By Graham K. Rogers

While the CITES conference is taking place in Bangkok - with some questions as to why certain delegates will not support measures to protect species like sharks and manta rays - others are making efforts elsewhere to protect wildlife: a diminishing resource.

In Croatia, a project to protect and preserve raptors - at the Raptor Rescue Center which is located in the Dubrava pine forest - is being supported by Epson corporation. Information about the birds' feathers can help in the identification of the native birds of prey, so Epson provided an Expression 10000XL scanner, which offers scanning resolution of up to 2400 dpi and high optical density of 3.8 DMax, for high quality scanning up to a full A3 format.

Information gained in the project significantly contributes to solving issues such as bird collisions with aircraft and to combating poaching and illegal trade.

More information about the Raptor Rescue Center and on Epson's involvement in the project, may be found on the Epson Press Information pages about this project and the Falcon Rescue Association.

Graham K. Rogers teaches at the Faculty of Engineering, Mahidol University in Thailand. He wrote in the Bangkok Post, Database supplement on IT subjects. For the last seven years of Database he wrote a column on Apple and Macs.