-
Advertisement
Coronavirus pandemic
OpinionLetters

Letters | As Covid-19 ravages travel, long bird flights offer signs of a healthy planet

  • World Migratory Bird Day reminds of the connected existence of nature and people, and the need to make the world safer for all

2-MIN READ2-MIN
Birds swoop in over a pond at Hong Kong’s Mai Po nature reserve in Yuen Long, in the winter of 2019. The nature reserve serves as a key way station and wintering site along the East Asian-Australasian Flyway along which 50 million migratory waterbirds travel each year. Photo: Nora Tam
Letters

Covid-19 is a stark indicator of how connected our world has become. Racing across the globe in a few months, this virus has taken advantage of the global connectivity that has brought the world closer, due in no small part to air travel.

But while this anthropogenic connectivity has taken off, ecological connectivity that keeps the Earth running in good order is being severed. Forests are being converted and fragmented, rivers and streams no longer flow as they used to, and wetlands that store water and connect the land and sea are disappearing. The world’s natural connections are breaking apart.
The dangers of a degrading planet and the threats posed to human society are supported by a growing body of science-based evidence. The latest WWF Living Planet Report, which tracks the abundance of nearly 21,000 populations of mammals, birds, fish, reptiles and amphibians around the world, shows global populations of vertebrate species have declined by an average of 68 per cent since 1970. And freshwater biodiversity is declining at a far faster rate than in oceans or on land.
Advertisement
Today marks the second World Migratory Bird Day of 2020. For two days each year, we celebrate the long-distance bird migrations, to reflect, take stock and bring attention to the urgent threats to birds and their habitats that may cause these migrations to collapse, and to raise awareness and inspire people around the world to take appropriate conservation measures.

These very same threats of ecosystem loss and degradation also affect human communities. Thus, any remedial conservation action to sustain the millions of birds and their migrations will also safeguard the well-being of billions of people.

03:19

Fires ravaging world’s largest wetland and large parts of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil

Fires ravaging world’s largest wetland and large parts of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil

As part of the East Asian-Australasian Flyway, Hong Kong has a critically important role to play in sustaining these migrations. The wetlands of Mai Po and the Inner Deep Bay are an important stop for some of the 50-million-plus birds that traverse the flyway each year. Unlike the stalled travels under Covid-19, the migrations of the birds are an indicator of a healthy planet.

Advertisement
Select Voice
Select Speed
1.00x