Many members of the Northern Region Bird Club Forum’s 11 clubs were aboard the Flock to Marion AGAIN! 2025 voyage
The Northern Region Bird Club Forum consist of the Chairs of 11 bird clubs affiliated to BirdLife South Africa that are based within the provinces of Gauteng, Limpopo, Mpumalanga and North West. The Saving Marion Island’s Seabirds: The Mouse-Free Marion (MFM) Project got in touch with the Chair of the Forum, Dennis Townsend, to learn more about it and its welcome sponsorship of 20 hectares.
In his reply, Dennis writes that the Forum was aware of the MFM Project from lectures, articles in BirdLife South Africa’s magazine African Birdlife and from the participation of members of its bird clubs in the 2022 and 2025 Flock to Marion Island voyages and so felt it should make a contribution towards ridding the island of its albatross-killing mice. He explains that BirdLife South Africa makes an annual contribution to the Forum to use for important bird research, awareness and conservation-related issues, and additional funds are also raised, which allowed it to make its sponsorship.
Dennis (who is also Chair of the Cuckoo Bird Club in Gauteng, a Forum member) ends by saying “We as the Northern Region Bird Club Forum wholeheartedly support the immensely important MFM Project as a vital initiative driving meaningful change. Its commitment to innovation, collaboration, and positive impact resonates deeply with our values, and we are proud to stand behind its mission to create lasting benefits for communities and future generations.” Heartening words indeed!
South Africa’s nine provinces, showing the four inland in the north of the country that the Northern Region Bird Club Forum covers
According to Shireen Gould, BirdLife South Africa’s Membership Manager, the bird clubs that currently make up the Forum are BirdLife Inkwazi, BirdLife Lowveld, BirdLife Northern Gauteng, BirdLife Polokwane, BirdLife Sandton, BirdLife Wesvaal, Cuckoo Bird Club, Rand Barbet Bird Club, Vaal Bird Club, Waterfall Bird Club and the Witwatersrand Bird Club. No less than 10 of these 11 clubs have made their own hectare sponsorships, totalling 137 ha to date, to which the Forum’s 20 ha can now be added. The combined support coming from South Africa’s northern provinces is both noteworthy and welcome, given that the 11 regional clubs are all situated well inland, where oceanic birds are not seen.
To date 30 South African bird clubs, all but one affiliated to BirdLife South Africa, have sponsored a total of 408 ha to help “rewild” Marion Island. Renewed thanks to them all!
John Cooper, News Correspondent, Mouse-Free Marion Project, 08 April 2026
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Defenceless! A Wandering Albatross chick gets attacked by two House Mice on Marion Island, artwork by Namasri ‘Namo’ Niumim
The Mouse-Free Marion Project is a registered non-profit company (No. 2020/922433/08) in South Africa, established to eradicate the invasive albatross-killing mice on Marion Island in the Southern Ocean. The project was initiated by BirdLife South Africa and the South African Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment. Upon successful completion, the project will restore the critical breeding habitat of over two million seabirds, many globally threatened, and improve the island’s resilience to a warming climate. For more information or to support the project please visit mousefreemarion.org.
