What Is a Flyway and Why It Matters for People and Nature

As the climate crisis worsens and global ecosystems face incredible pressure from human activities, migratory birds are telling us an important story: that nature is changing fast and that it is at risk. Every year, millions of birds embark on incredible journeys across continents, tracing ancient, aerial highways called flyways. They are natural migration corridors stretching across land and sea, linking habitats and people in ways that may be unnoticeable to the untrained eye.

The East Atlantic Flyway is one of 8 global flyways that shorebirds use to move between breeding and non-breeding grounds and covers more than 33 countries from the Arctic to southern Africa. The concept highlights the need for international cooperation to maintain the populations of migratory waterbirds.

Flyways: More Than Just Migration Routes

A flyway is not only a migration path - it’s an interconnected web of wetlands, estuaries, lagoons, and mudflats that shorebirds rely on to rest and feed during their annual migrations. These ecosystems provide habitat to species like the bar-tailed godwit, which can fly non-stop for over 11,000 kilometers, and the Eurasian spoonbill, which follows the coastline of West Africa during the dry season.

But these ecosystems are not only for the waterbirds – millions of people live along the flyway and depend on the same fragile food webs. On the mudflats of the Bijagós Archipelago, youth-led monitoring teams rise with the tides. They watch for the arrival of spoonbills and godwits, not just for data, but to confirm what their elders already know: the health of birds reflects the health of the land. As one young monitor shared, ‘When the birds stay longer, the shellfish return. That means the tide is right. It means we can fish again.

Another conservationist, Abdulai Dauda from Sierra Leone, puts it,

“Flyways remind us that all species, including humans, are connected across continents, borders, and generations. Without these connected habitats, we risk losing biodiversity and livelihoods that depend on healthy, functioning ecosystems.” -

Interconnected by Nature and by Need

The connectivity that defines a flyway is also what makes them fragile. Every habitat along the route is a link in a chain, and the loss of one can ripple through the entire system. Climate change and human activity can have profound impacts along the flyway, even if localised in one habitat. For example, if mangroves in Guinea-Bissau are removed, if seagrass beds in Banc d'Arguin are lost, or if estuaries in Ghana are polluted, thousands of migratory birds may fail to survive their journey. When wetland conditions and biodiversity collapse, people who depend on them for livelihoods suffer too.

In Senegal’s Saloum Delta, families farm rice in the same wetlands that feed flocks of shorebirds. In Yawri Bay, Sierra Leone, mangrove forests protect homes from flooding while providing oysters and fish that feed local markets.

In Bijagós, women harvest clams from the tidal flats, their hands coated in salt and sand. For generations, these coastal wetlands have provided more than food; they offer stability, identity, and survival. But shifting rains are changing that. ‘The birds still come,’ one woman said, ‘but the water isn’t like before. It’s hotter. It’s thinner. It goes too fast.

These stories show that flyway habitats are lifelines. They stabilise coastlines, regulate water flow, store carbon, and recharge aquifers. Their degradation threatens both ecological balance and human well-being and its clear cooperation and action is needed.

A Black-tailed Godwit pauses in the wetlands, a sentinel of the Flyway © Shutterstock

A Ticking Clock for Wetlands and Climate Resilience

Globally, wetlands are disappearing three times faster than forests. The Convention on Wetlands ( Ramsar) reports that wetlands store more carbon per hectare than almost any other ecosystem. And yet, UNEP data shows that up to 87% of global wetlands have been lost since 1700, primarily due to drainage, development, and climate impacts.

This loss is not just an environmental issue; it’s a human one. In West Africa, rising sea levels and erratic rainfall patterns are drying out wetlands and disrupting food production. In Europe, the need for coastal protection as a response to rising sea levels is leading to ‘coastal squeeze’, meaning there is very limited space for habitats like salt marshes. These changes are not isolated; they are part of a growing pattern of climate vulnerability across the globe.

“When the birds return, it means our wetland is still breathing. That’s what we protect every day.”- Feitmatt M'BEIRICK, Mauritania.
 

Global Commitments Begin with Local Action

The degradation of wetlands is not a distant problem; it’s unfolding now, across the very landscapes that migratory birds and millions of people rely on. But there is hope in action.

In Mauritania’s Banc d’Arguin National Park, local Imraguen communities have worked alongside conservationists for decades to protect one of the most critical stopover and non-breeding sites on the Flyway. Covering over 12,000 km² of seagrass beds, tidal flats, and desert coastlines, the park is well known for its hundreds of thousands of shorebirds visiting the park each winter. It is also a key nursery ground for many commercial fish species. The area’s management approach blends scientific results with knowledge on traditional practices, ensuring sustainable fishing that preserves habitats essential for migratory birds.

In Namibia’s Walvis Bay, wetlands host flamingos and serve as a critical hub for fisheries and tourism.

This is where global ambition meets local stewardship. Each protected wetland, each community-led conservation project, not only strengthens the flyway, but it also advances major global goals: the Global Biodiversity Framework, SDGs 13, 14, and 15, and conventions like AEWA and Ramsar.

Youth-led bird counts in Ghana, women-led mangrove restoration in Guinea-Bissau, litter picking campaigns with community participation in Angola, and data-sharing tools for local site managers from Senegal to the Netherlands are proving that frontline communities are not just beneficiaries of conservation, they are its leaders.

What Flyways Teach Us About the Future

Flyways defy borders. So must our solutions.

They remind us that ecological systems and the threats they face are deeply interconnected. A polluted river in Europe can affect biodiversity in West Africa. A wetland restored in Nigeria can help ensure the survival of Arctic-nesting birds. Migration is not a local event; it is global, ecological cooperation in motion.

In this sense, flyways are more than migration corridors. They are living blueprints for unity and resilience in the face of the triple global planetary crises.