The GoM is identified as the most extensive and significant intertidal mudflat system in Myanmar for shorebirds, fish and others biodiversity. Its highly productive intertidal mudflats provide a wintering site for an estimated 150,000-200,000 waterbirds, including Critically Endangered Spoon-billed Sandpipers (Calidris pygmaea), and Endangered Nordmann’s Greenshanks (Tringa guttifer) and Great Knots (Calidris tenuirostris). In GoM, over 70 waterbird species have been recorded. The Spoon-billed Sandpiper (SBS) can be seen as a flagship species for the GoM. Breeding in Russia, the SBS annually migrates more than 8,000 km to winter at sites in South and Southeast Asia along the East-Asian Australasian Flyway (EAAF). Of an estimated global population of 120-200 pairs, over 50% are estimated to winter regularly in Myanmar, primarily in the GoM. As an important wintering site, the GoM is vital to ensure the vitality of the small remaining population.
Recognizing the importance of GoM for shorebirds, the project facilitates to conduct of an annual shorebird survey in collaboration with Biodiversity and Nature Conservation Association (BANCA), Nature Conservation Society (NCS) and other experts. In addition to the regular surveys, the project is working together with communities in patrolling shorebird hunting and trading in local markets. Moreover, the project supported local bird hunters with alternative livelihoods and BANCA trained them as bird watchers for the conservation of birds and refraining from further hunting in the Gulf of Mottama. Applying the understanding of the former hunters about migratory birds the seasonality, feeding and roosting sites and local knowledge of birds and sites, the former bird hunters are now regularly participating with BANCA and NCS shorebird survey teams as a boat crew and helpers will foster this mutual relationship and significantly reducing the hunting pressure.