In recent years, people have been competing with sand martins for land. Every year in the depths of spring, the nests of the sand martins are likely destroyed. Protecting them remains a difficult challenge.

To keep sand martins’ homeland

Without detection and interference, a river training project with a total investment of more than 370 million RMB in Yuanshi County, Shijiazhuang, Hebei will be completed by the end of April. At that time, sand martin will also lose their only home in Yuanshi County.

Sand martins are small, with a grayish-brown stripe on their chest and a forked tail. They usually nest on sandy cliffs along the banks of rivers or lakes. Every year during their breeding season, they flock to north China to make their home. They generally nest and lay eggs in May; then around the end of June, the chicks grow.

On March 22nd, environmental protection volunteers found out the nest destroying operation in Yuanshi County in time and carried out an emergency rescue operation before sand martins arrived.

Half of the nests are gone

The return period of sand martin is coming. They will start from Southeast Asia and fly thousands of kilometers, among which nearly thousands of them will arrive in Yuanshi County, Shijiazhuang.

“Sand martins will come to Yuanshi County in late April to build nests and breeding and will not move to the south until August and September", said Mr. Hong. On March 22nd, on the eve of sand martin's return, he went to the wetland for patrol and found that nearly half of the nests had "disappeared".

There are four sandbanks on the wetland for sand martins to build nests, two of which have been razed to the ground. At the scene, Mr. Hong saw hundreds of engineering vehicles working, and the remaining two sandbanks were also in danger of being destroyed.

After discovering that the habitat of sand martins has been damaged, Mr. Hong and Gao Qiong contacted the government of Yuanshi County and the Water Conservancy Bureau and other relevant departments urgently and reflected the situation to the China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCGDF), which has long focused on the protection of sand martins.

CBCGDF soon posted several articles about sand martins and the importance of its conservation. Linda Wang, Deputy Secretary-General of CBCGDF, believes that it is of great significance to protect the petrels during breeding, which directly determines the population number and future trend of the species.

According to Tang Ling, a staff member of the Research Office of CBCGDF, Shazhou is the only habitat suitable for sand martins to nest in Yuanshi County. On March 30th, CBCGDF sent an urgent letter to Hebei, Shijiazhuang and Yuanshi governments and relevant departments, suggesting that necessary environmental impact assessment should be carried out for the project, and habitat should be investigated, verified and properly protected.

Site encounter

According to Tang Ling, the Yuanshi incident is not an isolated case. Sand martins are found in many parts of China, but they are rarely found because their habitats are usually far away from residential areas. Since 2012, however, the destruction of their nests has been on every year.

In May 2012, the Hongyuan road project in Xinzheng's new area of Henan Province was resumed, and about one thousand nests were destroyed on the sandy section of the project. With the intervention of environmentalists, bird experts, and forestry authorities, the construction party later agreed to suspend the construction for two months, and the surviving sand martins were bred.

“At that time, many people mistakenly thought that these caves belonged to domestic swallows; in the process of urbanization, domestic swallows could not find suitable eaves and were forced to choose to nest on the construction site”, said Li Changkan, who is engaged in bird research, visited the construction site and identified it as sand martin.

In order to find out the reason why sand martins built a nest on the construction site, Li Changkan regarded it as a large number of field investigations. As of 2018, he has found 12 nest areas in Zhengzhou, 10 of which are construction sites, all of which have only one chance to build a nest; 2 of them have been used continuously for ten years, 1 of which has been abandoned.

Xuchang, Henan Province, provides a reference case for Yuanshi County. In June 2018, the habitat of sand martins in Xuchang city was destroyed by the sand mining villagers. Under the dispute, the local government specially designated 50 mu “Homestead” for sand martins and took a series of protective measures such as breaking the circuit, setting up a net, and building a soft wall. In Henan Province, sand martin is concerned because of its frequent distress, but outside Henan Province, this species is still unknown.

Waiting for the sand martins to return

“After receiving the feedback from Yuanshi County, we don't know how to balance flood control and protection as well", said Tang Ling, a staff member of the CBCGDF Research Department. Therefore, on April 1st, CBCGDF organized more than 20 experts in animal protection, water conservancy, garden construction, and other fields to hold a seminar. According to Tang Ling, experts at the meeting agreed that the sandbank in the Yuanshi section of Huaihe River would not affect flood control and drainage, so it should be protected to avoid further damage caused by construction.

With the help of CBCGDF, the rescue operation made rapid progress. On April 3rd, CBCGDF’s sand martins protection expert group rushed to Huaihe wetland construction site, negotiated with Yuanshi County staff, and soon reached a consensus: to define the ecological “red line” for sand martins and combine infrastructure construction with ecological protection. In the evening, Yuanshi County Water Conservancy Bureau issued a notice saying, “we will fully respect experts and social opinions, absorb reasonable suggestions, and strive to build Huaihe River Wetland into a new landscape of harmonious coexistence between adults and nature.”

A few days later, Hebei Water Conservancy Survey and Design Institute conducted field exploration and drew a “schematic diagram of the protection scope of sand martin’s nest”, on which the proposed reservation scope line was indicated in detail, leaving 5,711 square meters of habitat for sand martins.

This is the end of the survival crisis of sand martins in Yuanshi County. However, for CBCGDF, the protection of sand martins is not over yet. Following CBCGDF’s Community Conservation Area for Sand Martins at Henan, the Community Conservation Area for Sand Martins at Yuanshi County was established by CBCGDF recently.

It’s another year when the sand martins flying back. During this period, Hebei and Henan volunteers have increased the frequency of patrol. They need to be alert and take the initiative before the next nest is destroyed.

(Photo credit: CBCGDF volunteers)

Original Chinese article:

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/uzqp4THBTv7xM5j_mFM1VA

By / Xue Tongtong Modified / Maggie