So what do I do?

I've been asked by a couple of people recently what I've been doing given that my research permits and things still haven't been sorted (though I've had two phone calls in two days from the lawyers, currently in Dar, and they're suggesting a partial solution may be available in the next day or two... Watch this sapce...). And it's true, I've not been able to do the experiments I came out to do - which is pretty annoying really. But I have been doing other things, and I've been quite busy with things I can do from my office too. So, just to reassure you that I do get on with some work, and because it's time a little bit of science was mentioned, I thought I'd let you know what I've been up to in the last week or so...

Firstly, I spent a little time trying to estimate the carbon content of the woodland that the Hadzabe use near Lake Eyasi, to help a friend who is trying to get a carbon payment scheme certified for his company Carbon Tanzania to enable the Hadzabe to enforce their land ownership rights and prevent encroachment on their hunting grounds by neighbouring agriculturalist tribes. I'm hoping we might get some interesting research happening on the side of this project in time, and spent some time late last year putting together a proposal, only to have the goals of the grant changed the week before we needed to submit. Grrr. Still, hope that can be recycled one day - there's interesting economics and ecology to do here I think...

I also looked over a draft paper from a student in Cardiff on the results from his feeding experiments on wheatears on Fair Isle. All very good stuff - feed wheatears during the breeding season and young birds can lay earlier meaning they have a higher chance of getting a second nesting attempt in during the breeding season, which makes a big difference to their overall breeding success. With Springs getting earlier in the UK there should be more natural food available earlier soon too, so I think we can expect a climate driven increase in productivity for these birds, at least in the short term. Will be interesting to see how the food availablity in the summer feeds through to overwinter and migration survival...

I spent quite a lot of time revising a paper that is the main output from our jolly fun trip to Grumeti back in November. This is now taking shape and details 10 lessons than East Africa can learnt from the experience of South African conservation mistakes... For those interested in a preview, these are: (1) Wrong boundaries (why di you protect only some of the migratory routes?); (2) Poor public relations (if your neighbours don't like you, and don't get any benefit from conservation life it going to be tough...); (3) Not having buffer zones of compatible land use; (4) Failing to conserve migratory systems (did you know there used to be migrations on the scale of Serengeti in South Africa? Sad...); (5) Not protecting, and mismanaging entire river catchments (you might end up with dead Crocs...); (6) Inadequate law enforcement (and we thought South African's were tough!); (7) Slow response to invasive plants (did you know that 20% of Kruger is covered in a cactus?); (8) Inappropriate road planning (hear about this? - we're already heading there it seems); (9) Allowing loss of functional heterogeneity (subtle one that - might have to be a blog of it's own one day...); (10) Inadequate linkage between science, policy and action (had to put that in, or lots of us would be out of jobs...).

And I've also been busy thinking about a talk I'm supposed to give at the Royal Society in April. Still not sure how I've ended up in a program among quite so many Profs... That presupposes I'm able to travel, of course, but I'm really hoping so (if I can, we'll all come for two weeks from about 7th April... Again, watch this space...). So I've got to come up with a paper in advance on predicting species distributions. Which is something I should know about, but I still need to think of something to make it interesting both to me and anyone who turns up at the meeting! As I'm the last speaker, I'm wondering if a certain degree of insurrection might be called for, identifying the limits to prediction in ecology...

Which is what I ouht to be doing now. But I hope you see I do manage some things every now and again...