On October 16th, during the Global Ecological Governance (Nansen) Conference, Beijing Forestry University in collaboration with the East Asian-Australasian Flyway Partnership (EAAFP), inaugurated the Flyway University Alliance. Together, at the 1st Flyway Scientific Symposium, they introduced the Initiative for International Big Science Program on Flyways. The initiative is designed to steer a decade of scientific collaboration and communication focused on migratory routes, aiming to amass worldwide knowledge and solutions to safeguard migratory birds and their environments.

On October 16th and 17th, as part of the Global Ecological Governance (Nansen) Conference, more than 60 international experts gathered at BFU for the International Science and Education Alliance for Migratory Flyways’ private meeting. The session was attended by our university’s Vice President Li Xiong and Jennifer George, the CEO of EAAFP. The participants focused their discussions on collaborative research efforts for migratory bird conservation within the East Asian-Australasian Flyway, and they also agreed on strategies to enhance cooperation across various fields and to improve the mechanism of the alliance.

International Big Science Programs are crucial for advancing knowledge frontiers, exploring the unknown, and addressing major global challenges. Through promoting international cooperation on a migratory flyway scale, Initiative for International Big Science Program on Flyways aims to conduct exchanges of personnel and knowledge, establish a joint monitoring and research network and improve scientific infrastructure and equipment for migratory flyways, and collaboratively conduct synchronized projects on fundamental research and technological innovation on large-scale flyway biodiversity conservation, solving significant world challenges in science. This will help unlock the global mysteries of bird migration, reveal the synergistic relationship between migratory waterbirds, people, and climate change, and provide scientific support for the conservation of large-scale flyway biodiversity.

By bringing together research teams from across migratory flyways, it will jointly apply for large-scale scientific research projects or widely raise funds to carry out the following studies, build Xiong'an Flyway Big Science Center, Network of Key Habitat Long-term Ecological Monitoring Stations in the Migratory Flyway, as well as Joint Laboratory of Migration Ecology and Large Scale Biodiversity Conservation. From top scientists in migratory ecology and conservation biology, an academic committee will be established to provide scientific support for the Conservation of migratory birds and their habitats in the East Asian-Australasian Flyway, Central Asian Flyway, with a focus on key areas such as Northeast Asia, the Yellow Sea, and Southeast Asia, as well as relevant countries along the Green Belt and Road.

Written by Chen Haoyuan
Translated and edited by Song He
Reviewed by Yu Yangyang