Visitors to the BirdFair at Rutland will be aware that the theme for this year was the East Asia Australasian Flyway. This flyway includes a suite of breeding, migration and wintering sites that are particularly important for wading birds across a network of 22 countries. Unfortunately the fast rate of development in many of these countries is having a devastating effect on sites that are important for several endangered species of waders. These sites are not only important for birds they are also important for fisheries and as a source of livelihoods for local people.
A new report from the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has highlighted the pressures on intertidal areas in the Yellow Sea. To quote from the Executive Summary “Unless the fast economic development of this region can be replaced with adequate safeguards, impressive-looking economic gains could be short-lived and undermined by the loss of valuable ecosystem services and a growing list of costly ecological disasters.” For the sake of species like Spoon-billed sandpiper, let’s hope that some compromises are found. The full report can be found here.
Last week Simon Buckell, a British wader enthusiast sent me another example of a threatened intertidal site that is important for waders along the EAAF. This site is at Mersing in Malaysia and Simon’s blog with lots of photos shows some of the waders that are found there. Unfortunately it looks like this site will be added to an expanding list of important intertidal areas that have been lost for waders. Please go to the site here.