THE Malaysian Nature Society Kuching Branch (MNSKB) successfully held a series of activities to mark World Wetlands Day recently and to raise public awareness on the importance of wetlands and migratory birds in Kuching.
The whole celebration programme was supported by BirdLife International – a global partnership of conservation organisations that strives to conserve birds, their habitats and global biodiversity, working with people towards sustainability in the use of natural resources.
On Feb 11, the MNSKB Bird Group held a public awareness talk featuring MNS head of conservation Yeap Chin Aik, who spoke on ‘The importance of wetlands in conserving migratory waterbirds in Sarawak’. About 50 people attended the talk.
The talk highlighted the importance of the Bako-Buntal Bay for migratory waterbirds or shorebirds that fly thousands of kilometres from their breeding grounds in the northern hemisphere to escape winter, rest and feed.
The birds travel through the invisible East Asian-Australasian Flyway, one of the nine flyways used by millions of migratory birds worldwide.
The talk also focused on MNSKB’s conservation work on migratory waterbirds through the annual Asian Waterbird Census between 2000 and 2009, and recreational birding trips among members to promote birdwatching and raise public awareness on the birds’ existence to the ecosystem.
Yeap said these activities had contributed a lot to documenting the birds’ population and species.
It is estimated about 15,000 waterbirds from at least 32 species make use of Bako-Buntal Bay to escape winter between September and March. The bay also supports several globally threatened and near-threatened species such as the Chinese egret, Nordmann’s greenshank, Asian dowitcher and Far Eastern curlew.
The bay has also recorded the highest number of red and great knots sighted at any site in Malaysia.
Yeap said the Chinese egret should be made the iconic bird of Bako-Buntal Bay because in the world, there were only 2,600 to 3,400 mature individuals spotted and their numbers are declining.
The highest count for Chinese egrets in Bako-Buntal Bay was more than 400 individuals.
The whole celebration programme was supported by BirdLife International – a global partnership of conservation organisations that strives to conserve birds, their habitats and global biodiversity, working with people towards sustainability in the use of natural resources.
On Feb 11, the MNSKB Bird Group held a public awareness talk featuring MNS head of conservation Yeap Chin Aik, who spoke on ‘The importance of wetlands in conserving migratory waterbirds in Sarawak’. About 50 people attended the talk.
The talk highlighted the importance of the Bako-Buntal Bay for migratory waterbirds or shorebirds that fly thousands of kilometres from their breeding grounds in the northern hemisphere to escape winter, rest and feed.
The birds travel through the invisible East Asian-Australasian Flyway, one of the nine flyways used by millions of migratory birds worldwide.
The talk also focused on MNSKB’s conservation work on migratory waterbirds through the annual Asian Waterbird Census between 2000 and 2009, and recreational birding trips among members to promote birdwatching and raise public awareness on the birds’ existence to the ecosystem.
Yeap said these activities had contributed a lot to documenting the birds’ population and species.
It is estimated about 15,000 waterbirds from at least 32 species make use of Bako-Buntal Bay to escape winter between September and March. The bay also supports several globally threatened and near-threatened species such as the Chinese egret, Nordmann’s greenshank, Asian dowitcher and Far Eastern curlew.
The bay has also recorded the highest number of red and great knots sighted at any site in Malaysia.
Yeap said the Chinese egret should be made the iconic bird of Bako-Buntal Bay because in the world, there were only 2,600 to 3,400 mature individuals spotted and their numbers are declining.
The highest count for Chinese egrets in Bako-Buntal Bay was more than 400 individuals.
Continue reading (Incl. Pics) at: Celebrating Wetlands in Kuching
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