GOING SOUTH
TWINNING
IS WINNING
The destruction of wetlands across the Yellow Sea in China mirrors something that already
happened in the UK 50 years ago. Now, a twinning agreement between two vital wetlands
in Shanghai and London aims to stop the clock in China, and turn back time in Europe…
Martin Harper
Global Conservation Director, RSPB
I
n early September, Hurricane Irma tore
a path through the north-eastern Carib-
bean and south-eastern US, leaving horrific dev-
astation in its wake. Untold damage was done,
both to people’s livelihoods and to the region’s
incredible wildlife.
These events took place in the same week the
Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB,
BirdLife in the UK) hosted a visit from a Chinese
delegation that has been involved in a major
coastal habitat restoration scheme in the Yel-
low Sea. So naturally, thoughts turned to the
role that coastal wetlands can play in reducing
the impact of climate change. The science sug-
gests that climate change increases the intensity
of these storms, some of which will trigger tidal
surges. Coastal communities around the world
need support to help them cope with this and
also, of course, future rises in sea levels.
Coastal wetlands make communities more
resilient by providing flood storage, storm surge
buffers, erosion control, water quality improve-
ments, and of course wildlife habitat. The RSPB
has been involved in many such schemes in the
UK and that was, in part, the motivation for the
connection to the work in the Yellow Sea.
28
Bohai Gulf, China.
Photo Guo Yu/Shutterstock
0
WALLASEA
ISLAND AIMS TO
COMPENSATE FOR
THE HISTORICAL
LOSS OF THE UK’S
TIDAL HABITATS
In recent years, China has arguably become
a world leader in environmental matters —
“eco-civilisation” now being at the heart of its
national strategy. Gradually this policy is hav-
ing real impact in real places. A prime example
of this new approach is Shanghai’s Chongming
Dongtan National Nature Reserve, which acts
as a gateway to the Yellow Sea. The Yellow
Sea, which China shares with North and South
Korea, is the most important staging area for
coastal waterbirds in the world. It is also the
most threatened, due to the exceptional rate
of development along the Chinese and South
Korean coasts. Spoon-billed Sandpiper Calidris
pygmaea, which has been a species recovery
priority for the RSPB, and remains a focus for
BirdLife’s Preventing Extinctions Programme, is
among about 30 species brought to the brink
of extinction because of this. For this reason,
helping to conserve and restore the Yellow Sea
ecosystem is also a priority for the BirdLife Inter-
national Global Flyways Programme.
Chongming Dongtan, established nearly 20
years ago and well-resourced by Shanghai, has
been managed by Director Tang and his team.
Tang has clearly provided great vision, ambition
and a real focus on nature conservation as well
BIRDLIFE • SEPTEMBER 2017
Spoon-billed Sandpiper
Calidris pygmaea.
Photo Butterfly Hunter/
Shutterstock
7
IT IS HOPED
CHONGMING
DONGTAN WILL
FORM PART OF
THE YELLOW SEA
WORLD HERITAGE
NOMINATION
The Chinese delegation
meet with key BirdLife
International personnel.
Photo Rosa Gleave
1
as outreach. Yet, he was also clear about what
was needed to get the job done, saying, quite
candidly: “We have the money; we sometimes
don’t know what to do.” So, their approach is to
find the best people in the world to help them
achieve their vision.
This search ultimately led to representatives
from the Municipality of Shanghai visiting the
UK to meet with representatives from both RSPB
and BirdLife International. The Chinese delega-
tion made the long trip west with two objectives
in mind; firstly, to sign a Wetland Collaboration
Agreement with the RSPB, and secondly to visit
the site Chongming Dongtan is to be twinned
with: RSPB’s Wallasea Island Wild Coast Project,
a landmark conservation and engineering project
currently under development in Essex, England.
Wallasea Island is an ambitious project that
aims to compensate for the historical loss of
the United Kingdom’s tidal habitats, by recreat-
ing nine miles (15km) of mudflats and saltmarsh
lagoons. The flooding of the island is gradu-
ally creating important habitat for wading birds
such as Pied Avocet Recurvirostra avosetta. The
geographical parallels between this project, and
Chongming Dongtan, are clear to see, and make
them natural candidates for twinning.
From the point of view of a migratory waterbird,
the Yellow Sea plays the same role, of a crucial
refuelling stop, in the East Asian Australasian Fly-
way, as the North Sea does in the African-Eura-
sian Flyway. Shanghai and London are both the
biggest cities and at the south west corner of their
respective sea. Thus Wallasea Island, situated on
the outskirts of London, like Chongming Dong-
tan, is the gateway to its sea. The destruction of
coastal wetlands happening in the Yellow Sea
now already happened in the UK about half a cen-
tury ago. And that is what the Wallasea Island Wild
Coast project has set out to restore through its
major engineering project resulting in more hab-
itat, more wildlife, protection from storm surges
and new recreational opportunities. So it was a
natural fit for Chongming Dongtan to approach
the RSPB to partner with them in restoring part
of their site from the invasive cordgrass, Spartina,
which they had decided to eradicate by flooding,
necessitating a major engineering project.
This partnership was marked when Director
Tang and RSPB Chief Executive Mike Clarke
signed a twinning agreement. It is hoped that
Chongming Dongtan will form part of the excit-
ing Yellow Sea World Heritage nomination,
which currently consists of 14 key costal sites
across the Bohai Gulf and Yellow Sea. Like Wal-
lasea in Europe, Chongming Dongtan will hope-
fully inspire other efforts in China to protect the
natural environment at the coast. Ultimately,
in these volatile times, we need well-managed
coasts that benefit both wildlife and people.
SEPTEMBER 2017 • BIRDLIFE
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