Mexican Yuliana Bedolla wins the prestigious Whitley Award for protecting Pacific birds

Mexican ornithologist Yuliana Bedolla holds an ashen storm petrel.WFN

EL PAÍS offers the América Futura section open for its daily and global informative contribution on sustainable development.

If you want to support our journalism, subscribe

“I would never have imagined that they would give me an award for doing what I like the most,” admits Yuliana Bedolla (Guanajuato, 38 years old), who received the Whitley 2023 award on Wednesday, one of the most important in the field of conservation.

With her, only four Mexicans have received this recognition from the Whitley Fund for Nature (WFN), the prestigious British organization that this year has decided to honor the biologist's work: more than a decade dedicated to protecting seabird colonies from mammals. invaders on the Pacific islands.

This corridor of island lands off the Baja California peninsula is home to one fifth of the total species of seabirds that exist on the planet.

“Of the 386 registered worldwide, Mexico concentrates a third of them.

We are the third country in diversity and the second in number of endemic species: those that reproduce exclusively here," Bedolla, head of the Island Ecology and Conservation Group, said in an interview with América Futura, the team that has managed to make a group of islands of the Gulf of California be proclaimed an ornithological sanctuary.

The conservation work led by the biologist has made it possible for the chirping of the endangered black storm petrel, and that of many other birds, to resonate as echoes of the North Pacific landscapes, where the song of many unique coastal species stopped listening.

Yuliana Bedolla offers a speech during the last delivery of the Whitley Awards.GABRIEL BUSH (WFN)

“The introduction of exotic fauna was killing them.

In the year 2000, they had eliminated 27 populations", explains the leader of a pioneering program that in less than a decade managed to restore up to 21 of those colonies and save them from the most ruthless mammalian predation: "Cats can have a very voracious hunting instinct.

They not only attack the eggs and chicks, but also kill the adults.

Mice and rabbits were also doing a lot of damage to bird populations."

In addition to creating protected areas and eradicating fauna introduced to the islands by humans, the team of biologists and oceanologists carried out the active restoration of colonies through attraction techniques so that the birds return to their original habitat, as well as monitoring long-term.

Many of these species are endemic to Mexico and breed on just a few atolls, such as the Black Shearwater, classified as Near Threatened by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

"While 90% of the world's breeding population is on Natividad Island, the San Benito archipelago is the most important colony of the black storm petrel," says the scientist.

Today, these two islands are among eight in the Pacific free of invasive mammals, accidentally introduced by the island's fishing communities some 80 years ago.

Mexican ornithologist Yuliana Bedolla rescues a black storm petrel trapped in a net.WFN

“Although we have already eliminated that threat, there is always the risk of reintroduction of foreign animals that affect the colonies again.

On these islands there is a large flow of boats with equipment and materials that travel between the mainland and the islands, putting the birds at risk,” Bedela clarifies.

With the funds obtained from the prestigious award that she, along with five other environmentalists, has just received, about 900,000 pesos [about 50,000 dollars] for each of the winners, the Mexican company will strengthen measures to maintain the successful balance of seabird populations achieved after of more than a decade of efforts.

And it will do so hand in hand with the islanders themselves, community leaders who will be in charge of providing support in the early detection of invasive mammals on the island of Natividad and San Benito, as well as the prevention of reintroduction of rodents in landing places. .

"The fishing cooperatives that live on the islands, dedicated to lobster and abalone, were very supportive of the project from the beginning," says the environmentalist, who, in addition to implementing biosafety protocols, will provide additional training to the women of these communities.

“When we made a call about the problem, they were the first to want to participate in the project.

From the beginning they welcomed us with open arms and we built a very nice relationship”, says the biologist, for whom their role is essential in monitoring birds and promoting environmental education.

Yuliana Bedolla (center) and the rest of the winners.WFN

“If we want conservation to succeed, local communities must be empowered as stewards of their land and resources,” says the Whitley winner, still reeling from the event that took place two days ago at the historic Royal Geographical building in London. Society.

“The most magical moment of the whole ceremony was when Princess Anne of the United Kingdom presented me with the award,” she confesses.

The Mexican returns proudly with this award to her country, already honored throughout the world for dedicating her life to a passion: to make the Pacific Islands an Eden for seabirds once again.