The first of four fascinating radio programs looking at shorebird conservation on the East Asian-Australasian Flyway is now available for listening and download here.
Program One is set in Australia and has interviews with a range of experts many of whom will already be familiar to Birds Koreans, including Chris Hassel of the Global Flyway Network, Phil Straw of the Australasian Wader Studies Group and Prof. Rich Fuller at the University of Queensland.
As Prof. Fuller notes on the results of an Australia-wide review of ten main migratory shorebird species, “the news is incredibly depressing…Seven out of the ten species we have studied are in highly significant national decline; two species, the (Far) Eastern Curlew and Curlew Sandpiper have declined by more than 80% in three generations. That means they are in imminent risk of extinction.”
Programs Two (set for broadcast next week) and Three (to be broadcast in two weeks’ time) will look at shorebird conservation in China and the Republic of Korea – and introduce the ecological tragedy and shame of Saemangeum to a new global audience.