News & Events 12 January 2011
CONSERVATIONIST Anna Giordano is known internationally as the bird lover who once took on Sicilian hunters to save birds of prey.
Her achievements won her international acclaim, including being named a ``Hero of the Planet'' by Time magazine and being awarded a leading environmental award, the Goldman Prize.
Dr Giordano will be visiting Tasmania visiting conservation and environmental groups sharing the benefit of her experience during a six-week residency sponsored by the Alcorso Foundation in partnership with Birds Tasmania.
The 46-year-old Dr Giordano tells of her love of birds developing at an early age when she would go to the marketplace in her Sicilian hometown of Messina to buy finches, falcons and owls that had been caught in traps. Her biggest thrill was not seeing them in cages, but setting them free and watching them fly to freedom.
She had already joined the Italian League for the Protection of Birds and at the age of only 15 discovered her calling. That was to protect birds and their place in the world, particularly the migrating species travelling between the African continent and southern Europe which used Sicily as a transit route and stop-over point.
In 1981, after seeing 17 legally-protected birds killed by marksmen shooting from cement bunkers, she committed herself to the fight against poachers. But challenging men in the Sicilian male-dominated society, where there was a long tradition of hunting migrating raptors, created open hostility toward Giordano. In the macho culture of Sicily and Calabria, just across the straits linking the Italian mainland, there was a long tradition of hunting migrating raptors. Local superstition held that any man who did not kill at least one honey buzzard each year would be cuckolded.
When she began badgering police, forest rangers and local authorities to do something about the illegal killing, she was ignored. She persisted, however and in 1984 began organising camps of young people from all over the world who would gather each spring to observe the migrations and inform police when they saw poachers at work.
The hunters, many of them with links to the local Mafia, retaliated with threats and intimidation. In 1986 she narrowly escaped the firebombing of her car, and later poachers broke into her house and then mailed her a dead falcon with a threatening note. After this and another incident where she and a group of young people monitoring the migration were shot at, local law enforcement officers began to aid Dr Giordano in her efforts to stop rampant poaching.
Dr Giordano declares proudly that during the first camp her team counted about 3100 raptors and storks, and 1100 shots. By 2000 nearly 35,000 raptors and storks were counted, and only five shots.
Dr Giordano's activism now embraces not only birds but the wider environment. She is head of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in Sicily and leader of civil groups requesting the reform of urban planning and approval processes in Messina which are damaging to the environment. She still remains the subject of menaces and retaliations by criminal groups associated with the local mafia.
Spokesperson for the Alcorso Foundation, Simon Boughey, said the aim of the residency was for Dr Giordano and Tasmanian environmentalists ``to exchange knowledge, skills and campaigning expertise and to gain from each other's experiences''.
``We also hope that relationships will continue into the future and lead to further collaborative initiatives.''
Chairman of Birds Tasmania, Dr Eric Woehler, described Dr Giordano's visit as a ``once in a lifetime opportunity''.
``Her extensive efforts over many decades have seen changes in community attitudes, a massive decrease in hunting pressures on migratory birds, and a number of outcomes where business and the environment could co-exist into the future.
"There is no doubt that Anna's visit will bring a wealth of knowledge and experience that will enhance our conservation efforts here in Tasmania."
Environmental groups have been invited to put forward proposals for conservation projects and activities with which Dr Giordano may participate in during her time in Tasmania.
The Alcorso Foundation is a not-for-profit association working in the arts, environment and social justice areas for the Tasmanian community. Its operations rely purely on fundraising, grants and donations. The Foundation is governed by a volunteer Board and employs one part time staff member.
For more information please contact:
Denise Robinson, Alcorso Foundation, 0447 125 541