Our latest annual review is available for your reading pleasure! We hope you will enjoy an overview of the many places, species and people impacted by A Rocha’s work around the world between April 2022 and March 2023. And thank you for all you do to make this possible.
A Place at the Table by Miranda Harris and Jo Swinney has been honoured with a gold Nautilus award in the category of Religious/Spiritual Memoir. The Nautilus Book Awards were founded over 20 years ago and celebrate literary contributions in spiritual growth, social change, green values and sustainability. Previous winners include the Dalai Lama, Barbara Kingsolver, Desmond Tutu and David Suzuki, among others. T A Barron of Philomel/Penguin Young Readers Group says,
‘The Nautilus Book Awards represent the highest achievement of the writer’s craft. Nothing less. It’s all about envisioning a better, more peaceful, more caring world – both for us and for our fellow creatures and the Earth.’
As many of you already know, A Place at the Table is an exploration of hospitality and biblical insights, drawing on Jo and Miranda’s experience of community in the A Rocha family. This book is a warm invitation to be embraced by the loving kindness of others. We are thrilled that the folk at Nautilus acknowledge the importance of the message – and that the book has also just been shortlisted as CRT23’s Best biography/memoir (winners to be announced on 7 September)! To find out the story of how and why the book was written, you can watch this short film.
You may not know that A Place at the Table is now available in Europe in paperback, and in North America and elsewhere in the world from 5 December. All proceeds made through purchases on the A Rocha website go to support our work caring for God’s creation around the world.
While celebrating 40 years of conservation work, we have another major milestone to share this year: around the world, A Rocha has ringed over 250,000 birds!
When A Rocha was founded, bird studies were the first way that we began to understand the Algarve in Portugal. In their vulnerable position at the top of an ecosystem, birds are good indicators of an environment’s health, and are captivating to experts and novices alike. The bird ringing programme at Cruzinha began in 1987, and we now have programmes in the Czech Republic, Kenya and France, as well as ringing in Canada, the UK, Lebanon and South Africa over the years.
Ringing allows scientists to track bird migration, and after 40 years we have collected a wealth of information. Ringing involves putting a small ring (or band) on an individual bird’s leg. The ring will be numbered and will typically have the address of the ringing scheme, so that if that bird is found, its whereabouts can be reported. In Kenya and France the A Rocha science teams have also begun equipping Grey Plovers Pluvialis squatarola and European Rollers Coracias garrulus (respectively) with tiny satellite transmitters, which allows them to track the birds’ migration in real time. A Rocha France tracked a European Roller that traveled the 2,500 km between France and Libya in just 36 hours: a record for the longest non-stop flight for the species!
Most of what we know about bird migration is thanks to ringing, which not only tells us where birds go but also when they depart and arrive, where they stop on their migration, how long they live and their fidelity to stop-over sites. Colin Jackson remembers catching the same Chiffchaff in the same net in an orange grove in Portugal two to three years in a row!
With a bird in the hand, you gain much more information than you could learn by observing them from afar. To catch the birds, teams usually set up nearly invisible mist nets in the early hours of the morning. Flying birds get caught in the net, then are carefully extracted and taken to the ringing station. After identifying the bird and fastening the ring, the ringer determines the bird’s age and records the moult. This can show the impacts of climate change, which causes birds to moult at unusual times. Finally, they will measure and weigh the bird, which gives them a sense of the health of a population: if the average mass is reducing, for instance, they may conclude that conditions are poor for feeding. If a bird due for migration has a good amount of fat set aside, we can conclude it is almost ready to leave. Gaining the certification to become a bird ringer is a rigorous process that can take years, ensuring that the welfare of the birds always comes first.
By uniquely marking birds, we can tell how many of them there actually are in an area, and with the mist nets, we can catch birds that we didn’t even know were present. Ultimately, we gain a stronger understanding of the welfare of the species, of how humans have impacted birds and how we can better protect them. As well as its scientific importance, bird ringing can also be valuable in environmental education. With careful supervision so that the birds do not become stressed, it enables people to experience the beauty, fragility and importance of birds and, through that, to be inspired themselves to care for birds and the ecosystems they depend on.
To watch bird ringing in action and learn about its history and impact, check out this video from A Rocha Kenya.
Coline Raillon is nearing the end of an epic walk traversing three European countries (Germany, Switzerland, and France) and some 1,300 km (about 807 mi) as an ambassador raising funds for A Rocha’s 40th Anniversary Campaign. Coline set out with no cash or credit card, 100% reliant on the ask for hospitality in the form of food and accommodation, aiming to donate the money saved to A Rocha. Along the way she has met over a dozen pastors and shared A Rocha’s message of caring for creation (often hosting butterfly walks!) with newfound friends at churches, schools, camps and kitchen tables. Coline started her journey in Heidelberg, Germany at the end of July and has traveled by foot following parts of the Huguenot Way – a hiking trail highlighting the historical exile of the Huguenots (a religious group of French Protestants from the 17th century), along with adventurous detours both planned and unplanned.
Coline has had to reconcile her hopes and expectations for the journey with challenges and realities, from blisters and exhaustion to difficulties connecting with people amidst their busy everyday lives. ‘It’s made me think about the number of opportunities I missed while I was myself very occupied,’ Coline realized.
On the first leg of the walk, Coline took a two week break to help at a Scout camp. Relating to the kids gave time for reflection: ‘As I journey in my understanding of the world and of who God is, I have the intuition that it is essential to create connections and that we need to recreate a culture of hospitality and community. It’s why I support A Rocha, because community is at the heart of the organization.’
Coline describes her walk as ‘a journey of trust’, with lessons and learnings each day. She has been amazed by the hospitality people have shown her – like asking for a toilet at a school leading to an invitation to introduce kids to butterflies in a garden and an offer of two nights’ accommodation. ‘Since the beginning, I have always found someone to open their home to me. Not just as a shelter, but a real invitation, sharing dinner, spending time in discussion and having breakfast together,’ Coline recalls. So far, Coline has slept in 42 different places, 80% of which were people she didn’t know before the walk.
As Coline approaches the final leg of her walk for A Rocha, she is tired but encouraged. She continues to meet churches and communities, and says, ‘It feels like the Spirit is blowing the same way in different places, putting community and hospitality in the heart of lots of people, preparing the Church for the difficult times we are going towards.’ Coline is expecting to reach Saint-Jean-du-Gard, the starting point of the Huguenot Way, at the end of September to conclude her journey.
You can read more about Coline’s reflections and follow her #WalkforARocha on social media. To support Coline’s fundraising efforts, you can donate here. Please click ‘dedicate this donation’ and type in ‘Coline‘ to direct your gift. Thank you for your prayers and support for Coline! Learn more about starting your own fundraising effort for A Rocha here, or get in touch to explore how we can help with your creative idea.
