So here we are again, another month has just about slipped by. It can certainly seem like days are blurring into one another as we remain stuck in this strange holding pattern, slowly circling while waiting for normality to return.
Yet beyond our walls, nature is getting on with business regardless. That’s been readily apparent to me on my morning walks, where the songbirds are currently in full voice as they lustily try to attract a mate, the outlines of nests are beginning to appear in trees and the swifts and swallows are filling the skies and fattening up on insects as they prepare to head North on their annual migration.
Seeing so much activity (and listening to those songs) certainly helps lift the spirits and keeps you going as we slowly emerge from what has been a tough time for everyone. At this strange time, it’s perhaps equally fitting that the lead feature take a closer look at this annual migration. An amazing natural phenomenon that is going on regardless of any global pandemic or any border closures.
There’s also news of a month-long celebration of a unique wild cat, my thoughts on a conservation cock up in Singapore and a celebration of the power of flowers. Be warned though, it’s a long one.
Optimism, diplomacy and a sense of wonder
"Birds (cc)" by marfis75 is licensed under CC BY 2.0
“I am very optimistic, you have to be optimistic as a conversationist!” admitted Yong Ding Li, Flyways Coordinator (Asia) for Birdlife International, when we caught up over coffee a few weeks back. “If I was a pessimist, I would stop trying to save migratory birds.”
We were meeting so I could find out more about the work of Birdlife , a global network of independent bird-focused conservation groups operating in over 100 countries, and also to get an insight into the amazing wildlife migration that takes place in this region every year.
It’s a migration that sees billions of different bird species, from raptors to waders, escape the colder climes of Russia and Northern China and make the long trip down to South East Asia, Australia and New Zealand where they see out the winter. Then in March and April they turn around and head back up north for the summer.
A map showing the world’s major flyways from Birdlife International.
“I always wonder, how did the migration even begin, it really is so remarkable, the sheer wonder of this phenomena is what drives me,” confesses the passionate Ding Li, whose job it is to help ensure the ongoing viability of the migration along what is known as the East Asian-Australasian Flyway.
Indeed, a large part of Ding Li’s role is to liaise with the many Birdlife partners in the different countries, or as he puts it “mobilise all the resources we can muster” to help protect the many hundreds of wetland sites that act as important stop off points along the Flyway route.
Sungei Buloh Wetlands Reserve in Singapore one of hundreds of important stop off points for migrating birds.
This is no small undertaking and a lot of our conversation centred around the challenges Birdlife and its partners face on this front. For starters, 80% of the wetlands in South East Asia are currently under threat, yet they are also spread across numerous different countries, sometimes even sprawling across borders. Attempts to ensure their protection therefore involves working with multiple stakeholders, from international organisations down through individual governments to the villagers living near to the wetlands.
“Protecting wetlands is like cooking fish, how you do it depends on where you are,” explained the former school teacher of the different approaches Birdlife undertake, which range from long term monitoring of sites, to community education programs to helping shape government policy
Yong Ding Li, Flyways Coordinator (Asia) for Birdlife International
Ding Li also pointed out that the organisations finite resources (Birdlife operates via grants and donations) demanded a practical approach and an understanding that you “Can’t save everywhere. You need to pick your battles and work out what is realistic or feasible to protect.”
With that in mind it was really interesting to hear more about some of Birdlife’s biggest areas of focus in this region. For example, Myanmar ranks high in terms of priority due to its large swathes of threatened wetlands but it was also clear that China is the main focus, home as it is to around 100 critically important wetlands. To put it into perspective a staggering 8 out of 10 of the birds that stop off in Singapore on their way south come here via China.
The good news is there does seem to be signs of progress, not least the successful lobbying to get much of the vital wetlands around the Yellow Sea in Northern China designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2019.
Despite its importance, China is not Birdlife’s only area of interest in Asia Pacific. When we met Ding Li was helping draft a response in support of their partner, BirdLife Australia who are in the middle of a campaign against the Australian Government’s decision to grant a licence to a developer to build a major new resort that would encroach on an important Ramsar Wetlands Site at Moreton Bay close to Brisbane. I won’t go into the full details but there’s been quite a lot of slightly shady-looking stuff going on with this deal which you can read more about here.
The Pak Thale site in Thailand, photo courtesy of Bird Conservation Society of Thailand.
I do also hope to write about (and who knows maybe even visit) some of their specific regional projects in the future. I’m particularly interested in a scheme they are working on with their Thai partner the Bird Conservation Society of Thailand (BCST) which has seen them purchase a patch of coastal wetland and create a private nature reserve in Pak Thale, Petchaburi. This is a first for Birdlife in the region and they are now looking to work with local salt farmers to co-manage an additional 50ha of salt flats.
A white-rumped sharma one of the birds most prized for their singing photographed in the wild, by budgora
Of course, while the migration is the major focus of Ding Li’s work, protecting wetlands are not Birdlife’s only conservation projects. We also discussed the organisation’s research into the devastating effect of poaching of songbirds in Indonesia and Malaysia. This is a direct result of the booming interest in bird singing as a hobby in both countries; itself an indirect product of a growing middle classes with disposal incomes.
Growing economies in the region are also related to the issues of the bush meat trade and wildlife trafficking, a huge problem in South East Asia, with Vietnam at its epicentre. Then there are more specific projects, like supporting their partner, BANCA (Biodiversity and Nature Conservation Association) to try and protect the last remaining population of Gurney’s Pitta in Myanmar. Those efforts were already exacerbated by the fact the birds live in an area of ongoing civil unrest even before the recent coup.
Griffon vulture: Photo by Allen Ellis from FreeImages
Birdlife has also done a lot of work to protect vultures in parts of Africa, Nepal and India, and I was amazed to hear that these incredible birds used to be common in peninsular Malaysia and even Singapore. Apparently one reason they’re no longer around is that we are simply too clean these days, giving them too little food to scavenge. However, the biggest factor in their plummeting numbers is the use of the drug diclofenac by veterinarians. This painkiller is often used on livestock, but it has proved absolutely deadly for vultures who consume it when scavenging on carcasses. The numbers are scary, with vulture population’s plummeting 95-97% in just ten years.
Reading stats like that can be pretty sobering stuff and raises the question why keep fighting against the odds to try and save these and other seemingly doomed endangered species? I asked the pragmatic Ding Li why it’s so important to protect these birds and the wetland sites in the first place. The conservationist, who studied ecosystems as a PhD student in Australia, believes there are two main reasons why birds are so important.
The first is the fact that they are so observable. “They are a barometer of the state of an ecosystem, they are the canaries in the coal mine,” he pointed out. If the birds start to disappear then there is clearly something going seriously wrong with the whole ecosystem.
The second is the major ecological impact that birds have on our natural environment. From their role in reforestation through seed dispersal and pollination to the fact that they eat around a gigaton of insects each year, birds act as an important balance in the ecosystem.
A flock of storks on the move at Sungei Buloh Wetlands
As we still struggle with the restrictions and challenges of lockdown there is also one other factor that came up during our chat that seemed particularly pertinent right now. Ding Li was keen to explain that the world’s flyways are evidence of how all our ecosystems, and in turn how all of us, are inter-connected, regardless of any lockdowns or man made boundaries.
“Culturally these birds connect me with my colleagues in Russia, we both see and know the same bird,” explained Ding Li. “In 2020 we couldn’t get out of the country but the birds from Russia can still get in, it’s something much bigger than our world.”
Gone Fishing
Photo copyright Scott Kayser courtesy of Urban Fishing Cat Conservation Project
If you hadn’t heard already, then this month is Fishing Cat February, a new initiative from the Small Wildcats Conservation Foundation and the Fishing Cat conservation Alliance that hopes to raise greater public awareness about these the endangered and little known fishing cat.
About twice the size of a domestic cat, these elusive creatures are found in the wetlands, mangroves and marshes of South and South East Asia, but face a huge threat to their continued survival due to ongoing habitat loss. That’s something I discovered for myself when I travelled to Sri Lanka a few years ago and got to meet up with conservation groups and naturalists and find out more about their research efforts. I also hoped to catch a glimpse of a fishing cat in the wild – spoiler alert I didn’t, though I have since seen them at Singapore Night Safari!
Photo copyright Sanjaya Adikari courtesy of Urban Fishing Cat Conservation Project
I still keep up to date with the amazing work of Anya, one of the main people I spoke too for that piece, and the Urban Fishing Cat Collective she founded as they continue their research and to campaign for the protection of these animals in the wetlands around Colombo. I also read with interest this great piece which follows the similarly tireless work of another wildlife biologist, Tiasa Adhya based in Kolkata, West Bengal. Adhya has spent the last decade researching fishing cats and the story explores her ongoing work to get local communities on board in a bid to conserve these amazing animals.
In the same vein, this month also saw the release of an interesting video about Singapore’s own little-known wild cat. Research estimates that there are probably less than 50 Leopard Cats left in Singapore, with most located on one offshore island. I am actually due to meet with two of the members of the Singapore Wildcat Action Group this week so will make sure to report back. In the meantime, learn more about these equally gorgeous-looking cats with this video.
If a tree falls in the forest…
So another week, and more public outcry over the Singapore government’s management of green spaces. This time the outcry seems pretty justified after the frankly mind-boggling news that a contractor chopped down a sizeable area of Kranji forest without anyone giving them the permission.
So the thing is this patch of woodland which surrounds the northern most part of the green corridor was slated to be cleared to make way for the development of a new Agri-Food Innovation Park. However, what’s got everyone really up in arms is the fact that the contractor started clearing the area before a commissioned environmental impact report to assess the area’s biodiversity had been carried out.
So JTC, the government agency in charge of this project have responded by saying it was all a terrible accident, the clearing work has been stopped and the contractor will get a fine, but of course the damage has been done and estimates reckon that 90% of the trees have already been cut down.
Perhaps most remarkable is the fact that the story only came to light after member of the public Brice Li shared before and after aerial shots of the area, showing the number of trees that had been cleared since May 2019. That got picked up by the Nature Society Facebook group and all hell broke loose with all the leading conservation groups and environmentalist’s expressing their shock and disappointment that this had been allowed to happen.
The Green Corridor which runs through the forest back in October.
I actually walked that section of the green corridor back in October last year and the patch of woodland at Kranji was a real highlight of the trail. Even back then you couldn’t escape the din of heavy machinery and that marries with recently unearthed satellite imagery that seems to suggest this clearing work actually started back in March last year not December as per JTC’s statement. Whatever the real question has to be why did it take them so long to notice in the first place.
In the latest update the government have promised to review and strengthen the environmental impact assessment process, but you do have to wonder if anything would have actually happened if these images hadn’t come to light.
Unfortunately, it’s a real step backwards in the ongoing discussion about Singapore’s green space. And at the very least is pretty damaging to government’s attempts to play up their green credentials through schemes like the one million trees movement and their recently announced 10 year Green Plan.
Flower Power
Photo by Michael & Christa Richert from FreeImages
After that slightly gloomy news of habitat loss I thought I would end with a more cheery note about how wild-flower rich meadows are being brought back in the UK. Apparently, 97% of these flower meadows were destroyed in the previous century but there are signs they are making a coming back under new re-wilding programs.
According to a lovely piece in the Guardian, the charity Plantlife has helped oversee the creation of 5,000 hectares of wildflower-rich meadows since 2013, with another 500 hectares due to be planted this year thanks to the Government’s Green Recovery Fund.
Photo by tim & annette from FreeImages
Not only do these meadows look beautiful, but they also support an amazingly rich diversity of wildlife, especially invertebrates, offer better grazing for livestock, reduce the threat of flooding and are also excellent storers of carbon.
As I’ve said before such re-wilding schemes, whether that’s restoring mangrove swamps or replanting forests, do seem to be a potentially powerful solution in the fight against climate change. It’s a topic I hope to return to in more detail next time when I plan to bring you my interview with a leading conservation scientist and proponent of nature based climate change solutions.
And finally, that’s really it for what has proved an epic affair. I’m going to limit myself to doing just one story at a time going forward which hopefully should mean more frequency and brevity in future!