I have just written an article on Birding Frontiers and Talking Naturally about the ongoing ORIENTAL STORK poisoning incident at Beidagang, near Tianjin, and how, thanks to the action of local heroes and social media, it could just be a tipping point in the protection of wild birds in China.
Terry, Fantastic article (as usual) and I agree that this could be a turning point. Well done for raising this issue to even more people.
Tom Beeke
Thanks Tom.. Much appreciated. The rehabilitated storks are likely to be released this week (possibly on Wednesday). It’s going to be a massive good news story that will hopefully be picked up by the local and national media in a big way… But in a sign that there are many battles to come, Jan-Erik Nilsen reported some large nets at Miyun Reservoir on Saturday…. Hopefully we can have a ‘day of action’ there next weekend…
Have been following the story of the oriental cranes this weekend, saw another article this morning on Sohu.com, http://news.sohu.com/20121119/n357956360.shtml.
Recently there are articles about the killing/hunting that continuously popping up on the news. I hope the government gonna do something.
But I also got so pissed by the Chinese way of dealing with everything. Always do a little bit on the very shallow level and wait for the anger of the people calms down, then the story is over. Never never go deeper to solve the problem. Never insist
This is a long journey.
Thanks for the comment!! Yes, we need to try to keep up the media pressure and interest in this story. The good news is that we are expecting some, at least, of the rehabilitated storks to be released on Wednesday this week. Media have been informed and we are hoping for a good news story that highlights the role of the volunteers and frowns upon the poachers.. That will make great TV. On the negative side, some large nets were discovered at Miyun Reservoir at the weekend, so we are planning a ‘day of action’ there next weekend to take them down… As you say, this is a long journey, but it is one that must be completed…!