Dr Nial Moores, Nationwide Director, Birds Korea.
We’re blissful to share that the East Asian-Australasian Flyway Partnership (EAAFP) formally designated the Yeoncheon Imjin River as Flyway Community Web site “EAAF156” on October eleventh this yr.
As said by the EAAFP Secretariat of their on-line announcement on October twenty second 2024, the Yeoncheon Imjin River FNS has, “distinctive worldwide significance in conserving migratory waterbirds”.
Fowl knowledge used for this vital designation had been collected first by Birds Korea Yeoncheon Director Baek Seung-Kwang (who has carried out counts of Purple-crowned and White-naped Cranes between December and February yearly for the previous 20 years or so – by way of typically brutally severely chilly winters). Since 2021, contracts from Yeoncheon County to Birds Korea then enabled us to conduct extra surveys of species within the Yeoncheon Imjin River Biosphere Reserve, together with frequent counts of worldwide Endangered Scaly-sided Mergansers and internationally vital concentrations of geese. In flip, this analysis was then used to focus on conservation actions, together with organising screening to cut back disturbance and the proposed restoration of 40ha of riverine wetland close to Jeongok (within the southeast of the FNS), whereas additionally serving to to advertise conservation tourism to the county.
Our honest thanks as soon as extra to Yeoncheon County, particularly Mayor Kim Deog Hyun and workers inside the Tourism Division, for funding this important analysis and for proposing the Flyway Community Web site.