1991 - 2006. EUROBATS celebrates its 15th anniversary

6
EUROBATS Publication Series No 1 Countries
The success of EUROBATS –
a comment from an NGO’s view
by Christine Harbusch
Since the first Meeting of Parties
(MoP) in Bristol in 199 , NABU is
regularly present as an observer
at the MoP and Advisory Committee (AC)
meetings, thus being one of the few NGOs
participating and contributing to the scientific
discussions for a long time. This steady
exchange of infor-mation appears to be valuable
for implementing the different aims
of the Bat Agreement as adopted by the
four MoPs held until now. On a national level,
the NABU federal bat group is involved
in adopting guidelines and resolutions, and
cooperating with the Federal Agency for
Nature Protection (BfN) in implementing
these guidelines which hold importance for
the voluntary bat workers, or the general
public.
As an example, the Resolution regarding
bat-ringing guidelines (Res. 4.6.) was widely
discussed among the German bat workers
and finally led to the approving of national
guidelines on ringing and the issuing
of permits.
The monitoring programme for Myotis
myotis is another example of collaboration
between the governmental agencies
and several German NGOs. Following the
resolution 2. , populations of the greater
mouse-eared bat shall be monitored on a
national level. In Germany, such a monito-
ring programme has been initiated in 2002
and has been working since 2003. Around
7 0 maternity roosts are monitored by vo-
luntary bat workers in Germany, counting
up to 216.600 mouse-eared bats. After this
test-phase NABU will take over the coordination
of the monitoring programme.
The implementation of resolutions forms a
major part of our work for EUROBATS, but
the input of scientific knowledge, data and
experience from our members to different
guidelines is also vital.
Improving Public Relations
PR relations work has profited greatly from
the international European Bat Night event.
Held annually in over 300 localities within
Germany, local bat groups conduct the Bat
Night, and can thus reach several thousands
of people. The positive image of bats has
greatly improved due to these events and
private house owners have become more
and more aware of their responsibility towards
their “secret lodgers”.
The increase in the knowledge, care and
degree of sensitive contact with bats has led
to an increased demand of experienced bat
workers giving advice for different problems
related to bats. Although this advice should
be given by governmental Agencies, a heavy
workload coupled with a lack of specific
knowledge has led to this duty being widely
taken over by voluntary bat workers. The
following passage details a remarkable example
of the success of voluntary bat care
in collaboration with regional governmental
support in Land Baden-Württemberg: