Between July 16-22, the Society of Caribbean Ornithology, the largest single regional organisation devoted to wildlife conservation issues in the Caribbean, held its 13th biennial meeting Cuba.

The meeting, which took place at the KurHotel in the Topes de Collantes National Park, brought together the leading authorities in regional bird conservation from North America, Europe and the Caribbean. The main objectives of the conference were a scientific interchange about species, habitat conservation, and environmental education.

Six members of BirdLife Jamaica, Jamaica’s only organisation specifically interested in bird conservation, attended the conference.

The major outcome of the meeting was the formation of a number of task forces that will work towards the development of comprehensive Caribbean-wide plans to promote environmental education, information access and exchange; identify a network of sites throughout the region (Important Bird Areas or IBA’s), in an initiative towards the protection sites of necessary to conserve the region’s unique native species and promote Caribbean waterbirds conservation, including the conservation of the West Indian Whistling Duck, a West Indian endemic species of particular conservation importance.

The conference recognised Cuban ecologist, Dr Martín Acosta Cruz, for his sustained and distinguished contribution to the growth and development of bird conservation and ecological studies in Cuba over the last 25 years. In addition, D James Wiley of the University of Maryland was recognised for his significant role in the development of Cuban ornithology and the training of Cuban nationals amidst the difficulties of the United States trade embargo against Cuba.

The Society of Caribbean Ornithology meeting forms part of international focus on the Cuban environment for the year 2001. Earlier this year, the city of Havana was nominated, jointly with Torino (Italy), to host the World Environmental Day celebrations of June 5. World Environmental Day is one of the principal vehicles through which the United Nations stimulates worldwide awareness of the environment and enhances political attention and action.

Cuba is the largest island in the Caribbean. It accounts for over half of the Caribbean’s landmass, and is home to over 350 species of birds. Twenty five of these are found nowhere else in the world, including the smallest bird (and warm-blooded vertebrate) on the planet, the Bee Hummingbird. Unfortunately, a staggering 20-plus species of Cuba’s birds are globally threatened with extinction (more than twice the number of Jamaican threatened and endangered bird species).