Bird books for community conservation projects

"Birds of the Coastal Lagoons of Oaxaca, Mexico: A Photographic Guide to Waterbirds and Raptors" is a non-technical, informative book designed to engage ecotourism guides and the wider Mexican public with the beautiful birdlife of that region. As an author of this book, I would like your help to distribute 544 free copies among conservation cooperatives that I have worked closely with. These are rural, low-income and community-led initiatives that contribute massively to biodiversity conservation in a megadiverse region. The cooperatives can sell the books at commercial price to tourists for income, or some members may keep and use copies to learn about birds and improve their guiding services. Your donation will only be used to cover the cost of printing and distribution, with £4.90 paying for one book.

More about the cooperatives: Ecotourism provides essential income to community-led conservation projects on the coast of Oaxaca, Mexico. Conservation work carried out by the cooperatives includes protecting marine turtles from egg poachers, assisting River Crocodile populations by protecting the young reptiles while they are vulnerable, reforesting mangroves, and rehabilitating and releasing confiscated contraband parrots and parakeets. In addition, the cooperatives offer direct encounters with nature to countless Mexican and international tourists, thereby raising awareness about the wealth of flora and fauna in region and the many threats it faces. Strange as it may seem to some, Mexico is a land of many birds and relatively few birdwatchers! By offering birdwatching tours and generally drawing attention to the birds, the ecotourism guides help develop a gradually growing culture of appreciation and protection.

More about the book: Paul Germain and I tried to create a format to meet the needs of ecotourism guides in Oaxaca, and we based our approach on the experience we shared with them while working in the field and during bird identification workshops. We aimed to use accessible language, without excessive jargon or specialised terminology. It was also important to complement text with as much visual information as possible, so that even somebody with poor reading ability could learn from it. That's why we included icons showing the birds' size and a diagram illustrating when migratory species are present or absent. It contains 420 photos of 110 bird species. By using photos taken in the same places where the guides work, we hoped to increase their sense of involvement and some of the guides themselves appear in the book. Last but not least, we needed a guide written in the right language! There are some fantastic identification guides for Mexican birds that are in English, but sadly less in Spanish.

More about the costs: I have paid for the printing of the 544 books that I intend to give to conservation cooperatives and have waived any royalties on an equal number of books that my co-author is selling independently. Thus, I am within my rights to donate these books to the cooperatives, with the only condition being that whenever they sell books they do so at the commercial price stipulated by the publisher: £10.80. Paul and I are extremely grateful for funds or support from Servicios Ecoturisticos La Ventanilla, Casa A.C., La Red de Humedales de la Costa de Oaxaca and the Inter-America Foundation, which we received while working on the book. We also contributed considerable time and energy in a voluntary capacity over a number of years. Editing and publishing was done and funded by the Mexican governmental commission for biodiversity use and understanding (CONABIO). Paul and I received no royalties from the sale of books by CONABIO.

View the book on sale here