* Stretching from Alaska and the Russian Far East to Southeast Asia and Australia, the East Asian-Australasian Flyway (EAAF) is considered one of the world's busiest flyways, with China at its midpoint serving as an irreplaceable rest haven and a core hub for cross-border conservation.

* The Guangdong Neilingding Futian National Nature Reserve near Shenzhen Bay sits amid one of China's most densely urbanized areas. Its mangroves and tidal flats provide an important wintering and stopover site for migratory birds traveling along the EAAF.

* Wetlands are dynamic ecosystems where water meets land, ranging from mangroves and rivers to lakes, floodplains and coasts. Among the planet's major ecosystems, they provide vital habitat for countless bird species.

* "Over the past decade, China's ecological and environmental policies have continued to improve, particularly in the field of wetland conservation, and China has become an outstanding model for the region."

BEIJING, Aug. 16 (Xinhua) -- Each year, millions of migratory birds embark on grueling transcontinental journeys along the East Asian-Australasian Flyway (EAAF), braving storms, food shortages and human-made threats as they travel between breeding and wintering grounds.

Stretching from Alaska and the Russian Far East to Southeast Asia and Australia, the EAAF is considered one of the world's busiest flyways, with China at its midpoint serving as an irreplaceable rest haven and a core hub for cross-border conservation.

The Guangdong Neilingding Futian National Nature Reserve near Shenzhen Bay sits amid one of China's most densely urbanized areas. Its mangroves and tidal flats provide an important wintering and stopover site for migratory birds traveling along the EAAF.

"Migratory birds are a visible barometer of changes in an ecosystem," said Yang Qiong, a senior engineer at the reserve.

"Shorebirds bound for their wintering or breeding destinations must stop along the way to refuel. During migration seasons, many choose to stop over in Shenzhen Bay for one to two weeks," Yang said.

These birds find sanctuary in the lush mangrove forests and forage across mudflats exposed at low tide, feeding on worms, crabs, mudskippers and other prey.

To meet the birds' changing needs, the reserve fine-tunes its habitat management during peak migration periods. Yang and her colleagues closely monitor different species and use smart floodgates to regulate water levels in converted fishponds, helping ensure that migratory birds can find food and suitable roosting habitat whenever they arrive, regardless of the tides.

Yang pointed to the neighboring Mai Po Nature Reserve in Hong Kong as a model of habitat management. Mai Po lies across Shenzhen Bay (Deep Bay) from the Futian reserve and the two wetlands are ecologically connected. They formed "sister wetlands" to foster biodiversity and synergize conservation efforts.

Drawing on its experience in wetland management, Mai Po has also worked with the National Forestry and Grassland Administration to train conservation professionals from countries in the region, Wen Xianji, director of Mai Po Nature Reserve and Flyway Program of the World Wide Fund for Nature Hong Kong, told Xinhua.

"Mai Po is one of the most well-managed wetland areas in the flyway. Last January, we came to Mai Po for a training program offered to ASEAN countries, and saw firsthand some of the best practices. Everything has been accounted for, especially how water levels are adjusted in artificial sites like shrimp ponds to suit different types of birds roosting," said Georgina Fernandez, head of the Sibugay Wetland Nature Reserve in central Philippines.

Fernandez noted Mai Po's use of a smart habitat monitoring network incorporating satellite imagery, remote cameras and drones, as well as the reserve's efforts to provide public access while minimizing disturbance to the wetland ecosystem. She expressed hope that more such training would be offered to conservation professionals from Southeast Asia.

Fernandez said the training also allowed participants to exchange bird-banding data with Mai Po staff. "We are glad to find that at least two species, common redshank and spoon-billed sandpiper, migrate between our site and those in China," she said.

"No one country can protect migratory birds alone. Joint protection is essential because each country protects one part of a shared life cycle," said Jennifer George, chief executive of the EAAF Partnership.

As the world's first intergovernmental organization exclusively dedicated to mangrove protection, the International Mangrove Center (IMC) launched full institutional operation with its first council meeting held in Shenzhen in July.

Wetlands are dynamic ecosystems where water meets land, ranging from mangroves and rivers to lakes, floodplains and coasts. Among the planet's major ecosystems, they provide vital habitat for countless bird species. Protecting wetlands is crucial to safeguarding the flyways on which migratory birds depend.

China, whose total wetland area ranks first in Asia and fourth globally, has stepped up wetland conservation and restoration in recent years and made notable progress.

"China will pursue a modernization of harmony between humanity and nature, and promote high-quality development in the wetlands conservation cause," Chinese President Xi Jinping said at the opening ceremony of the 14th Meeting of the Conference of the Contracting Parties to the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands on Nov. 5, 2022.

Pyae Phyo Aung, executive director at Nature Conservation Society-Myanmar, has worked with Chinese researchers since 2020 to study the wintering activities of the spoon-billed sandpiper along the southern coasts of China and Myanmar. The critically endangered shorebird is believed to number only in the hundreds in the wild.

"China has set an example for the entire flyway in habitat restoration and reversing wetland degradation. Establishing national nature reserves such as those in Yancheng, Jiangsu Province and the Yellow River Delta in Shandong Province is a key step," he said, adding that China's vision of ecological civilization and practical initiatives are tangible contributions to regional cooperation and global ecological governance.

South Korean ornithologist Kisup Lee said that the Tiaozini Wetlands on the Jiangsu coast and Dongtan Wetland on Chongming Island, Shanghai, have undergone systematic ecological restoration, attracting increasing numbers of rare migratory birds, such as the black-faced spoonbill, to stop over.

"China has unleashed swift and effective measures to protect key habitats," said Lee.

In late July, the 48th session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee in Busan, South Korea, approved the boundary modification of the Migratory Bird Sanctuaries along the Coast of Yellow Sea-Bohai Gulf of China, officially incorporating the Changshan Archipelago into the World Heritage list.

Earlier this year, China adopted the landmark Ecological and Environmental Code, further strengthening the legal framework for wetland conservation and broader ecological protection. The country has also expanded its network of internationally recognized wetlands, with 82 Wetlands of International Importance, known as Ramsar sites, and 22 accredited international wetland cities.

"Australia has a lot to learn from China. China and its leadership are really forward-thinking and ambitious in setting strong law and giving clear policy guidance regarding nature, such as strict controls on development activities in red-line areas," said Janice Baird, a regulatory affairs specialist and principal at Australian environmental nonprofit Earth & Every.

"Biodiversity makes Earth full of vigor and vitality, and lays the foundation for human survival and development," Xi said in a keynote speech at the leaders' summit of the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity on Oct. 12, 2021, calling on the international community to enhance cooperation, build consensus and pool strength to build a community of all life on Earth.

Few creatures illustrate such interdependence more vividly than migratory birds. Crossing national borders along ancient flyways, they rely on a chain of wetlands across countries for feeding, resting and survival, making their protection inherently a shared responsibility.

Sometimes, a tiny leg band is enough to make those otherwise invisible connections visible.

In 2017, a Great Knot, an endangered shorebird, was tagged and released in China with the band number "U72." The following year, staff at the Sibugay wetland, the Philippines' largest Ramsar site, spotted it four times in three months.

Fernandez, the reserve's director, still keeps a photo in her cellphone of U72 foraging on Sibugay's mudflat.

"Birds are not bound by manmade borders; they simply follow the wetlands needed to survive. Still, when people in different countries record and share information, we begin to see the flyway as one connected system," said Jennifer George of the EAAF Partnership.

In April, a white-naped crane, a species under first-class national protection in China, was recorded in the Poyang Lake Nature Reserve in east China's Jiangxi Province. A leg band indicated that the bird had migrated from the Khurkh-Khuiten Nature Reserve in Mongolia, a known breeding site.

"One small bird, identified through its band, showed that wetlands in both countries were part of the same life journey. It carried the message of international cooperation and turned an invisible migration route into something real and personal," George said.

With biodiversity conservation as a shared goal, China has signed bilateral agreements on migratory bird protection with countries including Australia, South Korea, Russia and New Zealand. These agreements provide an institutional framework for monitoring and protecting cross-border populations of endangered species such as red-crowned crane, Siberian crane and crested ibis.

For more than two decades, bar-tailed godwits have linked northern China's Yalu River estuary with New Zealand's Miranda wetlands. Though thousands of kilometers apart, conservationists from the two places have jointly safeguarded the annual voyage of these rare, endangered birds. Their shared conservation efforts have also fostered friendship between the two communities.

Since 2015, the Poyang Lake Nature Reserve and Mongolia's Wildlife Science and Conservation Center (WSCC) have carried out joint research on the precious white-naped crane, with Mongolian researchers visiting China to track banded birds and study their wintering conditions.

"Over the past decade, China's ecological and environmental policies have continued to improve, particularly in the field of wetland conservation, and China has become an outstanding model for the region," said WSCC Director Nyambayar Batbayar.

(Video reporters: Chen Yi, Liang Xizhi, Zhao Manjun, Guo Yige, Zhang Dongqiang, Li Guangtao, Baoleri Qiqige, Xue Yanwen, Zhang Shuhui, Xu Langxuan, Guo Xin, Yu Huan, Yang Chang, Sun Yiran, Jin Haomin, Garidi; Video editors: Zheng Xin, Zhao Xiaoqing, Zhu Jianhui)■