Organisation: The Ornithological Society of the Middle East (OSME) http://www.osme.org

Who are we? The Ornithological Society of the Middle East (OSME) grew out of the Ornithological Society of Turkey, a UK-based organisation which expanded its boundaries to include the other countries in the Middle East and Arabia, and from 2001 again expanded to include the countries to the north and east of its region (encompassing Afghanistan, Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan). The Society is a charity, run entirely by volunteers who have an interest in the birdlife of the region and who are committed to promote its aims.

Aims of the Club: To collect, collate and publish ornithological data on birds of the Middle East, the Caucasus and central Asia. To encourage an interest in and conservation of birds of the Middle East, the Caucasus and central Asia. To assist environmental and conservation organisations and natural history societies in and concerned with ornithological studies and activities in the Middle East, the Caucasus and central Asia.

Membership: Although UK-based, OSME has encouraged a membership from around the world. Its Council has representatives from the region and its present membership of nearly 800 is drawn from more than 40 countries.

Publications: The Society collects, collates and publishes ornithological information from the region in its journal, Sandgrouse, which appears twice a year. A regular section of bird news reports interesting sightings from birdwatchers, while longer papers may cover distribution, behaviour, identification and ecological or conservation issues

Conservation: As well as encouraging an interest in bird conservation in the region, OSME directly supports conservation and education work via its Conservation Fund which gives funding to a wide range of projects to support bird conservation and education. These projects vary from bird surveys in the region to publishing a field guide in Arabic.

Website: The Society’s website, at www.osme.org, contains a wealth of information including summaries of Sandgrouse, trip reports covering most countries in the region, and information about conservation projects.

Additional Info:To enable members and anyone else interested in the region to communicate and to discuss Middle Eastern birds, OSME set up the Middle East Bird Net
newsgroup in 1998 and it now has nearly 400 members. To find out more about MEBirdNet go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MEBirdNet

Submitted by Keith Betton

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