East Asian-Australasian Flyway Partnership Working Group Black-faced Spoonbills
Conservation Leaders Unite to Secure the Future of Black-faced Spoonbills

The Black-faced Spoonbill was listed as Endangered in the IUCN Red List, Appendix I in The Convention on Migratory Species, and one of the UNESCAP NEASPEC’s flagship species. Despite its recent population growth due to collaborative conservation efforts, new threats like coastal development and avian disease outbreaks threaten its recovery. The East Asian-Australasian Flyway Partnership Black-faced Spoonbill Working Group proposed revising the bird’s International Single Species Action Plan. It aims to sustain progress by uniting stakeholders from various countries, assessing emerging threats, and building resilience through coordinated actions. With a 10-year timeline (2026-2036), the plan addressed knowledge gaps, evaluated conservation effectiveness, and aligned efforts with international frameworks. Expected impacts include sustainable population growth, strengthened regional collaboration, and alignment with regional and global conservation goals in East Asia – DPR and RO Korea, PR China, and Japan.

During this international meeting, the experts evaluated the previous action plan, which has not been updated since 2010, assessed the current status, identified knowledge gaps, and developed a new 10-year action plan to sustain the recovery of the Black-faced Spoonbill, including DPRK’s case. In addition, we discussed the development direction of the EAAFP Black-faced Spoonbill Working Group. Dr Hyun-Ah Choi, HSF Korea, also participated in this meeting and shared the status of Black-faced Spoonbill in DPRK.