The Asian Development Bank launched a Regional Flyway Initiative (RFI) in October 2021 at the Ecological Civilization Forum of the 15th Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP15). With East Asian–Australasian Flyway Partnership (EAAFP) Secretariat, BirdLife International, and other key partners, RFI will mobilize large-scale financing to support the protection, maintenance, and restoration of wetlands in East and Southeast Asia, focusing on coastal wetlands. The Regional Flyway Initiative aims to preserve wetlands across the region, which are crucial for the livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people and the migratory waterbirds in Asia and the Pacific.

The Regional Flyway Initiative is looking to develop a long-term program to protect and restore EAAF wetland ecosystems and the services they provide. This will be accomplished through partnerships among governments, nongovernment organizations, communities, regional organizations, development agencies, the private sector, and other stakeholders. It will build on and collaborate with past and ongoing activities in the EAAF to ensure that opportunities for synergy are realized and duplication of efforts is avoided. Migratory waterbirds will provide a focus for RFI activities, as firstly their use of wetlands across the EAAF makes them the perfect barometer for regional and global environmental change, and secondly waterbird international appeal provides the perfect species group to capture the public imagination and so increasing further buy-in to protect and sustainably manage these wetlands as a “string of pearls” for generations to come. (For more information)