The new edition of
BirdLife South Africa’s journal, Ostrich, is a memorial to Steven Piper. Most
of us remember Steven as a man who wore one hat, a “Tam o' Shanter”, and who wore
it most of the time. But in reality he was a man who wore many hats, and he had
many interests.
One of the things he was most
passionate about was bird ringing. Steve believed in bird ringing because it
was (and remains) the most practical way of finding out several critical pieces
of information about birds. Effective conservation of a species is dependent on
a knowledge of survival rates, movement patterns, age of first breeding and how
these are changing. Bird ringing is the most effective method of discovering
these aspects of the population dynamics of birds. Steve used bird ringing to
find this information about his favourite bird species, the wagtails and the
vultures.
For many years Steven was
chair of the Steering Committee of SAFRING, the body which is at the helm of
bird ringing in southern Africa. He successfully motivated the establishment of
the SAFRING Trust, a ring-fenced trust fund within the BirdLife South Africa Trust. The objective of the Trust is to support SAFRING, especially to enable
it to provide ringing services at affordable prices. The Trust has grown
steadily, and the interest is used to make a small but growing contribution to SAFRING.
In honour of Steven’s huge contribution to ornithology, the SAFRING Trust has
been selected by his family, friends and colleagues, out of a variety of
possible memorials, to become the Steven
Piper SAFRING Trust. The SAFRING Steering Committee would like to invite
individuals, institutions and organisations to make a contribution to the Trust
in memory of Steven’s impact on ornithology.
The bank details of the Steven Piper SAFRING Trust are: Account # 1380 075 602
at the Westville Branch (branch code 138026) of Nedbank,
SWIFT code NEDSZAJJ
The new edition of
BirdLife South Africa’s journal, Ostrich, is a memorial to Steven Piper. Most
of us remember Steven as a man who wore one hat, a “Tam o' Shanter”, and who wore
it most of the time. But in reality he was a man who wore many hats, and he had
many interests.
ich is at the helm of
bird ringing in southern Africa. He successfully motivated the establishment of
the SAFRING Trust, a ring-fenced trust fund within the BirdLife South Africa Trust. The objective of the Trust is to support SAFRING, especially to enable
it to provide ringing services at affordable prices. The Trust has grown
steadily, and the interest is used to make a small but growing contribution to SAFRING.
In honour of Steven’s huge contribution to ornithology, the SAFRING Trust has
been selected by his family, friends and colleagues, out of a variety of
possible memorials, to become the Steven
Piper SAFRING Trust. The SAFRING Steering Committee would like to invite
individuals, institutions and organisations to make a contribution to the Trust
in memory of Steven’s impact on ornithology.
