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The lecture will describe research and field work capacity-building by Faisal Al Lamki’s team. The work focuses on the globally endangered Steppe eagle, which winters in Oman. Faisal will provide background information on Steppe eagle ecology and conservation.
The Steppe eagle (Aquila nipalensis) is a globally endangered, full migrant raptor that breeds from European Russia in the west to north-eastern China in the east. It winters in Africa, the Middle East and southern Asia, and as a result migrations can sometimes entail journeys > 10,000 km in length. Kazakhstan, Russia and Mongolia are the breeding strongholds, Oman is a wintering stronghold. Declines in the breeding population in recent decades are estimated to total 50 – 60%. Threats to the Steppe eagle include loss of habitat, persecution, inadvertent poisoning, and electrocution. Very large aggregations settle at anthropogenically-generated waste disposal sites in Arabia and elsewhere, and managing those waste sites is important for conserving Steppe eagles.
We report on our work with biologists from the Office for Conservation of the Environment (OCE) to establish survey and monitoring efforts in Dhofar, where wintering Steppe eagles gather in globally large numbers in winter. Against the background of national-scale efforts to improve waste disposal to benefit human health, we have, along with the OCE, worked with the national waste management company, be’ah, to manage waste disposal sites to benefit Steppe eagles, and other large scavenging birds. We will report on those efforts, and our tracking via satellite of 14 Steppe eagles captured in Oman over the past two years.
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Faisal Al Lamki
Faisal has worked and travelled extensively in Oman’s rural areas and has an intimate knowledge of the country’s diverse geography. He has spent 25 years an Environmentalist and Engineer in the oil and gas sector. He served as an Advisor for the Office for Conservation of the Environment in the Diwan of Royal Court Affairs for four years, two of which as a Deputy Project Leader with the IUCN/WWF. He was also the Director of Nature Conservation at the Ministry of Environment and Climate Affairs.
Education: 1988 Univ. of Edinburgh, UK. M.Phil. Environment & Geog. 1983. Univ. of Pet. and Min., Saudi Arabia. B.Sc. Mining Eng
Dr Mike McGrady
Dr Mike McGrady is an independent avian ecologist, with over 40 years’ experience working on raptors, including in Oman working with the Office for Conservation of the Environment, the Ministry of Environment and Climate Affairs, Petroleum Development Oman and others. Those efforts have resulted in scientific papers co-authored with Omani biologists, and the development of a group of Omani biologists trained in hands-on field work with birds. He has worked on a large number of raptors from a wide range of species, including Golden eagles, Sooty falcons, Peregrine falcons, Steller’s eagles, and vultures. Currently, his main projects are on raptors in Oman (Egyptian vultures, Lappet-faced vultures and Steppe eagles), Djibouti (Egyptian vultures), Kuwait (Greater spotted eagles), Scotland (Peregrine falcons), and Russia (Steller’s eagles). He also works on the impacts of human development (mostly windfarms) on upland birds.