Bruktawit Abdo
- Project name: Providing an evidence base for the conservation of the White-winged Flufftail
- Project site: Berga, Ethiopia
- EDGE species: White-winged Flufftail Sarothrura ayresi
- Active: 2017 - 2019
Biography
Bruktawit leads a project to assess the ecosystem services of some of the most critical sites for biodiversity across Ethiopia, and helps to establish support groups to monitor and conserve ecosystems at each site. She has completed a PhD on the conservation of another Critically Endangered Ethiopian bird, the Liben Lark. She is the Project Leader at the Ethiopian Wildlife and Natural History Society (EWNHS).
Bruktawit is excited to develop her knowledge of—and experience with—the latest tools being applied to conservation biology. She hopes to gain crucial insights into the life history and population status of the White-winged Flufftail to better inform her team’s conservation efforts in some of the most important and threatened wetlands in Ethiopia.
EDGE Project
Bruktawit aims to ensure the persistence and improvement of suitable habitat critical to the survival of the White-winged Flufftail. To do this, she hopes to identify the primary issues causing the continued population decline in the past decade despite conservation efforts. Bruktawit’s project will:
- Assess three sites at which the species is known to occur to determine population size, density, and current distribution;
- Build the capacity of the local community to enable them to conduct standardised surveys of threatened species in the region;
- Undertake habitat restoration work in the Berga Wetlands and any other sites where the species is recorded;
- Campaign to raise local, regional and national awareness of the importance of these wetlands to conserve the Flufftail.
Project Gallery
