EAAFP Youth Task Force

🌏✨ Celebrating World Migratory Bird Day 2026 – Youth Voices for the Flyway! 🪶

This year’s WMBD theme “Every Bird Counts – Your Observations Matter!” reminds us how powerful community and citizen science can be in protecting migratory birds and their habitats. And guess what? Youth are leading the way💪🌱

To celebrate, the EAAFP Youth Task Force launches the Youth Voices for the Flyway, a virtual open call for young people (ages 12–35) across the Flyway to share their creativity through art, poems, videos, audio, photography, and education tools. 🎨🎶📸

🔥 We’re delighted to announce that 34 entries were shortlisted from passionate young artists and advocates across the region!

Each entry reflects the creativity, dedication, and commitment of youth to bird conservation. Their contributions embody the spirit of WMBD and show how young voices can inspire awareness, action, and hope for the future of migratory waterbirds.

🙌 A huge THANK YOU to every artist our there!

Beginning this week, we’ll be introducing each entry one by one in our upcoming posts. 📲

✨ Please keep an eye on our feed, you won’t want to miss the amazing stories and creativity flying across the Flyway!

Together, let’s honor the message of WMBD 2026: Every bird counts, and every observation matters. 🌟 With youth leading the way, we can strengthen conservation efforts and ensure migratory birds continue to thrive along the East Asian–Australasian Flyway.

Check our the artworks here:
https://eaaflyway.org/world-migratory-bird-day-youth-voices-for-the-flyway/

Conservation WMBD

𝐂𝐀𝐋𝐋 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐈𝐏𝐀𝐍𝐓𝐒!📣

Hey there 𝐖𝐞𝐭𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐇𝐞𝐫𝐨𝐞𝐬! Ready to make waves from wetlands to ocean?

We are calling YOUth!!! Join us at the Youth for Wetlands and Ocean Forum 2026 with the theme: “Sustaining Ocean Health, Sailing a Resilient Nation”

📅 May 23, 2026 (Saturday)
⏰ 8:00 AM – 2:00 PM
📍 Las Piñas–Parañaque Wetland Park (LPPWP)

Get ready for a day filled with:
- Inspiring talks
- Environmental learning
- Youth-led advocacy & planning

Apply now:
📲 Scan the QR code to register and secure your slot!
or register via link: https://forms.gle/jspXajzRfFrWNc516

Kaya tara, Kabataan! ! Bring your friends, your passion, and your ideas — let’s sail together towards a more resilient nation.

🌍✨ World Curlew Day - from celebration to conservation

Today (April 21) is designated as World Curlew Day. It is a grass-roots initiative, aiming to raise awareness for the protection of all curlew species in the world with any means of collaborative actions.

Although winter is over and we’re well into spring, you can still spot Curlew at your country during their migrating journey. These are the birds gathering before they make their migration to breeding grounds.

As you may know, the Far Eastern Curlew is the best example that can only be found along the . It is classified as an Endangered species by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and is listed in Appendix I of the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS).

🪶 Raising awareness is vital. Together, we can ensure that future generations will still hear the curlew’s call echoing across our skies.

🦆 Deadline Extended – Youth Voices for the Flyway! 🎨🌏

We’ve heard from many passionate young artists across the East Asian–Australasian Flyway (EAAF) who wanted more entries to voice out for the flyway!

To make sure every young voice can be part of this celebration, we’re extending the deadline!

✨ Deadline extended: 25 April 2026
📍 Showcase: Selected works will be featured on the EAAFP Youth Task Force webpage on 9 May 2026

This open call welcomes submissions from youth aged 12–35 in the EAAF region. Share your creativity and passion for migratory waterbirds and wetlands through but not limited to:

Visual art
Poems
Videos
Audio pieces
Photography
Education tools

Let your voices fly across the flyway and be part of this global celebration!

🔗Submit you work here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfJ7xeKDPUhsmzuAmVMDjhXbat0ma5QbJVUe6AeGcjFLnq4SA/viewform

🫧 From Awareness to Action

With the support of the EAAFP WMBD Small Grant, Kichir-Michir, a local conservation club in Bangladesh, organized a community discussion program and installed a billboard against bird hunting in 2022 at Haripur, Kushtia—an area important for migratory birds.

Since then, the local community has taken true ownership of the initiative. They have been actively preventing bird hunting, taking care of the billboard themselves, and maintaining positive and supportive communication with Kichir-Michir.

Yesterday, with their help and enthusiasm, Kichir-Michir renovated and newly decorated the billboard, giving it a fresh look.

It is truly inspiring to see how community awareness can transform into real conservation action.

— Fariha Iqbal
Country Coordinator, EAAFP Youth Task Force

🚨 Youth Survey Extended!! 🚨

Are you part of a youth organization working on migratory waterbirds 🦆 and wetlands 🌾 in the East Asian–Australasian Flyway (EAAF) 🌏?

We want to hear from you! 🗣️
Help us map youth initiatives across the flyway 🗺️ and strengthen collaboration in conservation efforts 🤝💚

📅 Survey period: February 28 – May 10, 2026
📝 Take the survey here:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd9-qIurl5pceY7njzxR4jQr30aAAaRkNejGEI13MJ4fLcNyg/viewform

Please share with youth networks and organizations working in wetlands and waterbird conservation! 🙌🌱✨

🚨 Youth Survey Alert!

Are you part of a youth organization working on migratory waterbirds and wetlands in the East Asian–Australasian Flyway (EAAF) region?

We want to hear from you! 🌏🦆
Help us map youth initiatives across the flyway and strengthen collaboration in conservation efforts.

🗓 Survey period: February 28 – March 15, 2026
🔗 Take the survey here:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd9-qIurl5pceY7njzxR4jQr30aAAaRkNejGEI13MJ4fLcNyg/formResponse

Please share with youth networks and organizations working in wetlands and waterbird conservation!

🦆 CALL FOR YOUTH ARTISTS FOR WORLD MIGRATORY BIRD DAY 2026 🦆

We are excited to announce Youth Voices for the Flyway, a non-competitive, virtual open call for young artists across the East Asian–Australasian Flyway (EAAF)! 🎨🌏

This is your chance to showcase your creativity and passion for migratory waterbird conservation. This year’s theme: “Every Bird Counts – Your Observations Matter!” underscores the power of citizen science and community engagement.

Who can join?
Ages 12–35, from any country within the EAAF region.

What can you submit?
Visual art, poems, videos, audio pieces, photography, and education tools celebrating migratory waterbirds and their habitats.

📅 Deadline: 16 April 2026
📍 Feature: Selected works will be showcased on the EAAFP Youth Task Force webpage on 9 May 2026

Let your voices fly across the flyway and be part of this global celebration!
Submit you work here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfJ7xeKDPUhsmzuAmVMDjhXbat0ma5QbJVUe6AeGcjFLnq4SA/viewform

🌏✨ Youth feature! Youth Leading Conservation Across Borders

From the wetlands of Bangladesh to the urban wetlands of Beijing, Faysal Ahmad’s journey reflects the power of youth leadership in conservation.

As a dedicated member of the EAAFP Youth Task Force, he has transformed his childhood curiosity about migratory birds into a global mission, bridging science, communities, and cultures to protect wetlands and flyways.

His work was recently featured in China Daily, where his story of connecting ecological wisdom across borders was shared with a wider audience, underscoring the importance of youth voices in conservation. His efforts at Beijing Forestry University, combined with his engagement with children, youth, and international partners, show that conservation is not just about data but about people, stories, and shared futures. By linking ecological knowledge with community, he demonstrates how science can serve society and empower the next generation of conservation leaders.

📝Read more

https://tinyurl.com/2arwt393

🌍✨ World Wetlands Day ✨🌍

World Wetlands Day is celebrated every year on 2 February. This day marks the date of the adoption of the Convention on Wetlands in 1971, in the Iranian city of Ramsar on the shores of the Caspian Sea.

Wetlands are among the most important ecosystems on earth, serving as important habitats for wildlife and playing a vital role in maintaining natural ecological processes (Seok et al. 2022). Many of the world’s most important wetlands serve as essential breeding, non-breeding, and stopover sites for waterbird species worldwide. For migratory waterbirds, wetlands are more than habitats for many endangered species along EAAF, including several endangered species such as the Siberian Crane (Grus leucogeranus), Oriental Stork (Ciconia boyciana), and Baer’s Pochard (Aythya baeri), regularly use this region as a wintering and stopover area (Cao et al. 2010; Liu et al. 2023; Cheng et al. 2023). They are safe havens along epic journeys across continents.

For example, in recent decades, intensive and large-scale anthropogenic pressures have led to dramatic changes in China’s coastal wetlands. Extensive coastal land reclamation has resulted in the loss of more than half of these wetlands from the mid-1900s to the early 2000s (Ma et al. 2014; Lei et al. 2017). Many shorebird populations along this flyway have experienced severe declines, largely driven by habitat loss and degradation, particularly along China’s coast (Piersma et al. 2016; Studds et al. 2017; Wang et al. 2018).

Effective conservation of coastal wetlands and waterbirds requires integrated strategies that combine policy, habitat management, and multiparty participation.

This , let’s celebrate and commit to:

🛡️ Protecting critical wetland habitats
🌱 Restoring degraded ecosystems
🤝 Supporting communities and conservation partnerships
🐦 Safeguarding migratory birds along their flyways

Wetlands are irreplaceable. Protecting them means protecting life itself. 💚