A board game for the EAAF!
What are the dangers faced by migratory birds on migration? How can invasive plants affect the homes…
Continue readingEAAFP at Ramsar COP13 (Side events we and our Partners are organizing)
Ramsar COP13, 21 October 2018 – 29 October 2018, Dubai Sunday, 21 October Meeting of Ramsar Regional initiatives Lead Organizations: EAAFP, RRC-EA, IBRRI Time: 18:00 –…
Continue readingClimate change, immigration and survival: Many unknowns in search of answers!
Adj. Prof. Peter M J Fisher, School of Architecture & Built Environment, Deakin University, Geelong, Australia. Figure 1: How do…
Continue readingThe Avon-Heathcote Estuary/Ihutai as New Zealand’s new Flyway Network Site
(c) William Simpson On 14 October, a celebration was held at the Avon-Heathcote Estuary/Ihutai near Christchurch (New Zealand), to mark the site being designated as the newest Flyway Network Site under the East Asian-Australasian Flyway Partnership (EAAF). The Avon-Heathcote Estuary/Ihutai is the summer home to some 1.8% of the EAAF population of bar-tailed godwit (kuaka), after having flown some 11,000-kilometers from their breeding sites in Alaska. The celebration was attended by the Conservation Minister, Eugenie Sage who said that the Avon-Heathcote Estuary/Ihutai Trust has worked incredibly hard for the conservation of the site and for the past two years, been working with the Department of Conservation to have the estuary recognised internationally by the East Asian-Australasian Flyway Partnership. The Conservation Minister believes it’s important sites like the estuary are recognised for the role they play in supporting birds like the bar-tailed godwit. “The species is declining at an annual rate of 2%, we need to do what we can to protect them,” said Ms Sage. “The estuary’s new status emphasises the need to protect it to ensure it remains a safe-haven for bar-tailed godwits, lesser knots/huahou, and other shorebirds such as the threatened wrybill/ngutuparore. “The location of the estuary next to the city drives home the message to visitors, these birds are important on the world stage,” she said. (c) Avon-Heathcote Estuary Ihutai Trust The site is now the third Flyway Site Network in New Zealand and the second in the South Island. There are now 137 Flyway Network Sites along the East Asian-Australasian Flyway. Useful info: https://www.doc.govt.nz/eastern-bar-tailed-godwit https://www.doc.govt.nz/news/stories/2014/june/the-incredible-godwit-migration/ https://eaaflyway.net/new-zealand/
Continue readingRiver Tern facing unfavourable future in SE Asia
The River Tern Sterna aurantia, currently listed as Near-threatened globally, is having a drastic…
Continue readingScaly-sided Merganser Single Species International Action Plan 3-rd Workshop will be held on 5-7 December, 2018 in Changde, China
This workshop is for: (1) fulfillment of the Single Species International Action Plan; (2) improvement for national Action Plans; (3) coordinate surveys within key states; and (4) further cooperation…
Continue readingImplementing collaborative waterbirds conservation in the RO Korea and EAAF, 2018
Group Photo (c)Minshil Lee/EAAFP On 13 September 2018, a workshop titled “Implementing collaborative waterbird conservation in the Republic of Korea and the East Asian-Australasian Flyway (EAAF)” was held at G-tower, Songdo, RO Korea, which was co-organized by BirdLife International, BirdLife Australia and EAAFP Secretariat. The EAAF is the most threatened flyway in the world, playing host to 32 threatened species of migratory waterbirds. Increased collaborative efforts throughout the flyway are seeking to mitigate ongoing threats and ameliorate habitat loss and degradation. This workshop was to investigate opportunities to share habitat management strategies, facilitate standardised monitoring methods and increase national and international recognition of important waterbird areas in ROK. About 20 people from National Institutes, NGOs, professors and relevant parties participated in the workshop. There are three sessions consisting of the importance of secure roost sites for the conservation of migratory shorebirds, standardisation of waterbird monitoring and Introduction of Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas (IBAs) and Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs). Dr. Lew Young, Chief Executive of EAAFP, took a lead on the first session by delivering a speech on global importance of EAAF for conserving migratory birds. The major theme of first session was how to secure and optimize roosts by conserving existing roosts and building new one in ROK, especially in Seocheon where the Geum Project was implemented. “As most of the habitats of birds have been lost, they are increasingly aerial roosting, wasting energy.” said Dr. Chris Purnell, Birdlife Australia and he proposed floating shorebird roosts trial in ROK as a one way of preventing loss of their habitats. In the second session, Dr. Youngmin Moon, Coordinator of BirdLife International and Mr. Hong-Tae Jeonof Culture and Tourism Team in Seocheon County Government introduced the current status of waterbirds monitoring system and schemes in ROK and Seocheon. By comparing the well-structed databased system for waterbirds counting in Australia, during the discussion session, many of participants raised the issue to develop a similar application and webpage to check the population of waterbirds and their migration lead by the government, together with NGOs. As a last session, the concept of IBAs and KBAs and importance of the expansion the Areas were presented by Mr. Mike Crosby, Birdlife International. Currently, in ROK, 33 IBAs were designated, but participants assumed more than 100 IBAs could be considered as of now. Various existing problems in ROK were raised with an emphasis on the national-wide cooperation between stakeholders to conserve migratory waterbirds and biodiversity.
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