Chongqing – Chongqing’s biodiversity conservation practices were shared in the China Pavilion of the second part of the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP15) to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Montreal. Chen Can, deputy secretary-general of the Chongqing Luhai International Communication Foundation, delivered an 11-minute video speech titled Eagle City—From Raptor Protection to Ecology Conservation, Canada, on December 12. 

Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality is the world’s largest city built in parallel ridge and valley regions because of its unique topography. The map shows that these parallel ridges and valleys look like expressways. These natural passageways enable migratory raptors to fly in circles in updrafts created by these mountains, making Chongqing a landmark of natural passages for migratory birds in Eurasia.

The skies of Chongqing are filled with hundreds of thousands of migratory raptors of more than thirty species each year. They travel along the parallel ridges and valleys between breeding grounds in Mongolia, Russia, Northeast China, and Japan and wintering grounds in the China-Indochina Peninsula, Indonesia, and even Oceania. Among them are many rare and endangered raptors, such as the Jerdon’s baza, the short-toed snake eagle, the booted eagle, Bonelli’s eagle, the greater spotted eagle, and the steppe eagle. The number of migratory raptor species accounts for 80% of the number of raptors in Chongqing and 46% of the country. And this earns the city another name, “Eagle City”.

During the annual migration season, Chongqing welcomes a flock of raptors to roost and obtain supplies, creating the city’s picturesque scenery. However, the rapid expansion of Chongqing’s urban areas and the lives of more than 30 million people will inevitably bring impacts and challenges to these migrating raptors. A harmonious coexistence of people, nature, and the city is urgently needed in Chongqing, as is the raptors’ symbiosis with the city.

The Chongqing Forestry Bureau, the government department responsible for bird protection in Chongqing, has established a total of 1,269,000 hectares of nature reserves. Every year, it organizes “Bird Loving Week” urban publicity activities, compiles and publishes books such as Field Guide to the Raptors in Chongqing, and launches the “Bird Escort Campaign” volunteer service action for the protection of migratory birds in 2018, advocates “Care for migratory birds, protect the city of mountains and rivers”. It has established a migratory bird protection mechanism led by the government, supported by the society, and participated by the public. In 2021 alone, 43 volunteer bird protection teams completed 283 patrol activities, totaling 1,170 kilometers of patrol and more than 2,000 hours of patrol time. More than 100 public activities have been held by 41 social organizations in protected areas and science museums in the city. 

In addition, Chen presented three examples of what the Chongqing people do to protect birds.

Han Zheng, a raptor monitoring volunteer after retiring, is responsible for the raptor monitoring site located at the Nanshan Great Golden Eagle in Tongluo Mountains. He often has to drive for half an hour and climb a mountain for another half hour to reach the monitoring site. He once recorded up to 3,800 raptors in a single day in his monitoring records. As a well-known local bird conservation organization, Chongqing Bird Watching Society regularly organizes national volunteers and bird enthusiasts to visit various observation sites in Chongqing’s parallel ridges to conduct simultaneous surveys of transit raptors during the migration season and has accumulated and analyzed over ten years of basic raptor data for the study of raptors.

Zhou Jun is a veterinarian at the Chongqing Terrestrial Wildlife Rescue Center. After a systematic examination, this bird is ready to fly back into the wild. According to incomplete statistics, there are six municipal rescue institutions in Chongqing. Among them is the Chongqing Terrestrial Wildlife Rescue Center, which treats a variety of injured wildlife brought in by the public each year. In the last five years, it has rescued 338 raptors, including 143 Falconiformes, Accipitriformes, and 195 in the order Strigiformes.

Weichen is a staff member of the Nature Bridge Environment Education Center. Every Saturday morning, she leads volunteers in a park to provide the public with a bird-watching activity. Sometimes, she visits schools to share raptor stories with young people. The themed activity “a bird’s-eye view of the new world” has been held for six years, with 840 volunteers participating in 343 sessions, providing services for more than 30,000 people. Several other public welfare organizations exist in Chongqing, including 14 regional and county public welfare organizations dedicated to raptor conservation and advocacy. They work together to establish a network of raptor habitat patrols and organize regular public participation in raptor protection activities.

“The ‘Bird Guardian’ now has many volunteer members from nature reserves, schools, communities, and business districts across the city. They, different in ages and careers, have participated in bird protection in rich forms with interesting content. But all of these are just a miniature of the ‘Eagle City,’” said Chen.

The Chongqing Luhai International Communication Foundation has supported Chongqing-based Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in their efforts to explore public charity, cultural exchange, and biodiversity conservation. In addition to funding and supporting NGOs’ work in raptor conservation, they are also seeking more active and innovative solutions in ecological conservation, rural development, and Sino-foreign NGO exchange and cooperation to jointly promote mutual appreciation between oceanic and continental civilizations for sustainable development.

“In the future, we will build a raptor museum, carry out joint international actions to protect migratory birds, and hold raptor-watching competitions for youth. We also welcome more bird conservation organizations and enthusiasts worldwide to contact us for research, rescue, and guardianship of migratory raptors. Last but not least, welcome to Chongqing, an “Eagle City” for bird watching and conservation, to experience its charm on a deeper level,” Chen concluded.