An Overview Of Our Solution
Operation-Oxpecker was established by the Endangered Wildlife Trust in 2002 with the aim of conserving threatened oxpecker populations in South Africa. Through targeted reintroductions and awareness-raising over the use of oxpecker-compatible dips, we have helped to re-establish Red-billed Oxpecker (RBO) populations in South Africa, thereby restoring a tick control ecosystem service to farmers across the country and reducing the risk of spread of tick-borne diseases. Our project has catalyzed the development of a standardized green label for all ectoparasiticides on the South African market through facilitating communication between agrochemical companies and the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. Through our efforts, we have directly ensured the long-term survival of RBOs, & seen them down-listed nationally from Near Threatened to Least Concern
Who is this solution impacting?
Community Type
Rural
Additional Information
- Population Impacted:
- Continent: Africa
General Information
Organization type
Nirlaba
Ecosystem (select all that apply)
Grasslands
Population impacted
15.8million people (anyone in range of oxpecker)
Challenge
Size of agricultural area
Around 42,500–98,500 km2 is highly suitable for Red-billed Oxpeckers. This is about 30% of South Africa (41 million ha).
Production quantity
n/a
People employed
10
Solution
Describe your solution
Our solution adopted a two-pronged approach. We embarked on a targeted reintroduction program (648 birds in 22 relocation events) and an awareness-raising campaign to highlight the benefits of oxpeckers and the importance of using oxpecker-compatible ectoparastiticides. Largely as a result of the success of our reintroductions, Red-billed Oxpeckers have been down-listed in South Africa from Near Threatened to Least Concern. This could not have occurred without a change in mind-set of the South African farmer and them understanding the benefits that oxpeckers will have to their farming practices.
To address the ectoparasiticide issue, we have worked with agrochemical companies and the South African Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF) towards updating their criteria for determining which chemicals can be considered oxpecker-compatible. We needed to promote change in the chemical industry and did so by playing a catalytic role in the development of a standardized green label for all oxpecker-compatible products, regardless of brand. Our reason for wanting to develop a standardized green label was that, even though there was a label in existence, we received many questions regarding the safety of using these products in the presence of oxpeckers. With a standardized labelling, awareness-raising will be far simpler and will ensure the long-term survival of the Red-billed Oxpecker in South Africa.
Implementation
Describe your implementation
IThe successful reintroduction of Red-billed Oxpeckers implemented by the Endangered Wildlife Trust (648 birds in 22 relocation events) has not only restored the ecosystem-service of natural tick control, but has ensured the re-establishment of Red-billed Oxpeckers in South Africa. Before Red-billed Oxpeckers are released at a site, a desktop analysis of the property was completed. Thereafter, should the site be found suitable, we conducted a site visit to ground-truth our desktop results. Following this, we contacted all surrounding landowners to inform them of our intent to reintroduce the birds. This was a three-fold opportunity, as we could assess whether all landowners understood the benefits and risks involved with the reintroduction, establish which dips were currently being used, and gauge the willingness of the landowners to switch should they be using oxpecker-incompatible dips. Once a site was confirmed as a release site, the landowners had to provision nest boxes on the property and had to erect or adapt a structure to house the birds once they arrive. We employed soft releases, allowing the birds time to acclimatize and relax before release. Our biggest challenge has been to adapt our project following funding ideas not materializing. This keeps the project relevant and has helped us to develop innovative ways to gain financial support from various agrochemical companies.
External connections
The Operation Oxpecker project has had a number of South African sponsors and partners since its inception in 2002. These include the Mazda Wildlife Fund, Ford Wildlife Foundation, South African National Parks (SANParks), University of KwaZulu-Natal, Rand Merchant Bank, Afrivet, the Department of Environmental Affairs, the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and the Bateleurs (an organisation that provide free aerial services for a variety of environmental related issues). Our work also requires working with local provincial conservation authorities in order to obtain the necessary permits for capture, holding and transport of the birds. From our discussions with the agrochemical companies, we discovered their concern regarding the outdated criteria for determining which ingredients should be considered oxpecker-compatible. We played a critical role in communication in this regard between the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and the agrochemical companies and were able to instigate a change in the criteria used in determining which products can be considered oxpecker-compatible.
Results
What is the environmental or ecological challenge you are targeting with your solution?
Over the last two decades, RBO populations in South Africa suffered drastic declines (>70%) owing largely to losses of host species (big 5 game hunting, Rinderpest outbreaks) and the use of oxpecker-incompatible pesticides. With the development of new ingredients – toxic to ticks, but not oxpeckers – the prospect of reintroducing oxpeckers into their historic range became possible. The EWT established the Operation-Oxpecker project in 2002, to address this and ensure the long-term sustainable conservation of RBOs in South Africa. This project will not only be restoring a valuable ecosystem service in areas where RBOs are released, but will contribute to the re-establishment of RBO populations in South Africa. Our current challenge is that agrochemical companies independently label their oxpecker-compatible products, leading to much confusion with consumers and the possibility of oxpecker-incompatible pesticides being used in areas where RBOs currently occur.
Describe the context in which you are operating
Our project operates within the agricultural sector, specifically with farmers who keep livestock and/or wildlife. Our aim is to restore the tick-control ecosystem service (reduce tick burdens and prevent the spread of tick-borne diseases) that RBOs provide. The presence of RBOs significantly reduces the amount of ectoparasiticides needed to control tick numbers in both livestock and wildlife. Additionally, emerging farmers, who cannot afford to regularly dip their animals, benefit from having oxpeckers present. This, in turn, means that they do not resort to mixing their own dips/ “home-brews”, which very often prove toxic to oxpeckers, as well as a variety of organisms within the ecosystem.
How did you impact natural resource use and greenhouse gas emissions?
As a result of the targeted reintroductions and awareness-raising on the use of oxpecker-compatible dips, our project was able to contribute to the re-establishment of Red-billed Oxpeckers within their historical range. The South African Bird Atlas Projects have shown a significant increase (4% since 1991) or reported sightings of RBOs, with an increase in range of ~17 million ha. This lead to their IUCN Red List status being down-listed from Near Threatened to Least Concern within South Africa. In addition, we were able to demonstrate to the agrochemical industry that individual labels on products showing oxpecker-compatibility were ineffective, as landowners still requested information from us on whether their dip was indeed oxpecker-compatible. As a result of our influence, the agrochemical industry have adopted our idea of a standardized label for oxpecker-compatible products across all brands.
Language(s)
Afrikaans, English, Ndebele, Northern Sotho, Sotho, Swazi, Tsonga, Tswana, Venda, Xhosa and Zulu
Water
n/a
Food Security/Nutrition
Red-billed oxpeckers provide a tick control ecosystem service, which includes reducing the risk of cattle and game contracting and spreading many tick-borne diseases. While we do not have figures, this will have resulted in an increase in the condition of these animals and fewer deaths from diseases such as Babesiosis and Bovine anaplasmosis.
Economic/Sustainable Development
When oxpeckers are present, landowners can reduce the amount of pesticides that they need to use. This will lower the risk of creating tick-resistant chemicals (thereby reducing the research and development costs for industry), with a potential effect of long-term cost savings to farmers.
Climate
With oxpeckers being present, landowners can reduce the amount of chemicals that they use in tick control, thereby reducing the amount of poisons being released into the environment.
Sustainability
Ultimately, the reintroduction & presence of RBOs in an environment provides an economically better, sustainable solution, directly via reducing costs in pesticides as a result of a natural ecosystem service. Initially, capital funding will be necessary to acquire the ringing equipment and housing tent, which could come from grant funding. Ideally, long-term sustainable funding should come from market-based revenue (in this case, the agrochemical companies) as they will be benefitting from this through the promotion of sales of oxpecker-compatible products. We did not find this to be the case. We are in the process of developing an interactive map which will allow landowners to assess their property for the suitability of Oxpeckers online
Return on investment
Our implementation costs were always under-budget owing to the strong relationships that we had fostered with organisations like the Bateleurs. In this way, our transport costs for the birds from capture site to release site were often sponsored if we traveled by plane. Reintroductions of this nature have very tangible outcomes, as one can physically count the no. of birds released. One is also easily able to monitor longer-term success through regular feedback from the landowners at release sites. We have budgeted US$3000 to cover a capture & relocation, including flying birds w/ light aircraft. Suitable capture equipment (~US$3800) and housing infrastructure (~US$1600) are also required during capture operations, which take~4-7 days.
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Replication and Scale
How could we successfully replicate this solution elsewhere?
This can be replicated anywhere in Africa where RBOs are known to occur & can be broadly transferrable/relevant for a variety of species that provide a natural “pest” control service i.e. species that feed on ticks/insects/rodents – thus highlighting the importance of wildlife-safe pesticides/chemicals. RBO reintroductions have historically occurred in Zimbabwe & Namibia. It is crucial that project managers have a good understanding of current RBO population status before relocating birds from already established areas. We have developed a capture & translocation protocol detailing all the necessary steps to follow before relocating birds. It is essential that landowners within an area of around 10,000ha are made aware of the intention to reintroduce the birds & commit to using only oxpecker-compatible pesticides. It is also essential that agrochemical manufacturers consider the potential financial gains in sales of properly advertising & marketing their oxpecker-compatible products.