The East Asian-Australasian Flyway Partnership celebrated the World Migratory Bird Day in Seoul, to raise global awareness on the need for international cooperation to conserve migratory birds worldwide, the organization said Friday.

Under the theme, “unifying our voices for conservation,” the EAAFP has started to promote a campaign to spread its message to a broader audience by collaborating with major migratory bird corridors worldwide, including the African-Eurasian flyway, the East Asian-Australasian Flyway and the Americas flyways. 

Starting from this year, World Migratory Bird Day will be held in parts of the world in May and October. Various educational events will also take place worldwide during the anniversaries, including seminars, exhibitions and bird-watching excursions.

Expanding global cooperation is a must, experts in Seoul said, urging related agencies and government bodies around the world to save the birds from major threats, including habitat loss mostly caused by human disruption.

Lew Young, chief executive of the EAAFP Secretariat, said the organization also need to raise public awareness among other things.

The EAAFP is a regional platform that aims to conserve the migratry waterbirds. It currently has 36 partners, including 18 governments, six intergovernmental agencies and 11 international non-governmental organizations.

Suh Min-hwan, acting president of the National Institute of Biological Resources of Korea, also stressed the role of conserving wildlife on the Korean Peninsula.

“The Korean Peninsula, located on the East Asian-Australasian Flyway, plays an important role as a stopover of many migratory birds along the flyway,” he said. 

World Migratory Bird Day was found in 2006 by two international wildlife treaties -- the Secretariat of the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds and the Secretariat of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals -- and has grown to become a popular global campaign since. The EAAFP is one of the main partners of the campaign.

By Park Ju-young (jupark@heraldcorp.com)