Yi Kunpeng, Chinese Academy of Sciences
The International Conference on developing effective coordinated monitoring of East Asian Waterbirds in the 21st century was held on 6th-10th April 2017, in Hulun Lake National Nature Reserve, Inner Mongolia, China. More than 40 academics from 8 countries and regions, including China, Russia, Mongolia, Australia, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Holland and Denmark, attended this conference.
Group photo of the participants © Dou Huashan
The “East Asian-Australasian Flyway” is the main theme. The conference offered a platform for ornithologists to promote exchange and cooperation among countries, and to advance bird monitoring in East Asia by wide-ranging exploration of various aspects of research and monitoring. Lengthy and in-depth discussions were conducted on following issues: 1) bird migration routes; 2) bird observation methods; 3) the impact of human activities and climate change on bird habitat; 4) bird tracking technology using GPS Loggers. Species of birds – Swan Goose, Bean Goose, Greater White-fronted Goose, Lesser White-fronted Goose, Greylag Goose and Tundra Swan were chosen as key monitoring species in the East Asian-Australasian Flyway. These six representatives are dominant species in this Flyway with good monitoring foundation where much research on them has been carried out using GPS trackers. By building a cooperative work mechanism through the partnership of the researchers in the Flyway, the data can be shared with each other. In addition, China will offer GPS trackers to partner colleagues, which will be set on those species in different places of the Flyway. All participating experts reached a consensus on future international cooperation, coordinated bird monitoring and data sharing on these species.
The meeting was hosted by the Anatidae Working Group of the East Asian-Australasian Flyway Partnership (EAAFP). The State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology established in 2006 under Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences of Chinese Academy of Sciences, organized the conference. Hulun Lake National Nature Reserve offered great support as the co-organizer. The conference was sponsored by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and National Natural Science Foundation of China. Chinese Central Television (CCTV) carried out a follow-up interview of the conference and some information was reported in the news program “Xinwen Lianbo” on CCTV-1 channel with the title ‘China to undertake international cooperation on multinational waterfowl’. CCTV-4 and CCTV-13 channel also made a further report of this conference with more detailed information.
Relevant links:
- Are declining populations of wild geese in China ‘prisoners” of their natural habitats? (Direct download link to the article is here )
