VULTURE
Monitoring
Vultures are a priority species for BirdLife Botswana. All of Botswana’s five(5) vulture species are listed as Threatened or worse on the IUCN RedList. Vultures populations have been dwindling in the past few decades and vultures are facing an array of threats both locally and regional such as poisoning (both direct and indirect), loss of habitat, collision with infrastructure such as powerlines amongst others. Vulture Poisoning is the major threats responsible for most of the human-induced vulture mortality with a continued spate of reported vulture poisoning incidents.
As a matter of priority BirdLife Botswana is working with partners in the region as well as other key stakeholders locally in a continued effort to address and mitigate documented threats to survival of vultures with particular focus on vulture poisoning. Recently BirdLife Botswana worked on a transboundary project with partners in Zambia and Zimbabwe to address vulture and wildlife poisoning within the KAZA TFCA with specific laser focus on Chobe District (one of the Hotspots area for poisoning) in Botswana. The project focused on vulture poisoning through misuse of agrochemicals aimed at building a multi-sectoral capacity to tackle vulture poisoning within the project areas engaging Government authorities, law enforcement, civil society as well as local community structures such as farmer’s committees and also traditional leadership.
More efforts are currently in place not to only address poisoning but also other known threats. BirdLife Botswana is also currently working on addressing lead poisoning on vultures with a National Lead Working Group already initiated in September 2023 and a draft National Lead Poisoning Action Plan developed to strategize on a multi-sectoral approach to deal with lead exposure on the environment. Lead poisoning is an emerging threat to vultures that is currently less documented hence an urgent need to address. BirdLife Botswana is also working on other initiatives such as Vulture Safe Zones – a more area based approach to attain commitment of land owners and users to vulture friendly land uses.
​
Please report any suspected incidents of vulture poisoning to us.