Together with Ramsar Regional Center – East Asia, EAAFP organised a national site manager training workshop on 21-24 October, hosted by Ministry of Natural Resource and Environment, Vietnam. Participants were around 60 site managers, including different stakeholders and they were from the Ministry of Natural Resource and Environment, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, local authorities, IUCN-Vietnam, RSPB and Viet Nature Conservation Centre.
As Vietnam joined EAAFP only a few weeks before the workshop, it was a good start to their involvement in the partnership. Starting with brief reports from Ramsar site managers, there were sessions on effective site management, World Migratory Bird Day, key sites in Vietnam, Spoon-billed Sandpiper surveys and the Flyway Site nomination procedure. With Mr. Nguyen Duc Tu’s great help, all sessions ran smoothly even in Vietnamese. Mr. Nguyen Duc Tu used to work for BirdLife and currently works for IUCN-Vietnam.
As a result, four key sites were identified to be included in the Flyway Site Network: Xuan Thuy, Mui Ca Mau, Tram Chim and Thai Thuy. Thai Thuy is particularly important, as there have been records of Spoon-billed Sandpiper. The Spoon-billed Sandpiper Task Force has been already surveying this site.
Vietnamese Flyway