The SEABCRU is sponsoring several workshops and a forum for SE Asian Bat Conservation embedded within the SEABCO 2015 Conference.
The half-day workshops will present the SEABCRU protocols that we have developed with the help of the broad SEABCRU membership over the past four years.
- Acoustic Protocols– best practices for acoustic monitoring. It will include detector selection, deployment, development of call libraries and the SEABCRU call database, and analysis principles. Although beginners can attend, it is targeted at researchers that are currently designing or developing monitoring programs.
- Cave Bat Survey Protocols – best practices for surveying caves for bat diversity. This includes an introduction to approaches for describing cave complexity and structure, bat occupancy, and measures of parameters that influence bat diversity. Suitable for all.
- Flying Fox Survey and Monitoring Protocols. Details of the best approaches for generating consistent colony counts that can underpin spatial or temporal assessments of populations. Suitable for all.
Additional workshops may be forth-coming, as will details on registering for workshops.
These workshops are FREE, and will take place one afternoon within the conference. In the late afternoon/evening we will travel to a cave system for practical experience of acoustic approaches and cave surveys.
SEABCRU FORUM — The way forward
On the last day we will hold an OPEN FORUM to discuss the way forward for SE Asian Bat Conservation and the SEABCRU. The first such forum was held at the 1st SE Asian International Bat Conference in Phuket, Thailand. Over 70 people from 22 countries attended, and the forum identified the four research priorities around which SEABCRU activities have since been organized (Forest Bats, Taxonomy and Systematics, Flying Foxes, and Cave Bats – more details on the SEABCRU website http://www.seabcru.org/). The publication “Research priorities for bat conservation in SE Asia: a consensus approach” (Kingston 2010) summarized the findings of the 2007 forum. We wish to re-visit these priorities and discuss possible new directions (e.g. wildlife trade in bats, quantification of ecosystem services). We will also discuss the organizational structure of the SEABCRU. As in 2007, EVERYONE ATTENDING THE CONFERENCE IS INVITED AND ENCOURAGED TO ATTEND.
Looking forward to seeing folks there
Tigga
