Mava Foundation

Although some sectors have made significant progress in learning from failure, there is currently limited consensus on how a similar transition could best be achieved in conservation and what is required to facilitate this. One of the key enabling conditions for other sectors is a widely accepted and standardized classification system for identifying and analyzing root causes of failure. We devised a comprehensive taxonomy of root causes of failure affecting conservation projects. To develop this, we solicited examples of real-life conservation efforts that were deemed to have failed in some way, identified their underlying root causes of failure, and used these to develop a generic, 3-tier taxonomy of the ways in which projects fail, at the top of which are 6 overarching cause categories that are further divided into midlevel cause categories and specific root causes. We tested the taxonomy by asking conservation practitioners to use it to classify the causes of failure for conservation efforts they had been involved in. No significant gaps or redundancies were identified during this testing phase. We then analyzed the frequency that particular root causes were encountered by projects within this test sample, which suggested that some root causes were more likely to be encountered than others and that a small number of root causes were more likely to be encountered by projects implementing particular types of conservation action. Our taxonomy could be used to improve identification, analysis, and subsequent learning from failed conservation efforts, address some of the barriers that currently limit the ability of conservation practitioners to learn from failure, and contribute to establishing an effective culture of learning from failure within conservation.

Trans‐Saharan migratory bird species encounter large scale seasonal atmospheric convergence zones, where opposing monsoon and continental air masses meet. These macro‐scale atmospheric conditions determine local weather, influence migratory and foraging behaviour and seasonal bird survival rates. Here, we investigate the flight behaviour of pallid swifts Apus pallidus , a small aerial insectivore, in relation to non‐breeding season atmospheric conditions using state‐of‐the‐art GPS logged data. Our analysis shows two novel diurnal flight patterns which suggest that pallid swift prey on insects concentrated along frontal convergence zones, in particular the continental Inter‐Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) and a coastal sea‐breeze front. Resource use seems not only contingent on the abundance of insects, but also favourable atmospheric conditions. Persistence of swifts in wintering feeding grounds might therefore depend on the prevailing atmospheric conditions and their concentrating effects on insects rather than solely the vegetation state and co‐dependent insect populations. Migration events within, to and from, the non‐breeding season foraging locations might not only be guided by a decline in vegetation as common metric for prey availability, but also by shifting wind directions and their concentrating effects.

Cet article étudie le développement touristique inégal de deux destinations touristiques du Mali: le Pays Dogon, un must du marché touristique ouest-africain, et les Monts Hombori, considérés comme un « paradis sur Terre » en raison de leur exceptionnelle biodiversité. En s’appuyant sur les travaux de Butler (1980), nos travaux suggèrent que ces lieux touristiques se situent à des stades très différents de leur cycle de vie touristique. Au Pays Dogon, l’intérêt constant manifesté par les anthropologues depuis les années 1930 a conduit au classement du site au Patrimoine de l’Humanité. Rien de tel à Hombori, où les amateurs de tourisme de montagne contemporains peuvent être considérés comme les pionniers de cette destination.

BACKGROUND: Shortly after the Centre for International Rehabilitation (CIR) casting system was demonstrated in Thailand, the Prostheses Foundation (PF) started modifying this system. OBJECTIVES: To make the process suitable for the Foundation's main activities, namely clinical service at its main workshop, mobile clinics and satellite workshops. STUDY DESIGN: Clinical trial. METHODS: The development of the PF-modified CIR casting system took nine months, with the final PF-system launched in January 2008. Since then it has been used extensively at the Foundation's main workshop and also during mobile clinics. RESULTS: By September 2009, a total of 1030 trans-tibial and Symes prostheses had been made by this system, and the Foundation had trained more than 200 personnel. Personnel training has been widespread and the PF-system is now being implemented at all satellite workshops around Thailand and at a clinic in Acheh province, Indonesia. CONCLUSIONS: Using the PF-modified CIR system has simplified the Foundation's work. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: The PF-modified CIR casting system is demonstrated as the successful method for making of the prosthetic socket. This provides faster and more practical way than the original CIR system which gain the benefit for the amputees who live in the remote area. The PF-modified system can be implemented to other parties who interest as our satellite workshops began to operate this system in their workshops.

This article discusses the benefits and drawbacks of a limited-life foundation’s philanthropy practice. The strengths, including a sharpened strategic focus and sense of urgency, and the challenges, such as ensuring impact and dealing with grantee dependency, are also relevant when closing a program. Drawing on reflections from the director general of the MAVA Foundation and learnings from foundations that have recently closed, this article also discusses how to prepare for the end date of a limited-life foundation. MAVA, a Swiss-based grantmaking foundation for 25 years, has a planned end date of 2022. The article features key lessons for foundations considering closure, and will examine why some grantmakers should consider a limited-life model instead of operating in perpetuity.

Trans-Saharan migratory bird species encounter large scale seasonal atmospheric convergence zones, where opposing monsoon and continental air masses meet. These macro-scale atmospheric conditions determine local weather, influence migratory and foraging behaviour and seasonal bird survival rates. Here we investigate the flight behaviour of Pallid swifts (<em>Apus pallidus</em>), a small aerial insectivore, in relation to non-breeding season atmospheric conditions using state-of-the-art GPS logged data. Our analysis suggests that pallid swift prey on insects by catching them where they are most densely concentrated within the atmosphere. Residence of birds in West Africa well past the vegetation minimum suggests that the state of the vegetation and associated local insect populations are not necessarily limiting. Migration events within, to and from, the non-breeding season foraging locations might therefore not only be guided by a decline in vegetation as common metric for prey availability, but also by shifting wind directions and their concentrating effects. <strong>Supporting materials</strong> This repository includes all data to reproduce the statistics in the described study, above. Certain omissions were made due to the data volumes involved. The latter mostly pertain to the visualization of the processes involved using transects through the atmosphere. <strong>Data structure</strong> Key data is saved in compressed R serial files (.rds) in the <code>data</code> folder. The <code>position_data.rds</code> file contains bird positions, headings and ancillary data to support most of the analysis in the study. Additional rds files are included which cover spatial analysis in support of the analysis (in the analysis folder). <strong>Code execution</strong> It is best to execute code in the numeric sequence as provided in the filename. Although it should not matter for the statistical analysis. <strong>Licensing</strong> For the data include be mindful of the Open Database License (ODbL) which is a copyleft license. Reuse is permitted on the condition that any database (including aggregated working data for analysis) in which our database is used remains open as well. The authors will enforce this policy. All other material such as figures and draft manuscripts are distributed under a CC-BY-SA-4.0 license. <strong>Referencing</strong> When referencing the data cite both the data repository as: Kearsley, L. et al. 2022. Data from: The aeroecology of atmospheric convergence zones: the case of pallid swifts. – Zenodo Repository, &lt;https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6320888&gt;) and the original paper (Kearsley et al. 2022, doi.org/10.1111/oik.08594).

Trans-Saharan migratory bird species encounter large scale seasonal atmospheric convergence zones, where opposing monsoon and continental air masses meet. These macro-scale atmospheric conditions determine local weather, influence migratory and foraging behaviour and seasonal bird survival rates. Here we investigate the flight behaviour of Pallid swifts (<em>Apus pallidus</em>), a small aerial insectivore, in relation to non-breeding season atmospheric conditions using state-of-the-art GPS logged data. Our analysis suggests that pallid swift prey on insects by catching them where they are most densely concentrated within the atmosphere. Residence of birds in West Africa well past the vegetation minimum suggests that the state of the vegetation and associated local insect populations are not necessarily limiting. Migration events within, to and from, the non-breeding season foraging locations might therefore not only be guided by a decline in vegetation as common metric for prey availability, but also by shifting wind directions and their concentrating effects. <strong>Supporting materials</strong> This repository includes all data to reproduce the statistics in the described study, above. Certain omissions were made due to the data volumes involved. The latter mostly pertain to the visualization of the processes involved using transects through the atmosphere. <strong>Data structure</strong> Key data is saved in compressed R serial files (.rds) in the <code>data</code> folder. The <code>position_data.rds</code> file contains bird positions, headings and ancillary data to support most of the analysis in the study. Additional rds files are included which cover spatial analysis in support of the analysis (in the analysis folder). <strong>Code execution</strong> It is best to execute code in the numeric sequence as provided in the filename. Although it should not matter for the statistical analysis. <strong>Licensing</strong> For the data include be mindful of the Open Database License (ODbL) which is a copyleft license. Reuse is permitted on the condition that any database (including aggregated working data for analysis) in which our database is used remains open as well. The authors will enforce this policy. All other material such as figures and draft manuscripts are distributed under a CC-BY-SA-4.0 license. <strong>Referencing</strong> When referencing the data cite both the data repository as: Kearsley, L. et al. 2022. Data from: The aeroecology of atmospheric convergence zones: the case of pallid swifts. – Zenodo Repository, &lt;https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6320888&gt;) and the original paper (Kearsley et al. 2022, doi.org/10.1111/oik.08594).

<strong>Non-breeding Pallid swifts favour the aeroecology of atmospheric convergence zones</strong> Trans-Saharan migratory bird species encounter large scale seasonal atmospheric convergence zones, where opposing monsoon and continental air masses meet. These macro-scale atmospheric conditions determine local weather, influence migratory and foraging behaviour and seasonal bird survival rates. Here we investigate the flight behaviour of Pallid swifts (<em>Apus pallidus</em>), a small aerial insectivore, in relation to non-breeding season atmospheric conditions using state-of-the-art GPS logged data. Our analysis suggests that pallid swift prey on insects by catching them where they are most densely concentrated within the atmosphere. Residence of birds in West Africa well past the vegetation minimum suggests that the state of the vegetation and associated local insect populations are not necessarily limiting. Migration events within, to and from, the non-breeding season foraging locations might therefore not only be guided by a decline in vegetation as common metric for prey availability, but also by shifting wind directions and their concentrating effects. <strong>Supporting materials</strong> This repository includes all data to reproduce the statistics in the described study, above. Certain omissions were made due to the data volumes involved. The latter mostly pertain to the visualization of the processes involved using transects through the atmosphere. <strong>Data structure</strong> Key data is saved in compressed R serial files (.rds) in the <code>data</code> folder. The <code>position_data.rds</code> file contains bird positions, headings and ancillary data to support most of the analysis in the study. Additional rds files are included which cover spatial analysis (ITF_location.rds, *_shear_index.rds, shear_index_fields.rds), as well as atmospheric analysis (temperature_profiles.rds). Data in the <code>data</code> folder are generated using raw data from the <code>data-raw</code> folder, and its included scripts. <strong>Code execution</strong> It is best to execute code in the numeric sequence as provided in the filename. Although it should not matter for the statistical analysis. <strong>Licensing</strong> Be mindful of the Open Database License (ODbL) which is a copyleft license. Reuse is permitted on the condition that any database in which this database is used remains open as well. The authors will enforce this policy.

<strong>Non-breeding Pallid swifts favour the aeroecology of atmospheric convergence zones</strong> Trans-Saharan migratory bird species encounter large scale seasonal atmospheric convergence zones, where opposing monsoon and continental air masses meet. These macro-scale atmospheric conditions determine local weather, influence migratory and foraging behaviour and seasonal bird survival rates. Here we investigate the flight behaviour of Pallid swifts (<em>Apus pallidus</em>), a small aerial insectivore, in relation to non-breeding season atmospheric conditions using state-of-the-art GPS logged data. Our analysis suggests that pallid swift prey on insects by catching them where they are most densely concentrated within the atmosphere. Residence of birds in West Africa well past the vegetation minimum suggests that the state of the vegetation and associated local insect populations are not necessarily limiting. Migration events within, to and from, the non-breeding season foraging locations might therefore not only be guided by a decline in vegetation as common metric for prey availability, but also by shifting wind directions and their concentrating effects. <strong>Supporting materials</strong> This repository includes all data to reproduce the statistics in the described study, above. Certain omissions were made due to the data volumes involved. The latter mostly pertain to the visualization of the processes involved using transects through the atmosphere. <strong>Data structure</strong> Key data is saved in compressed R serial files (.rds) in the <code>data</code> folder. The <code>position_data.rds</code> file contains bird positions, headings and ancillary data to support most of the analysis in the study. Additional rds files are included which cover spatial analysis (ITF_location.rds, *_shear_index.rds, shear_index_fields.rds), as well as atmospheric analysis (temperature_profiles.rds). Data in the <code>data</code> folder are generated using raw data from the <code>data-raw</code> folder, and its included scripts. <strong>Code execution</strong> It is best to execute code in the numeric sequence as provided in the filename. Although it should not matter for the statistical analysis. <strong>Licensing</strong> Be mindful of the Open Database License (ODbL) which is a copyleft license. Figures and the submitted manuscript are covered by a CC-BY license.