Conservation
Monitoring Centre in Cambridge, in the expectation that SCMU
would produce a separate publication on the antelopes. When it
finally became clear that wouldn't happen, much of the information
was already out of date.
So Rod simply started over. In
record time he produced Part 1, covering East and Northeast Africa
in 1988, followed by Parts 2 & 3 in the next two years, to
complete the antelope survey of Africa south of the Sahara. Not
only did he acquire the needed information through voluminous
correspondence with established and new contacts, he did more
than compile the survey results, evaluate the status of all the
antelope populations, and propose action plans. He also wrote
most of the country accounts. He then offered authorship to the
main providers of information, conditional on their acceptance
of responsibility for the account's accuracy.
Between publication of Part 3
in 1990 and the African Antelope Database 1998 in 1999, Rod produced
seven Antelope Survey Updates, to meet his goal of publishing
the latest available information on antelopes every five years.
The ASG is also expected to monitor the conservation status of
the Cape buffalo, giraffe, okapi, and water chevrotain. As if
he didn't have enough on his plate, Rod even moon- lighted by
producing a report on the status of Burchell's zebra for the
Equid Special- ist Group in 1997. All this after taking on a
new and more challenging job in 1992 with the National Institute
of Water and Atmospheric Research, a world-class environmental
research organization which is New Zealand's leading provider
of research and consultancy services. NIWA's 2001 Annual Report
called the company's success a testimony to the three-man core
management team who had been at the helm since 1994. Rod was
one of the three.
East resigned from the ASG in
2001. In the Gnusletter of June 2001, he wrote , "I stepped
down as ASG Co-chair, mainly because of my increasing work load
as Deputy Chief Executive of NIWA, which is an organization of
600 staff with an annual turnover of more than NZ$70 million.
While my work load at NIWA precludes active involvement in antelope
conservatin activies at present, I plan to maintain my strong
interest in African wildlife conservation, to keep in contact
with my many friends and colleagues in the ASG, and to continue
to assist the group as opportunity allows."
He had been a member of the ASG
for 21 years, first as Compiler of the Antelope Surveys and Action
Plan Coordinator of the Regional Action Plans for four years,
then as Deputy- or Vice- Chair for six years, and Co-chair from
+++ 1996-2001. All the work he did for the ASG was done in his
spare time, at night and over weekends. He never received any
financial support. Thus, the African Antelope Database 1998,
illustrated with antelope photos in full color, many taken by
Rod on trips to Africa, was produced at his own expense, then
photocopied and printed in 1999 by IUCN, which has published
and distributed all the ASG surveys and updates listed below.
His eighth Antelope Survey Update was published the year he resigned.
And true to his word, Rod continued to make African safaris including
several to remote areas of Central and West Africa, and to produce
reports for the Gnusletter -- he has three articles in this Gnusletter.
To put the icing on the cake,
last year Rod accepted my offer to co-author a survey of the
common wildebeest. His part was to update an unpublished survey
of wildebeest populations that I made in 1967, to produce a document
of some historic interest. First he downsized my 16 chapters
and 78,000 words by eliminating all unessential information.
Then he added updates for each population: for the 1980s, the
1990s, and early 2000s. He accomplished all this within less
than six months, despite persistent, nagging back pains.
Early in the New Year, he was
hospitalized after learning he had cancer, which continued to
spread despite radiation and chemotherapy. He is now at home
in palliative care, confined to a wheelchair, but says he is
quite comfortable and his outlook is amazingly cheerful. His
devoted wife, Chris, is caring for him, and they are in close
contact with their three grown children. For friends who may
wish to write or telephone him, his email address is xxx. Tel.
+000. To hear him, you wouldn't know there was anything the matter
with him.
All these publications are not
the whole sum and substance of Rod's contributions to African
antelope conservation. As Action Plan Coordinator, he proactively
sought funding for high-priority ASG projects. Rod believed that
relatively small, low- budget projects targeted at a species
or region could play a vital role in improving the conservation
status of antelopes, e. g., "by answering specific research
questions of significance to antelope conservation, and by assisting
the conservation of threatened taxa which are poorly represented
in or absent from the existing network of protected areas. It
is at this level of project that the ASG has focused its fund-raising
efforts" (East 1999, page 35) The 1998 database includes
a listing of projects, for most of which Rod helped gain funding.
Those which brought him particular satisfaction are singled out
in the Peter Scott Award. The following is a partial list of
ASG projects.
Completed Projects
1995 Recovery plans for the hirola
and roan antelope in Kenya. Grant to ASG from IUCN Peter Scott
Memorial Fund..
1995 Survey of wildlife in Eritrea. Grant to ASG from IUCN Peter
Scott Memorial Fund.
1996 Anti-poaching feasibility study in the Eastern CAR. Supported
by a private donor and the Associated Hunting Professionals of
Haut Chinko.
1996 Surveys of the abundance of gazelles and other threatened
species in eastern Sudan. Supported by Zoological Societies of
San Diego and London, and the Maree Noble and Elizabeth Stumpf
Memorial Foundation.
1997 Survey of wildlife in the Ogaden Region of Ethiopia. Grant
from a private donor.
1997-98, 2003 Seasonal movements of the giant eland in Northern
Cameroon. Supported by Howard Gilman Foundation and Los Angeles
Zoo.
1999 Aerial survey of the Western giant eland in Mali and Senegal.
Partially supported by Gesellschaft f _r Technische Zusammenarbeit
1999 Conservation of Aders' duiker on Zanzibar Island (translocations
to Chumbe Island). ASG in cooperation with American and European
zoos.
2001 Investigation of removal of Western giant eland and other
antelopes from Senegal's Niokolo-Koba National Park and Faleme
Hunting Zone by a South African capture team. Mission conducted
by ASG in collaboration with IUCN and UNESCO offices in Dakar.
2001 Population status and conservation planning for the Mountain
Nyala. Partial funding by ASG through private donor.
African Publications
of Rod East
East, R. 1981a. Species-area curves and populations of large
mammals in African savanna reserves. Biol. Cons. 21: 111- 126
______ 1981b. Area requirements and conservation status of large
African mammals. Nyala 7: 3-20.
______ 1983. Application of species-area curves to African savannah
reserves. Afr. J. Ecol. 21: 123-128. East, R. (Compiler} 1988.
Antelopes: Global Survey and Regional Action Plans, Part I. East
and Northeast Africa. IUCN, Gland and Cambridge.
______ 1989. Antelopes: Global Survey and Regional Action Plans,
Part 2. Southern and South- central Africa. IUCN, Gland and Cambridge.
______ 1990. Antelopes: Global Survey and Regional Action Plans,
Part 3. West and Central Africa. . IUCN, Gland and Cambridge.
______ 1997. Current status of Burchell's zebra in Africa. IUCN/
SSC Equid Specialist Group Report.
East, R. 1999. African Antelope Data Base 1998. IUCN, Gland and
Cambridge.
East, R. (Compiler). Antelope Survey Updates 1995-2001, including
Evaluations of Antelopes using Red List Categories. IUCN/SSC
Antelope Specialist Group Reports.
1995 Number 1. Benin, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Rwanda,
Swaziland, Togo, Zaire.
1996a Number 2. Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Chad, Gabon, Ghana,
Zambia.
1996b Number 3. Senegal, South Africa, Sudan, Zaire.
1997a Number 4. Mali, Tanzania
1997b Number 5. Kenya, Rwanda, Southern Sudan, Uganda.
1997c Number 6. Congo Republic, Ethiopia, Senegal (Status of
Western giant eland); Status of Eastern giant eland).
1998 Number 7. Botswana, Ivory Coast, Malawi, Zimbabwe.
2001 Number 8. Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Chad,
Djibouti, Lesotho, Mali, Mozambique, Rwanda.
Bearing in mind that all these
extraordinary accomplishments were produced in his spare time,
while pursuing a very busy and productive career monitoring and
conserving New Zealand's natural resources, Rod East is living
proof that when you go looking for someone to perform a challenging
public service, you go to the busiest people you know. They're
the ones most likely to produce results. Editor
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