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EAAFP Secretariat signs MOU with Seoul Science Center, Ro Korea
Dr. Jung-Kyu Lee, Head of the Seoul Science Center (SSC) and Mr. Doug Watkins, Chief Executive of the…
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Envisioning Roadmap of the Gochang Tidal Flat World Heritage Site management
To further develop the roadmap for advancing management of Gochang Tidal Flat after its designation as a World Heritage Site in Ro Korea, a 2-day technical workshop for…
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Korean Government announced New Master Plan on Management and Ecological Restoration of Tidal flat and Adjacent Areas
Yubudo © World Heritage Promotion Team of Korean Tidal Flat Following the Republic of Korea (ROK) getbol, or tidal…
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2021 Yellow Sea Peace Forum: The search for a Peace Zone in Maritime Border Areas and the Roles of Incheon City, Ro Korea
© Incheon institute The 2021 Yellow Sea Peace Forum was held on October 15th, 2021 in Songdo,…
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Advancing research on Nordmann’s Greenshanks and Common Redshanks in Schaste Bay
Article prepared by Vladimir Pronkevich1, Konstantin Maslovsky2, and Philipp Maleko3,4 During the summer of 2021, we continued studying the breeding ecology of Endangered Nordmann’s Greenshank (Tringa guttifer) and…
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Join the #legflagchallenge and contribute to migratory bird conservation!
This year, the EAAFP Secretariat is teaming up with the Oriental Bird Club, BirdLife International and the Spoon-billed Sandpiper Task Force, to launch…
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“Flyway: connecting people and migratory waterbirds” story series #13 – Ms. Miyoung Choi
“I think the best conservation action is not to destruct anything in the first place.” -- Ms. Miyoung Choi. Photo of Ms. Miyoung Choi © Miyoung Choi Ms. Miyoung Choi, a former Finance Officer of EAAFP Secretariat, and a person who loves birds. Serving public services at Environment category of Incheon Metropolitan City, she is eager to enhance the habitats of migratory waterbirds and raise awareness among citizens about their protection. # Journey of Ms. Miyoung Choi EAAFP : Nice to meet you, Ms. Miyoung Choi. Could you please introduce yourself? I am now a government officer at Incheon Metropolitan City working on waste management. EAAFP : You worked as a Finance Officer at EAAFP Secretariat for about 3 years, and you are now a donor to EAAFP Foundation. We truly appreciate your support. What does the EAAFP mean to you? I worked in the EAAFP Secretariat as a finance officer from November 2013 to June 2017 under the staff secondment agreement with the Incheon City (Host City of EAAFP Secretariat). City-based work as a public officer and partnership-based work within the Flyway Partnership were very different. I had to work in a different perspective, which led me to understand the hard-working of lots of people across the world. I also realized that conservation has no boundaries, and became humble as getting to understand the mother nature, and foremost it gave me a good chance to watch birds. Photo of Ms. Miyoung Choi © Miyoung Choi # Beautiful Memories with Birds EAAFP : You seem to have a lot of interest in conservation of various kinds of birds. What led you to get interested in birds? Since working at EAAFP, I realized that a lot of people are working on various things related to birds. I had no involvement in this type of work that directly related to birds, but I soon noticed that there are people who strive to protect birds in Incheon area. EAAFP is an organization which works with them. Since I was able to work in a cooperative relationship, I found what I could help as a public officer and also I had to speak for the them. We were able to complement each other. Through this mechanism, I think I learned a lot about birds and conservation. Our then Chief Executive tried efforts to help me learn, and provided many opportunities to engage in various activities. EAAFP : What is your favorite birds and why? I like new birds. Their colors, appearance, size, sound, and habitats are all different and various kinds of birds are living by their own lifestyle. When I look at the new bird, it is enjoyable to see how they live, and interesting to learn about it. Birds that travel far without boundaries might seem too free with great dangers around, but I envy their ability to find their own way without being afraid of adventure. I still do not know much about birds and I am still learning about them. EAAFP : We heard that since you left EAAFP you have worked in conservation of migratory waterbirds as a public officer at Incheon Metropolitan City. Could you tell us more about your assignment in that regard? Since I am on public service of Environment category, I worked on development and management of bird habitats utilizing my work experience in EAAFP. Songdo in Incheon City is a reclaimed area of large-scaled tidal flats. A great deal of habitats of migratory birds were damaged due to the loss of the tidal flats. Alternative habitats were built to compensate the loss. I thought hard how to restore the damaged habitat in consultation with experts in conservation, not to make the process a typical justification for the development of Songdo. Through a systematic monitoring and a lot of meetings with local as well as international experts, I got to realize that the initial plan (of alternative habitat) might be inappropriate. Rather than building breeding sites that go through many process which may result in damaging tidal flats, we decided to compensate the loss of resting areas through the formation of wetland in part of the reclaimed land. But I think the best conservation action is not to destruct anything in the first place. Photo of Ms. Miyoung Choi © Miyoung Choi # Message Toward the World EAAFP : What would be the biggest barrier to conserving migratory waterbirds? Since the habitat of migratory waterbirds are not valuated as a natural state such as tidal flats or other wetlands, they are vulnerable to development action at low cost. Raising awareness among local community and government to protect their habitats is important, and the Flyway and key sites of migratory waterbirds have to be monitored and further designated as a protected area in order to protect them from indiscriminate development. EAAFP : What are the things the public can do to protect migratory waterbirds? If many people are interested in migratory waterbirds and habitat and at least notice the existence of birds in their neighborhood, the government's policy will change a lot. In addition, individual behavior has to be changed to protect them. I have seen some people’s irresponsible actions during their leisure activities. You can participate in conservation activities prepared for the public and show it to the government. A few years ago, I visited a habitat of Taizang in Taiwan, and I was deeply inspired to see many people with diverse jobs actively participate in monitoring and conservation activities and contribute to make conservation programs and policies together with the government.
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“Flyway: connecting people and migratory waterbirds” story series #12 – Ms. Katherine Leung
If someone asked Katherine Leung what is her work, “Following the migratory waterbirds” may probably her answer. This EAAFP flyway featuring this lady who migrates along the coast of…
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Anatidae WG organized Symposium in the 9th EAFES International Congress in Hohhot, China
The 9th EAFES International Congress was held in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, China, from 10-13th July 2021, hosted by the East Asian Federation of Ecological Societies (EAFES), with eight symposiums included. The symposium 04 was organized by the Anatidae Working Group (AWG) and Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences (RCEES, CAS), entitled with “Recent telemetry technology helps waterbird and wetland conservation in East Asia”. Professor Lei CAO of RCEES is the Principal organizer of symposium 04, co-organized by the Chair Masayuki KURECHI and the coordinator Katsumi USHIYAMA of the AWG, and Dr. Hansoo LEE from Korea Institute of Environmental Ecology. This has been an exhilarating online meeting and we can all be deeply grateful to old friends and new friends for contributing an inspiring program of excellent talks. We are so grateful to everybody for helping to overcome the challenges of not being able to be together but to continue to build our collaborations through the internet. The symposium 04 aimed to think about how to work together to save waterbirds and wetlands for our next generation, including 4 sections and 29 oral reports. 4 sections are included: Waterbird monitoring and population trends, Recent research on Common waterbird species, Recent research on globally threatened waterbird species, Waterbird and wetland conservation. A number of highlights from the meeting have emerged. The first is the need for continued long-term monitoring of waterbird abundance on breeding, staging and wintering areas to monitor the state of the populations (mainly in winter when most aggregated) but also at other times of year. This is essential to check the quality of our protected areas and effects of positive and adverse management activities to better understand how to protect sites and the waterbirds that use them. The extraordinary value of combining tracking studies with site protection. Telemetry has revealed discrete biogeographical populations, but also shown links between disease and these migration routes and identified new important key sites but also taught us much about how birds use the protected site and their networks. As we have seen with the rare species such as the Swan Goose and Black-faced Spoonbill, and vulnerable subspecies Tibetan Common Crane, we need to increasingly combine these sources of knowledge if we are going to identify the key factors affecting their abundance and make sure we create adequate areas of sufficient quality to protect our waterbirds for future generations. We also heard how the description of flyway routes can aid with spatial planning, especially with regard to the location of wind turbines, which is crucial in case of Japan, where offshore big wind farms are planned along Japan Sea coast. In Akita prefecture and other northern part of Honshu Island, thousands of big wind turbines (maximum 260 m high) are on the way to be built along the sea coast about 1-3km off the coast. That is likely to affect many waterbirds (swans, geese, ducks and other sea birds) of this flyway especially during migration. We are much concerned about the expected damage on waterbirds and feel the need to establish a guideline to avoid such damages. We need to be better at seeing adverse trends earlier, the worrying declines in the Aythya duck in Japan show that the common species of today can become the rare species of tomorrow if we do not generate populations’ trends and act to find the reasons for their unfavorable conservation status. It also reminds of the need to develop more demographic monitoring, including sampling sex and age ratios, to estimate per capita reproductive success and survival so that we can interpret observed changes in population size. It is vital we know if populations are declining because of poor reproductive success and/or increasing mortality so we can investigate why. Kurechi-San also reminded us of the value of recovery and restoration to supplement our research and conservation efforts to rescue species. He also reminded us of the tragic loss this year of Prof Andreev, who was such a knowledgeable giant of waterbird ecology in our flyway. Wind farms as an emerging threat for waterbirds, and the need to provide evidence-based solutions for such threats. The Liaohe River study reminds us of the continued loss of habitat in the face of development and the continued need to be vigilant, but also reminds us of the importance of gathering scientific data to fight for the protection of our globally important waterbird populations. Most of all, we see the increasing benefit of countries and researchers working together to the benefit of our waterbirds. It is so exciting and encouraging to see the strengthening links and bonds between all the countries along the East Asian flyway to the benefit of our shared waterbirds, reflected in the work of the Crane Working Group of Eurasia, but also in the multinational authorship of the all talks we have heard the last two days. We still have no idea about Brent Goose flyways and the true status of this species in our region, yet researchers in six countries are doing their best to plug this gap. This type of collaboration is vital if we are going to see more success stories like those of Oriental Stork, Black-faced Spoonbill, and Crested Ibis about which we have heard. Such successes were unthinkable a few years ago, yet they are real achievements today. Let us make sure we do not let down the waterbirds tomorrow by ensuring the continued fruitful collaboration we have celebrated at this meeting the last two days. We definitely need more public support to mainstream conservation of waterbirds and wetlands in Asia, and waterbird research will have an important role by unraveling the amazing lives of the birds and revealing serious threats that is happening right near us. We could share various local problems for conservation of waterbirds. Those situations might be already resolved in some area, and going to be experienced other area in near future. In order to moving forward waterbird conservation in Asia, we can more cooperate with each other. Many thanks again to the organizers of a very productive symposium covering so much information. The discussion will be carried on in different working group, Such as the AWG (Anatidae Working Group), and every suggestion and help will be welcomed. ⓒ Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, July 2021 To learn more about 9th EAFES International Congress, click [here]. *The article was prepared by the Anatidae Working Group.
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EAAFP Foundation organized the Small Grant Reporting Workshop
On 27th May, the EAAFP Foundation organized its first Small Grant Programme Reporting Workshop online. The Foundation launched its own Small Grant Programme last year in 2020 to support…
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