Protecting migratory birds is a cross-border, multinational effort of ornithologists, activists and diplomats. It is also a challenge for science: our knowledge of bird migration still has many gaps, though scientists all around the globe, and also around the East Asian Australasian Flyway, which encompasses Korea, are trying to fill these gaps. One effort to do so was the establishment of the EAAFP Science Unit at Beijing Forestry University. For several years now the science unit works, but due to the pandemic larger outreach activities have not yet been possible. This changed with the 1st East Asian Australasian Science Symposium held in Beijing from October 16-18, 2024. Around 200 people, mostly scientists, but also wetland managers, activists and others, participated in the meaning. For two days, issues of bird migration in the East Asian Australasian Flyway were discussed. The Korean Peninsula is located very centrally in the flyway, forming the one side of the Yellow Sea coastline, with China forming the other. Millions of birds depend on the tidal flat habitats in the Yellow Sea for migration, but due to excessive tidal flat reclamation in the past this has become a challenge for many of them. This is the reason why the number of endangered birds in the EAAF is higher than in all other flyways.
Unfortunately, the participation of Korea was rather poor – beside a team from Ghent University in Songdo, which gave an interesting talk about tidal flats and climate change, only the Hanns-Seidel-Foundation Korea team (including me as a Birds Korea member) was there, none of the ornithologists or bird specialists in Korea. North Korea, though invited, was equally absent. This is deplorable, since there were a number of highly relevant issues discussed: cross-cutting issues like climate change and migration, Avian influenza etc., best practices, e.g. in rehabilitation of tidal flat sites, species specific discussions, like those on Spoonbilled Sandpiper, Nordmann´s Greenshank and Blackfaced Spoonbill and issues of the management of protected areas, from large areas like the Yellow Sea (Yancheng process) to smaller protected wetlands.
The conference was a great opportunity to rebuild old connections and start new ones, exchange views and learn new things about bird migration. But the most important result was probably the rekindling of the spirit of cooperation among the scientists participating. Beijing Forestry University, which organized the conference, has a grand strategy to foster new talent in bird science, building a large international platform for scientific exchanges and better protect wetlands in China and along the flyway. Even more cooperation would certainly also benefit scientists on the Korean Peninsula.
Finally, the conference also made clear the overlapping nature of flyways: China is included in four of the world´s nine flyways (Western Pacific, EAAF, Central Asian Flyway and the West Asia- Eastern African flyway). In acknowledgement of that, Hanns-Seidel-Foundation organized a special session on China and the Central Asian Flyway, which recently became more organized under the Convention of Migratory Species.
