“North Korea is the safety valve for the whole flyway”

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The People’s Democratic Republic of Korea may seem like an unlikely haven of nature conservation. New Zealand birders find hope there for endangered migratory shorebird species. In April, the secretive North Korean government allowed four New Zealand bird conservationists into the country to survey and count migratory shorebirds. What the birders discovered gives them hope that there is some sanctuary for the endangered species which depend on food on the Yellow Sea coast to complete their gruelling migrations between Australasia and the Arctic. David Melville and Adrian Riegen of the Pukorokoro Miranda Naturalists’ Trust tell what they found and how they got into the People’s Democratic Republic. Bar-tailed godwit and dunlin roosting in western North Korea. Credit: Adrian Riegen ©