Flying into Oblivion

China's key role in international fight to save one of the rarest birds in the world from extinction. 

I was very proud to see this piece published in the Sunday edition of Hong Kong's South China Morning Post.

A Spoon-billed sandpiper at the Tiaozini Mudflats, Jiangsu Province, China. Photo: Luke Tang

I was introduced to the plight of the Spoon-billed Sandpiper through a sustainability project run by the Japanese Department at the school where I work, and also by bird expert Professor Philip Round at Mahidol University. The world's spoon-billed sandpiper population numbers less than 250 breeding pairs.

Painstaking research has revealed the migration route of the spoon-billed sandpipers. The birds head south from their summer breeding grounds in Siberia, via Korea and the Chinese coast, to winter in Bangladesh, Myanmar and here, in Thailand.

What intrigued me most was the international network of conservationists behind the flight to save this critically endangered species.  It encompasses researchers, bird-watchers and NGOs running projects in all these countries as well as a UK based captive breeding programme.

These experts can pinpoint the exact movements of individual birds.

I wanted my article to follow the international flightpath of a particular spoon-billed sandpiper, code-named Green 05, and explore the efforts to save the species along the way. The piece begins in Russia and ends in Thailand, via Green 05's re-fueling site in Jiangsu Province, China. I highlight how the success of conservation work in one location is dependent on efforts succeeding elsewhere.

The full article is available online here. It was also published in print, click here to download the PDF version.

The birds spend the summer breeding in Chukotka in the Russian far east. Photo: Pavel Tomkovich  

Green 05 spotted in Chukotka. Photo: Dr Nickolay Yakushev.

The Tiaozini mudflats in China where the birds stop to rest and re-cuperate on their migration south.
Photo: Li Dongming SBS in China. 

Green 05 at the Khok Kham Salt Flats in Thailand, some 8000KM from her breeding ground. Photo: BCST

Please follow this link to read the article in full.

More about the mission to save the species can be found here.