Hi all
This is unfortunately not an email where I brag about regularly seeing 3
Nordmann’s Greenshanks. Nor is it to mention the vast numbers of migratory
shorebirds that increase by their thousands each day.
It is in fact an email to ask a favour of the birding aus community.
Im asking for people to please if they have not already sent letters to the
ministers mentioned in the Wingspan article Minutes to Midnight to do so
urgently.
With seeing the destruction since my visit last year and in the past 48 hours
hearing of future plans the article really should have be named Seconds to
Midnight.
As is mentioned in a previous email about Bohai Bay last year
http://bioacoustics.cse.unsw.edu.au/archives/html/birding-aus/2010-09/msg00233.html
You will have read how there is practically no Shorebird habitat left in the
northern Bohai Sea. Our 3 study sites in 2009 were/are the most important sites
for Red Knots in our flyway with a minimum count of over 60,000. Last year one
of our sites Zuidong started being destroyed. What was once a mudflat teaming
with tens of thousands of shorebirds is now a wind blown desert waiting to be
built on. They are still pumping mud from the small remaining mudflat in that
area but with disturbance high only a few hundred Knots instead of thousands
are feeding there.
Beipu further to the west of Zuidong is a 4km stretch of mud that last year
held over 80,000 Curlew Sandpipers and that’s without even mentioning the
thousands of other shorebirds using it. This is currently under development.
Pumping of mud has already started 1.5 -2km off shore filling in the salt ponds
behind. After this has been completed the remaining 1km of mudflat will be
boxed in with walls and also filled in.
The even more sad news is that we have just learnt that after this project is
finished they will start on the adjacent Nanpu site. Nanpu is the last
remaining shorebird site left along this coast and when it goes so will the
shorebirds. It is predicted a massive decline in Red Knot as this is their only
known staging area on northward migration. Its thought that the first stage of
Beipu will take about a year with the second phase the following. Nanpu will
probably start to vanish in 2013 but development happens so fast here it is
hard to give a time line.
Because they are doing relatively small areas each time it does not have to get
high level approval and hence is not classed as a large reclamation project. (
Not that I think it would matter anyway) These small projects have added up and
now its nearly all over.
What can be done? Well to be honest I don’t think anyone knows. People power in
China is limited and at this stage I can only see that a diplomatic solution
can be arranged. CAMBA
http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/migratory/waterbirds/bilateral.html
The China, Australia, Migratory Bird Agreement was signed i n 1986 but in my
mind is not worth the paper its printed on. What has the signing of this
achieved?
Article IV
Each Contracting Party shall endeavour, in accordance with its laws and
regulations in force, to:
(a) establish sanctuaries and other facilities for the management and
protection of migratory birds and also of their environment; and
(b) take appropriate measures to preserve and enhance the environment of
migratory birds. In particular, each Contracting Party shall:
(i) seek means to prevent damage to migratory birds and their environment.
This is clearly not being addressed in China or in Australia.
There are massive issues across the whole of the Yellow Sea and not just in
China but obviously Bohai Bay has a soft spot in my heart and it is currently
where im focusing my attention.
Please ask your ministers what is happening with the CAMBA agreement and that
talks need to be opened up urgently to halt this massive destruction that is
happening all along the Chinese coastline.
Many of the areas further south have not even been survey yet so we shall never
know what has been lost. The areas that have been surveyed such as Rudong near
Shanghai also provide disappointment as this was the site last year where 24 of
the critically endangered Spoon-billed Sandpipers were seen feeding. This site
like Beipu is currently under development.
To make this email less depressing I wont start to mention the oil washing up
and coating the birds or the km’s of fishing nets that are killing the birds at
low tide.
Some of the destruction from last year can be seen at.
http://www.pbase.com/wildlifeimages/shorebird_threats
I thank you on behalf of the Shorebirds of the East Asian Australasian Flyway.
Adrian Boyle a currently depressed Shorebird researcher.
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