Storks live in wetlands along the Hàn River in Đà Nẵng. A free education on wild bird conservation and nature protection is planned for primary school students in the city. Photo courtesy of Phạm Tài Minh

Members of the Việt Nam Bird Conservation Society (VBCS) plan to provide free nature experience education for primary school students, raising their life-skills and awareness of the importance of migratory birds and wetland ecology systems in the central city.

Phạm Tài Minh, a biodiversity researcher at Đà Nẵng University of Science and Education, said the field trip would run every other weekend for around 700 students in the first programme later this year.

“It’s the first ever course for school students on bird species, biodiversity, nature conservation, geography and history related to nature conservation. We also cover life-skills and wild bird rescue, as well as warnings on illegal bird snares in nature,” Minh said.

“A remaining 25ha wetland section from Trần Thị Lý Bridge to Cẩm Lệ district on the Hàn River bank will be selected as a field education location for students in weekend,” he shared.

Minh said the untouched wetland area on the Hàn River bank is home to 62 bird species, of which stork populations dominated with eight species recorded.

A research group of VBCS also found two endangered species in the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)’s Red List, including the yellow-breasted bunting (emberiza aureola), a Critically Endangered species, and Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) endangered species by CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of wild Fauna and Flora), Minh said.

A group of school students join a life-skills experience trip to the jungle in Đà Nẵng. A free course for school students on environment protection and conservation is planned in the city in 2024. Photo courtesy of Jungle Tours

Large populations of storks are very often found in the wetland areas remaining even as urbanisation has boomed in the city over the past two decades, while Sonneratia caseolaris dominate the flora, along with nipa-palm and acanthus, he added.

The researcher said the biodiversity education course would help create a generation of conservation human resources for Đà Nẵng in the future, and school students will have an opportunity to study the beauty of nature.

According to VBCS, the beach areas from Đà Nẵng to Hội An naturally became stops for migratory birds in 2018-20, and a group of conservationists from Đà Nẵng University of Science and Education have been building a database for the Master Plan on biodiversity conservation in the city.

The presence of endangered migrant bird species in Đà Nẵng and Hội An would speed up an option of wild bird watching tours.

During the migratory season (from September to April), freelance photographers and conservationists in Đà Nẵng and Hội An join hands in removing wild bird snares and traps set by illegal poachers at vacant land plots. VNS