INTERNATIONAL BIRD STRIKE COMMITTEE
IBSC26/WP-OS1 Warsaw, 5-9 May 2003
FLIGHT SAFETY AND NATURE CONSERVATION - THE ULTIMATE CONNECTION, THE GREAT RIFT VALLEY CASE STUDY Yobs Leshem' & Albert Froneman2 'The International Center for the Study of Bird Migration Latrun, Dept. of Zoology Tel Aviv University, Ramat Aviv Tel Aviv, 69978, Israel Email:
[email protected] 2 Endangered Wildlife Trust, Airports Company South Africa - EWT Strategic Partnership Private Bag X 11, Parkview, 2122, South Africa Email:
[email protected] Abstract The majority of the global community members who are involved in the aircraft-bird conflict usually focus on a narrow spectrum of the factors involved, in accordance with their field of expertise: civilian aviation as opposed to military, airfield maintenance as opposed to military training zones, basic research as opposed to applicable techniques, and so forth. In most of the cases the handling of the conflict focuses around a single specific site such as an airfield, some of the activities focus within the borders of a single country, and only in a few cases does the handling develop to a regional level involving a number of countries cooperating to resolve the conflict. One such example consists of the developing during the last decade - Bird Avoidance Model (BAM) - among the NATO countries in West Europe, and the cooperation in the Middle East. In many cases budget considerations constitute a central limiting factor in the failure to develop applicable solutions to the conflict. Furthermore, a significant portion of the IBSC community does not initiate any contact with the scientific community and with the nature conservation organisations. On many occasions, the scientific community also shows a marked lack of interest in subjects of aviation safety and treats it as a technical matter. Some of the nature conservation organisations also view this conflict as problematic in the harm caused to birds and therefore show no readiness to contribute towards its solution. In this article we will present the Israeli Air Force (IAF) concept as a test case. During the last 20 years, the IAF has been in a yearly contract with 3 bodies: the leading NGO in Israel - the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI), Nature and Parks Authority (a government agent), and Tel Aviv University as the academic component, together leading the handling of the conflict with relatively high success rates. This model has also developed in recent years among the aviation authorities in South Africa who have formed ties with Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT), a leading NGO in South Africa. In this article we will present an additional and highly significant concept initiated by action on a regional and continental level involving the need for inter-country co-operation while tying together aviation safety and nature conservation bodies through shared action. In May 2001 Israel and South Africa lead a conference in which 20 African countries participated. The conference title was: Wings Over Africa - Research, Conservation, Education and Flight Safety. We will present the action plan as developed at this conference in Israel. We will also present an initiative that has been presented to the UNESCO World Heritage Center involving the declaration of the Great Rift Valley as one integral site all its
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LESHEM &
7,000 km length, thus uniting 22 countries in the framework of a shared program involving nature conservation, cultural heritage, and flight safety issues as a global corridor of migration. We believe that by involving nature conservation, academic and flight safety bodies the recruiting of larger resources that can be used in the reduction of the conflict between aircraft and birds will be aided. Key words: flight safety, conservation, Middle East, Africa, Israel Air Force, Great Rift Valley, South Africa, ACSA, EWT
tONEMAN
volvmg of bird iodies tween
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Introduction and the evolution of the concept The State of Israel and the Israeli Air Force (IAF) were established in 1948. During the next three and a half decades the IAF tried to handle the aircraft-bird conflict internally but with limited success. On the 28'h October 1974 the first accident with fatal consequences took place. While leading a quartet of Skyhawks at low altitude and 420 knots velocity above the Hula Valley in northern Israel (part of the Great Rift Valley and of international significance as part of the migration route), Major Sephi Levine's canopy was hit and he was instantly killed by one of the pelicans in a migrating flock. However this accident did not bring about any significant changes in flight procedures. Only a decade later, in 1983 following the first author's initiative, did the IAF decide to co-operate strategically with three external bodies in order to solve this conflict: the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (the leading NGO in its field in Israel), Tel Aviv University and the Nature and Parks Authority (the government body responsible for wildlife protection and nature conservation). This co-operation between leading conservation and academic bodies brought (LESHEM 1990, 2001, LESHEM & YOMTOV, 1996). In this article we shall present the IAF model as an example of successful co-operation in the military aviation and conservation arena. We shall also look at similar co-operation that developed in 1999 between nature conservation bodies and civilian aviation authorities in South Africa to solve the same conflict. The Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) decided to enter a strategic partnership with the leading NGO body, the Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT), under the leadership of the second author together with Dr. John Ledger, President of the EWT.
In April 1999 an international seminar on Birds and Flight Safety in the Middle East was held in Israel with the participation of senior officials from the Israeli, Jordanian, Turkish and American Air Forces. The aim of the seminar was to examine the concept developed in the Israeli Air Force and to test the feasibility of taking this idea and expanding its applications to a regional level while involving nature conservation and flight safety bodies from the neighbouring states. The seminar was a great success (LESHEM, MENDELIK & SHAMOUNBARANES, 1999), and it lead to the drawing up of an action plan shared by the nature conservation organisations and the air forces, as well as attempting to establish a regional network of bird and weather radar's based on a common database. Following this seminar we raised the idea of expanding the co-operation to a larger level, and incorporating African countries that till now had taken no active part in the IBSC conferences in spite of the "Black Continent" suffering from the aircraft-bird conflict due to the abundance of tropical and wintering birds on that continent. Following a proposal at the 25th International Bird Strike Committee in Amsterdam, the concept of an African International Seminar on bird migration and flight safety was first introduced by the authors to the African Ornithological community at the 10th Pan African Ornithological Congress held during September 2000 in Kampala Uganda. Representatives from conservation/ornithological organisations were identified as the most suitable candidates to drive the process in their respective countries. Various African countries showed a keen interest in the bird strike, conservation and education issue and expressed a need for a better understanding of how these three initiatives could be linked together. In order to equip conservationists and ornithologists from various African countries, with the necessary knowledge it was decided to host a seminar on this issue. The objective of the seminar which took place in Israel from April 29th to May 11th 2001 and was endorsed by the IBSC was to develop a strategy for African representatives whereby they could initiate similar projects in their own countries. Conservation/ornithological
organisations could then educate the public and children to increase awareness about k In addition the project should extend to sensitise the aviation industry in each respective country about bird strikes and offer in conjunction with an African working group practical solutions to the problem. Each country was provided with an opportunity to present a paper focusing on its main interest with associated research activities in relation to the aims of the seminar. Several needs were identified ranging from increased awareness, education and training to assistance with controlling bird hazards at airports and research programs focusing on the, above. An action plan with the slogan "Wings over Africa" was developed and contains strategies focusing on three main thrust areas namely Flight Safety and Birds, Research and Conservation and Education, Awareness and Training (LESHEM, FRONEMAN, MUNDY, SHAMIR 2001). Each component of the action plan was outlined in more detail and a suggested process developed based on input and experience whereby such an initiative could be launched in country. A list of actions required to implement the initiatives was also developed. Each country then tabled their respective action plans.
47 participants from 20 African countries and 6 other countries took part in the Seminar, in Israel, April 29-May 1, 2001. Group picture (partial only) on the last day of the seminar in Israel
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Mr. Samuel Kofi Nyame, Ghana, Head of the project "Wings Over Africa" greeting at the official opening ceremony
The desire to mobilise an entire continent to co-operate on such significant issues in flight safety and birds together with nature conservation bodies proved to be too ambitious in such a short time period. Thus it was decided to limit activity to a workable proposition, taking into account the conservation and cultural values together with flight safety issues. We quickly reached the conclusion that as a first stage we should check the possibility of focusing only on the Great Rift Valley (GRV), and this for the following reasons: the GRV plays a central role in bird migration as it constitutes one of the main corridors of the global migration routes, its cultural-historical-human values, and the fact that it runs through 22 countries of which at least part would be interested in joining this initiative. From September 30t' through October 4`h 2002, the Great Rift Valley Experts Meeting was held at the lowest place on earth, the Dead Sea in Israel, in order to study all the multidisciplinary aspects of this idea, and the possibilities of harnessing the support of international nature conservation organisations as well as flight safety authorities.
White-backed vulture hit at Bole International Airport Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (no details and date)
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already noted in the days of our ancestors: "Yea, the stork in the heavens knoweth her appointed times, and the turtle dove and the swift and the crane observe the time of their coming." (Jeremiah 8:7). Israel's location at the junction of three continents - Europe, Asia and Africa has made it an internationally significant route of passage for migrating birds of prey and large soaring birds such as storks and pelicans, both in spring and autumn (LESH & Yom-Tov 1996). It is estimated that 500 million birds migrate twice a year over Israel. At the same time, the Israeli Air Force (IAF) with its hundreds of aircraft, must train and manoeuvre and thus finds itself competing with the birds for this very limited air space. It ha been calculated that the size of this airspace, divided by either the number of aircraft or by the number of migrating birds, is twice the world record. An analysis of three decades (1972 2002) of bird-aircraft collisions in the IAF reveals three main facts: • The months of spring and autumn migration are the period of greatest number of air collisions (n=4001). • About one hundred of these collisions resulted in serious damage (over a half-million U.S. dollars per collision). Nine planes crashed and three pilots were killed. • Most of the serious collisions occurred during the migration season and involved birds weighing over 600 grams, mainly birds of prey, pelicans and storks.
With the goal of minimising the conflict between IAF aircraft and migrating birds, in 1983 the IAF decided to change their policy after three and a half decades and agreed to outsourcing on this subject and the funding of a comprehensive research study to be carried out by two partners: the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel and the Tel Aviv University. The idea was to entrust this research to nature conservationists and academics, and to leave it to them to initiate the application of the results in the IAF. The success of this project was above and beyond all expectations: during the last 20 years the rate of accidents has been reduced by 76% with a saving of over 600 million dollars for the IAF budget (without taking into account the pilots' lives saved). -
2 March, 2003, 20": The Black hawk helicopter which flew the l.D.F Chief of Staff, Major General Bugi Ya'alon, hit a migrating Crane (800 feet AGL) on the western migration route (Latrun - Kfar Kassem route). This was the first day of Bird Plagued Zone Operation in the Israel Air Force for spring 2003
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