Indicate which actions have been carried out to implement this Resolution :
Convene stakeholders/Networking
Education/Communication/Raising awareness
Policy influencing/advocacy
Scientific/technical activities
Describe the results/achievements of the actions taken:
1) Convene stakeholders/Networking: The second workshop in the joint initiative “The people, bats and fruit industry of Mauritius: a process towards a common solution” was held 9-10 May 2018 in Mauritius. The "Mauritius Fruit Bat Research Strategy Workshop" was prepared and planned jointly by the National Parks and Conservation Services (Mauritius), the IUCN SSC Human- Wildlife Conflict Task Force, the IUCN SSC Bat Specialist Group, the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation (MWF) and Chester Zoo. The aim was to provide an interactive platform to share knowledge and to propose new research avenues that would harmonise the issue of human-bat conflict. The outcomes of the workshop was aimed to form the basis of a National Research Strategy.
2) Education/Communication/Raising awareness: A number of publications were produced to address the issue of mass-culling of fruit bats.
3) Policy influencing/advocacy: An injunction has been entered in court by Fabiola Monty (Dis-Moi Ocean Indien) in November 2018 to try to put an end to the third cull (November and December 2018), on animal welfare grounds. Whilst an end to that cull did not occur due to the injunction, the case is still being heard in early 2019.
IUCN Secretariat sent a letter on 25 October 2018 expressing concern about the proposed thrid cull by the Government Of Mauritius.
In response to the cull of 2018, the IUCN issued a position statement on the culling (released 10 December 2018). The statement appealed to the Mauritian Government to halt culling of the Mauritian Fruit Bat and make a strong commitment to search for effective non-lethal strategies to the conflict with fruit growers by adopting recommendations arising from "The people, bats and fruit industry of Mauritius" initiative (position statement link provided below)
4) Scientific/technical activities: Carried out a re-assessment of the Red List Status of the species of P. niger on Mauritius due to the government culls (late 2015, late 2016). The re-assessment update was published in July 2018. The species was raised from VU to EN.
What challenges/obstacles have been encountered in the implementation of this Resolution and how were they overcome :
Although the IUCN SSC Bat SG has worked with Partners to carry out many activities to protect wild bats from culling programmes oin Mauritius,however, the political motivation behind the culls in Mauritius and the polarized and entrenched perspectives of the general public towards the species. IUCN SSC Bat SG has been using a multi-faceted strategy centered on conflict-resolution, ecological and economic research, and damage mitigation, but are yet to overcome the challenges.
More work is still needed to tackle this challenges.
Briefly describe what future actions are needed for the implementation of this Resolution:
1) Policy influencing/advocacy: The third event of the “The people, bats and fruit industry of Mauritius: a process towards a common solution” is planned for 2019. which aims to bring together stakeholders together with representatives from the general public, tourism sector, the media, and others who are affected by, and influence, the discourse and decision-making around Mauritius Fruit Bats.
2) Scientific/technical activities: To be based on the third cull implemented late 2018, with a target of 20% of the population (about 12K bats), it is likely that a Red List Re-assessment might be needed.
Are these actions planned for yet:
