🐦‍⬛10.12 LuxeLakes: Unlocking the Potential— How Wanhua Real Estate Developer Can Lead the Charge in Shifting Birding Culture

I recently visited one of the largest developers in Chengdu, Wanhua Group, and their Luhu Community Development Foundation. I was a bit nervous as I presented my thoughts on shifting birding culture in China, starting with their community. My goal was to begin fostering an ethical approach to birding within their community and to host expert seminars to educate people on bird conservation. After our discussion, they offered a few key points:

1. They’ll help me set up a birding group for their residents and promote educational sessions on birdwatching ethics.

2. Wanhua will provide spaces for community birdwalks and talks on bird identification and conservation.

3. For practical implementation, they’ll provide space for me to directly teach residents how to install bird feeders and artificial nests. However, this idea was partly rejected—installation can't happen on a large scale within the community due to government restrictions, but it can be done in private gardens.

4. For long-term goals, they aim to make the Luhu area’s greenery, community spaces, and gardens more bird- and animal-friendly, ultimately branding the area as a "bird-friendly community." (so… i think they don’t want just short-term events/topics but ones that go for years)

Originally, my idea came from a trip to Ithaca, USA, this summer, where I saw that nearly every household had bird feeders or artificial nests in their gardens or on community trees. People regularly observed bird reproduction and conservation using these tools. I thought, "Why can’t we do this in China?" The main hurdle seems to be the lack of a “backyard” culture here, which makes it harder to introduce bird feeders or nest watching. Even for households with backyards, there’s little awareness or use of these tools, so the connection with birds isn’t made.

Compared to cities like Beijing or Shanghai, I believe Chengdu, known as a “Park City,” has a better natural environment, with more green space, larger areas, and wetlands, making it more suitable for a bird feeder and nest project. However, just working with communities here might not reach enough people, especially since many areas have limited gardens or green space. That's why I thought it might be more effective to collaborate with city management or large real estate developers—especially those with a "Garden City" concept.

Wanhua Group was my first choice as a partner. They are a large developer (covering 21 complexes— housing 4,415 households) with wetlands and many neighborhoods with small gardens, and they emphasize environmental protection. I had previously looked into their stray cat protection and fisheries management projects, so I thought their community would be receptive to ethical birdwatching practices.

I originally thought online seminars with experts around the world would be a great way to introduce this concept. Experts could speak, with me translating, and I would invite Luhu residents to join. Alternatively, we could organize an offline lecture where I represent a certain lab to share our work. However, the big question was whether Luhu would be open to collaboration, as this is a nonprofit project, and the initial plan was just for seminars, not yet bird feeder or nest installations.

Their response wasn’t a full green light. They are willing to let me experiment in their community (spreading the idea) but are not offering funding. I plan to follow up with a more detailed proposal later, focusing on a long-term project that aligns with their goals—not just seminars but also birding events, and steering clear of large-scale government tasks related to other citizen science projects. (Maybe we should shift our focus from simply nestwatch and feederwatch to a topic that’s more broad) It’s nice to talk with them, at least I know what they want now.