Memories of Martin Hellicar
August 21, 2024 | alena.klvanova
Martin Abbas Hellicar, a highly respected and beloved advocate for the environment and one of BirdLife International’s most committed conservation leaders as the Director of BirdLife Cyprus, tragically passed away on June 15, 2024.
Today, we bring three memories of this unforgettable man and friend from his colleagues.
Martin Hellicar represented Cyprus in EBCC activities. Although his colleagues dealt with individual projects (e.g., PECBMS or EBBA2), he was always a stable and reliable contact point for any aspect of bird monitoring in Cyprus.
Martin participated in several workshops we organised within the PECBMS project. He was always not only listening but also contributing with focused and relevant questions, particularly on the details of the methods. He perfectly understood the need for unbiased sampling. We also had an opportunity to discuss the methods when visiting Cyprus. I could see Martin’s broad focus from monitoring to illegal bird trapping there. He invested a lot of his energy to solve the latter, which seemed to be a hopeless job from a distance. But Martin was convinced that fighting bird trapping was the right thing to do, and it simply had to be done.
When I visited Cyprus years ago to discuss how to set up a common bird monitoring (breeding bird survey) in Cyprus, I was also supposed to give a lecture at the university. However, the lecture was cancelled at the last minute when I was already in Cyprus. Then Martin asked me what I would like to do with one day free. He immediately, without waiting for my reply, offered I could go birdwatching in the Cyprus countryside. The problem of not having a car was quickly solved; Martin lent me a car and recommended places worth visiting. Thanks to him, I had an unexpected opportunity to explore Cyprus on my own, which I always appreciate.
In 2023, the EBCC supported the project ‘Breeding bird monitoring ‘across the divide’ in Cyprus to cover the ‘northern’ part of the island and complete island-wide coverage‘ under Martin’s leadership. It’s a shame that the project focused on deeper cooperation between the north and south of Cyprus will not be finished with Martin.
Petr Voříšek, EBCC office manager, PECBMS senior advisor
It is difficult for me to write about Martin because I know I cannot do him justice with my words. His loss can only be described as tragic. Cyprus and, indeed, Europe have lost a highly respected and accomplished conservationist, while I and many others have lost a beloved friend.
I first met Martin back in 2007 when I was trying to decide on the topic of my Master’s dissertation. I didn’t know much about birds at the time. Still, I was very motivated to work on something that would help advance ecological knowledge and have the potential for conservation implications in my home country, Cyprus. In late summer, when I had to complete this project, the time period was less than ideal for surveying birds in Cyprus, as the breeding season would have been over and temperatures too high to carry out effective surveys for most diurnal bird species. But Martin generously gave me an opportunity and suggested I look at the Cyprus Scops Owl, which would still be responding to playback of its call at that time of year.
Since then, Martin has taken me under his wing and opened my eyes to the beauty and fascination of birds and how they relate to the habitats and landscapes around them. He essentially brought me into the BirdLife family and went above and beyond to support me during my Master’s project and later during my PhD research.
He supported all the bird monitoring volunteers he worked with in the same way ever since he embarked on his “Birds and Farming in Cyprus“ project 20 years ago. This project in 2003 was Martin’s first with BirdLife Cyprus, an organisation that had just been founded that year through the merger of two ornithological societies. The project aimed to investigate the potential impact of intensification and abandonment of agriculture following Cyprus’ accession to the EU accession. He enlisted and trained volunteer bird surveyors from the Greek-Cypriot and Turkish-Cypriot communities to carry out over 1,000 Timed Species Counts over ten months across the whole island. During this project, he laid the foundations of the Cyprus Common Birds Monitoring Scheme (CBMS), one of BirdLife Cyprus’s long-term monitoring programmes and part of the scientific backbone of the organisation. He continued to work at BirdLife Cyprus since then, being the organisation’s first staff member.
In 2010, at Martin’s invitation, I participated in a workshop with the competent authorities, where together with the expert input of the EBCC’s PECBMS (represented by Petr Voříšek and Jana Škorpilová), the framework of the CBMS and the Common and Farmland Bird Indicators for Cyprus was developed and agreed by all stakeholders. Incidentally, this was my first contact with PECBMS. Six years later, I found myself in Martin’s shoes, running the CBMS along with BirdLife Cyprus’s other bird monitoring schemes and participating in the EBCC as a delegate for Cyprus and in the PECBMS as Cyprus national coordinator, while Martin was now the organisation’s Director.
As Director of BirdLife Cyprus, Martin led the organisation to reach many important milestones, including the restoration of Akrotiri Marsh, the protection of important sites like Akamas and Akrotiri Peninsulas, the creation of a nature reserve in Frenaros, an illegal bird trapping hotspot, the development of the National Action Plan for the Barn Owl, the conservation of the Griffon Vulture, and the expansion of BirdLife Cyprus’ educational programme. It would not be an exaggeration to say that the nature of Cyprus would have looked different had he not been on the front lines, a powerful and tireless defender of our island’s natural heritage.
Martin had a profound understanding of the birds and landscapes of Cyprus and a rare love for the place and its nature. He believed strongly in the value of instilling the future generations with a passion for birds and nature, and his always hopeful outlook kept us going because it is often not easy being a conservationist. Martin was also an extremely charismatic person and had the gift of communicating complicated concepts in a simple and accessible way. For everyone at BirdLife Cyprus, Martin was far more than just a colleague and a Director. He was a friend, a mentor, a leader. I will be forever grateful for having the opportunity to know and work with Martin. He leaves behind an incredible legacy and a strong team of young conservationists who will strive to do his memory justice by continuing to fight for what he believes in.
Christina Ieronymidou, Coordinator of BirdLife Cyprus’ bird monitoring and research activities
I met Martin in 2012 in our first PECBMS workshop meeting in Mikulov, when we both started working on the volunteer monitoring projects of our respective countries. I will not forget when, in 2015, he invited me to ‘Stavros tis Psokas’ to contribute to developing their IBA Caretaker network. He was the perfect host, presenting his country with love and a pinch of sarcasm. We had similar concerns and views about volunteer participation, lack of funding and government support, and how we appreciated being part of the large family of BirdLife, which we felt understood and hopeful about. Martin knew the importance of involvement and managed to bring people together, and made things seem easy flowing. He had a positive outlook on life and was very polite and forgiving – a calm force – and this became obvious in the team he created around him in BirdLife Cyprus. A team of young and enthusiastic conservationists who love what they do and Martin was so proud of it.
Danae Portolou, Hellenic Common Bird Monitoring Scheme Coordinator, Marine Projects Coordinator, Hellenic Ornithological Society (HOS), Greece
