The Peregrine Fund - International Programs

International Programs

The Neotropical Raptor Conservation Program is the largest component of The Peregrine Fund's international programs. The Panama office, Fondo Peregrino-Panama, is staffed by biologists, educators and administrators to research and conserve the one-third of the world's birds of prey that are found in Central and South America. Raptor projects include the Harpy Eagle and Orange-breasted Falcon. Since 1998, more than 40 Harpy Eagles have been hatched in captivity and released to the wild in Panama and Belize. In 2007, rare Orange-breasted Falcons bred in captivity were released for the first time to the wild in their traditional territory in Belize. The organization has worked with 34 raptor species in the wild in this part of the world.

The West Indies Project focuses on raptors found only on the Caribbean Islands. Current research and conservation efforts are directed at the critically endangered Ridgway's Hawk in the Dominican Republic, the Grenada Hook-billed Kite confined to the island of Grenada, and the Cuban Kite, endemic to Cuba and among the rarest species of raptor in the world.

The Pan Africa Raptor Conservation Program is designed to help stem the loss of biodiversity in Africa. Many species threatened by habitat loss have been surveyed, including the Cape Vulture and Taita Falcon in southern Africa and the African Fish Eagle, Augur Buzzard, Sokoke Scops Owl, Pemba Scops Owl, Ruppell's Vulture, African White-backed Vulture, and Crowned Eagle in several nations in East Africa. The Peregrine Fund has biologists and field workers in Madagascar, an island off the east coast of Africa with vast biological diversity. In 2006, they re-discovered the Madagascar Pochard, a diving duck thought to be extinct, while searching for Madagascar Harriers. The Peregrine Fund also re-discovered the Madagascar Serpent Eagle and Red Owl in 1993, both long thought to be extinct, and helped create Madagascar's largest rainforest reserve in 1997.

The Asia Pacific Raptor Conservation Program focuses on raptors on islands between Southeast Asia and Australia. The Peregrine Fund provides student support, training and guidance in the study of the breeding behavior and ecology of the New Guinea Harpy Eagle. The organization also assists the Philippine Eagle Foundation to conserve and study the eagle and other raptors on islands that make up the Republic of the Philippines.

The Asian Vulture Crisis Project addresses declining vulture populations on the Indian subcontinent. Over the last decade, populations of at least three species, the Oriental White-backed, Long-billed, and Slender-billed Vultures, have become critically endangered. Peregrine Fund research published in the journal Nature determined that poisoning from the residues of diclofenac in the carcasses of livestock that had been treated with the drug for veterinary purposes was responsible for the catastrophic die-off. India, Pakistan, and Nepal banned the drug in 2006.