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PRELIMS BOOSTERS 2018
Great Hornbill (Buceros bicornis) and Wetlands International
Great Hornbill (Buceros bicornis)
- Near threatened– IUCN Red List
- State bird of Kerala and Arunachal Pradesh
- Local names — homrai(Nepal), banrao, Vezhaambal
- Long-lived, living for nearly 50 years in captivity
- Found in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia
- Predominantly frugivorous, but is an opportunist and will prey on small mammals, reptiles and birds.
- Appendix Iof CITES
- Cultural significance
- Its impressive size and colour have made it important in many tribal cultures and rituals.
- Beaks and head are used in charms
- Flesh is believed to be medicinal
- Young birds are considered a delicacy
- Tribesmen in parts of northeastern India and Borneo use the feathers for head-dresses, and the skulls are often worn as decorations
- Zomi, a festival without a hornbill feather is incomplete
- Threats
- Logging
- Forest clearance for agriculture
- susceptible to hunting pressure
- The casque and tail feathers are targeted in many locations across the range; both are used as adornments by local communities
Wetlands International
- Head office — Ede, the Netherlands
- independent, not-for-profit, global organization that works to sustain and restore wetlands and their resources for people and biodiversity.
- work — works through partnerships
- research and community-based field projects
- advocacy and engagement with governments
- corporate and international policy fora and conventions
- History
- 1937 — International Wildfowl Inquiry– protection of waterbirds
- Later International Waterfowl & Wetlands Research Bureau(IWRB) — protection of waterbirds and wetland areas
- Later, organisations with similar objectives emerged in Asia and the Americas: the Asian Wetland Bureau(AWB) (initiated as INTERWADER in 1983) and Wetlands for the Americas (WA) (initiated in 1989).
- In 1991, the three organisations started to work closely together.
- In 1995, the working relation developed into the global organisation Wetlands International.
- Wetland and ramsar sites
- A wetland is a place where the land is covered by water, either salt, fresh or somewhere in between.
- Marshes and ponds, the edge of a lake or ocean, the delta at the mouth of a river, low-lying areas that frequently flood—all of these are wetlands
- Wetlands of international importance are also known as Ramsar sites
- There are currently over 2,200 Ramsar Sites around the world
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