BRC Autumn Count 2020 Cancelled

Dear BRC-enthusiasts,

It is with a heavy heart that we have to inform you that we are cancelling the BRC autumn count for 2020 due to the ongoing covid19 pandemic. While some of you may have been expecting this announcement, we realize that many of you were probably still hoping for the project to be able to take place this year. However, after careful deliberation within the BRC team, with various funders, and with our beloved hosts in Georgia, we believe this drastic decision, no matter how sad or disappointing, is the only responsible action we can take at this stage of the pandemic. The BRC prides itself in taking an evidence-based approach in all aspects of our work, and currently all the available evidence suggests that running an autumn count would involve unacceptable risks for our volunteers, as well as our host families and communities in Georgia.

Clearly this is one of the hardest decisions we have ever had to make in the history of the BRC project, and we did not take it lightly. Besides losing a year in our long-term monitoring effort, we will also have to cancel some long-awaited education and conservation projects for which we obtained funding this year. However, losing one year of data in our time series is a sacrifice worth making to ensure the safety of our participants and hosts. Moreover, our decision to cancel autumn activities is fully supported by our host families, project partners and funders of our new education and conservation projects, including the BBCT, the OSME Conservation Fund, the BirdLife Netherlands IJsvogelfonds, and the WWF Netherlands Innofonds. We are grateful for the solidarity shown by all stake-holders.

We want to emphasize that the decision to cancel the count is final, even if international travel will be permitted to a limited extent from early summer onwards. Besides our concerns regarding safety, it is simply not possible to adequately prepare an international count team at the moment. We have considered running the autumn count with a smaller team. However, even with such a team it would be difficult to maintain adequate social distancing in our project, to guarantee our participants do not import the coronavirus to our host communities, or to guarantee that our volunteers would not get stuck in Georgia if another outbreak occurs in autumn. Proceeding with the count under the current conditions would also bring a serious financial risk for our small volunteer-based NGO in case the count needs to be stopped halfway. These are risks we are simply not willing to take.

Despite this being a very hard decision, we feel strengthened by our belief that you, our members and followers, will understand and continue to support us through these hard times. After all, Batumi will continue to be an amazing destination for birding and ecotourism. And most importantly, we are optimistic that by swallowing this bitter pill now we will help to heal the world as fast as possible, and to ensure that we can resume our work in 2021. When that happens, we'll make sure to make it an unforgettable year, including an awesome spring and autumn count, as well as exciting new education and conservation projects.

For now we hope you will continue to enjoy our regular updates on the ongoing spring count in Georgia. We thank you all for your understanding and support, and wish you and your loved ones all the best in the coming months.

Gaumarjos,

The BRC Team