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Anne Arundel Bird Club Program

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Sue Ricciardi

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Sun, 29 Jan 2012 10:46:09 +0000

Here is a program you won't want to miss!  

  

THE FIGHT TO SAVE AFRICAN ELEPHANTS, RHINOS, HIPPOS, CHIMPANZEES, AND GORILLAS: THE AMAZING STORY OF A U.S. BIOLOGIST'S QUEST TO CONSERVE AFRICA’S WILDLIFE. Dr. Richard Ruggiero, Biologist, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Thursday, March 7, 2012 at 8:00 p.m. Quiet Waters Park, Annapolis, Blue Heron Room. Come join us on a fantastic journey to wildlife conservation's frontiers as Richard Ruggiero explores his conservation work for the awe-inspiring animals of Africa. Richard’s presentation will feature his efforts to conserve wildlife and use his photographs of elephants, rhinos, gorillas, hippos, chimpanzees, bonobo, and other wildlife some of which have been published in National Geographic Magazine, Paris Match, and other major publications. His talk will focus on conservation efforts in Central Africa in the Congo Basin, the second largest forest area in the world with great faunal and floral biodiversity. The substantial threats to these areas and wildlife populations and non-traditional solutions will be covered including efforts to protect endangered endemic species such as four subspecies of gorillas, all three subspecies of chimpanzees, forest elephants, bonobo, and okapi. The integrity of the forest and its freshwater and coastal ecosystems is demonstrating ominous signs of compromise and collapse. The question posed: is it still possible to save this wondrous part of the world? 

Richard, who lived and worked in Africa for 16 years (Central African Republic, Kenya, Zimbabwe, and the Republic of Congo) will detail his wildlife studies and conservation work that began in 1981 as a wildlife biologist in the Manovo-Gounda-St. Floris National Park in the Central African Republic. He later served as the Director of the School for Field Studies at the Wildlife Management Center in Kenya, and as the Congo’s Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park Program Director and Research Coordinator. Dr. Ruggiero is the Chief of the Branch of the Near East, South Asia and Africa at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Division of International Conservation. He helps coordinate international efforts to conserve wildlife in these areas that contain some of the greatest biodiversity on the African continent but face grave threats from habitat destruction, bushmeat hunters, cattle grazing, political unrest, and poaching. 

Using funds from the U.S. FWS Wildlife Without Borders Multinational Species Conservation Funds and the WWB-Africa Regional Program, Richard directs grant programs focusing on capacity build to protect rhinos, elephants and great apes in Africa and Asia, tigers in Asia, marine turtles and critically-endangered species around the world. A new program now focuses on the next generation of foresters in Gabon and Congo, and a Master's Program to develop their skills using state-of-the-art practices and networks. 



  

Projects funded through the Great Apes and African Elephant Conservation Funds include: organizing snare and firearms surrender programs in Zambia, ridding the country of thousands of deadly animal snares and dozens of firearms; training government agents and guards in the Republic of Congo to enforce wildlife protection laws and to prevent poaching of elephants and great apes in high risk areas; improving and maintaining water systems and holding dams in Tanzania to increase water supply during dry seasons and reduce human-elephant conflict over water resources; and projects in Cameroon to protect chimpanzees and gorillas from the bushmeat trade and other threats. 



  

Richard received a Ph.D. from Rutgers University with a dissertation on the Ecology and Conservation of Elephants in Central Africa. His Master of Science degree from Rutgers was based on his research on lions in the Central African Republic. His research has centered on large mammal behavioral ecology and its application to conservation policy and practice. Richard’s conservation efforts have focused on the design and management of protected areas, endangered species conservation, community conservation issues, and wildlife professional capacity building and training. Richard is presently an advisor to the national parks agency of Gabon and is focusing on capacity building of a professional cadre of park managers and wildlife protection units as well as the creation of Central Africa’s first international forestry master’s degree based on an innovative forestry strategy and educational paradigm, called MENTOR FOREST. Since he attained his Ph.D., he has authored papers on African lions, elephants, hippos, Jacanas and other African birds. 



  

Richard will detail the threats, challenges, and efforts to conserve the wildlife of Africa. He has worked with world class explorer Michael Fay who completed a Megatransect of central Africa. Richard is helping to protect some of the areas of great biodiversity Fay documented and his talk will cover this. 

This is the Bird Club's annual fundraiser lecture.  Donations will be accepted at the door. 

Sue Ricciardi 
Arnold, MD 
Posted for Gerald Winegrad 
AABC Program Chair 


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