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Background

The Regional Flyway Initiative (RFI) is a long-term commitment to protect, improve management, and restore priority wetland ecosystems and their associated ecosystem services in ten Development Member Countries (DMCs) of the ADB: Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR), Malaysia, Mongolia, the People’s Republic of China (PRC), the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. This regional initiative is jointly led by the ADB, BirdLife International, and EAAFP, and contributes to the implementation of the EAAFP 2019-2028 Strategic Plan.

This session includes a presentation on the RFI achievements and an interactive activity with participants on the next stage of the RFI. ADB, together with the EAAFP and BirdLife International, shares the RFI achievements, including early-stage project concepts developed for the top-priority sites in several countries. With these RFI achievements, participants take part in an interactive session to generate recommendations on data requirements for better wetland management and migratory waterbird conservation, as well as the next RFI activities.

At the end of this session, the RFI team aims to generate valuable insights in determining the ways forward for the RFI.

Objectives

1. To present the RFI achievements over the last four years.
2. To determine how RFI can further contribute to achieving national- and site-level targets on wetland protection and migratory waterbird conservation.
3. To generate ways forward with the RFI.

Expected Outcomes

At the end of the session, participants should:
1. Have a better understanding of RFI and its contribution to the EAAFP 2019-2028 Strategic Plan.

2. Recommend activities on how RFI can further contribute to achieving national- and site-level targets on wetland protection and migratory waterbird conservation.

Tentative Programme