Braving the icy early morning wind, 12-year-old Mavis adjusts her binoculars to get a view of migratory birds at San Jin Tuo in Tianjin. She zooms in a bit more and screams with joy at the sight of ceased construction work and missing marine litter.

“I am happy to see birds wintering without any human interference,” she said. A fan of bird watching, Mavis says that a biodiversity class in school triggered her passion for migratory birds. 

The youngest member at the second Tianjin-Binhai Birding Festival last weekend, told CGTN that previously, the picture of bird watching etched in her memory always included large-scale human activity.

Apart from Mavis, more than 90 bird watchers and ornithologists gathered at the festival also witnessed unexpectedly silent mudflats for the first time. The only noise heard were of chirping birds, winds and a few vehicles passing through a highway nearly 400 meters away.

The turnaround at the chaotic coastal belt comes after a recent government ban on land reclamation.

In the last few years, industrialization and urbanization along the coasts depleted more than 70 percent of China’s mudflats, destroying the habitat of migratory birds. The country's food-rich intertidal mudflats around the Yellow Sea attract more than 50 million migratory birds annually from the Arctic region, Australia and New Zealand.

According to a study in 2015 by Paulson Institute and the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Geography, China lost 58 percent of its coastal wetlands, 73 percent of its mangrove forests, and 80 percent of its coral reefs, between 1950 and 2014, shrinking the habitat of migratory birds.

A long battle to maintain the winged guests’ habitat

Bird watchers looked on with intrigue when both Wang Jiamin, 65, a conservationist from Tianjin, and Mavis jumped for joy at the sight of rare birds.

Jiamin pointed out that barely two years ago, the area was facing its worst pollution and habitat loss. In 2009, disturbed over the ecological damage in the coastal areas of Tianjin, he started a clean-up campaign in partnership with the government.

“The local government supported us. I also raised awareness about the birds and coastal area conservation in schools,” he said. “Habitat and food loss was severe to the extent that the birds would fly a long distance to feed their newborn. There should be more government collaborations and more students like Mavis.”

Along with nesting, breeding and foraging of migratory birds on the coast, the government and conservationists' efforts to protect the wetland have shown improvement.

New warning signs showing the penalties for fishing, mining and waste disposal are now dotted across strategic locations in the conservation zone.

During the birding festival's opening ceremony, Professor Zhang Zhengwang of the School of Life Sciences of Beijing Normal University maintained that the collaboration between the government, non-profits, and conservationists also helped to eradicate bird poisoning incidents in Northeast China.

Eagerness to witness the implementation of the policy

Major infrastructure projects not only in Tianjin's coastal area, but also in other parts of China, have come to a standstill, with many bird watchers expressing optimism for the future. Director of Eco-Action, Terry Townshend has been documenting and protecting birds in China for years, told CGTN that the government’s decision is already having a massive impact.

“It will be interesting to see the implementation of the policy. Enforcement of rules like stopping effluent discharge to illegal fishing, each ban will give a new lease of life to migratory birds,” he said.

China is located just midway of the East Asian-Australasian Flyway of migratory birds. Almost the entire world population of the the Spoonbill breed, relict gull and Sunder’s Gull breed in the Bohai Bay at the border of northern Hebei Province and Tianjin Municipality.

The festival was hosted by the China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCGDF) along with Tianjin authorities.

“Binhai has set an example in the construction of urban ecological civilization. We welcome more birds watchers next year,” said Chen Yunshan, one of the area's directors.

Written by: Alok Gupta

Mavis setting up her binoculars and watching migratory birds in Tianjin. /Alok Gupta Photo

Warnings displayed at Binhai coastal belt banning waste disposal and the picking up of migratory bird eggs. /Alok Gupta Photo

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