Nurturing talent on wetland conservation is key to maintaining the integrity of the East-Asian Australasian Flyway. Through working with our partners, WWF successfully offered training programmes to wetland management personnel in the region to enhance their knowledge and habitat management skills.  

Since 1990, WWF has been collaborating with China’s State Forestry Administration, other Government Departments and NGOs. We offer training courses which take place in Mai Po Nature Reserve during which wetland conservation experts from mainland China share philosophies, principles, information about current technology, and the experience of wetland management and environmental education. The programme targets were mostly wetland management personnel from mainland China, as well as managers and staff from conservation organizations in Taiwan, Macau and south-east Asian countries.
As of 2016, WWF has organised more than 400 of these training courses at Mai Po involving a total of more than 4,500 participants. Generally, these courses involve an average of 180 participants annually, with the duration between one and eight days.

Every year, WWF conducts a post-training “application survey”. Conducted by questionnaire, these surveys help us understand the application and impacts of our training courses in mainland China. Over the years, the surveys have determined that the most applicable programmes are wetland management planning, environmental education, wetland restoration and ecotourism. The findings have shown time and again that these training programmes are highly applicable– they help wetland protection personnel as they work to conserve precious wetlands in the flyway.