We would like to commemoratively remember Llewellyn as a beloved son, husband, father, brother, friend, and colleague. Most of all, we endeavour to preserve his passion and dedication to the promotion of wildlife preservation and ecological issues.

Lew was born the youngest of five siblings in 1958 to Lucy (Millar) and William. His path took him at a young age to England where his adventures began. Even as a teenager Lew was not shy of hard work, delivering morning papers before school everyday for pocket money. His love of travelling and adventure started when he left school. His first trips included a cycling holiday around France and inter-railing across Europe. This progressed to a two year work experience in Sierra Leone (West Africa) with VSO as a science teacher, meanwhile experiencing the country in a dug-out canoe that he had built himself. He came home in the clothes he stood in, having left everything he owned to his students during his time there. This led to his initial international conservation work in the western Himalayas and China to raise and monitor threatened pheasants species; this included leading China's first radio-tracking of a bird species. We believe this was where his passion for ornithology began. In between all these adventures he did manage to take time out to further his education; he first achieved his BSc Hons in Physiology at the University of Leeds, followed by an MSc in Ecology at the University of Aberdeen, and finally his doctorate at the University of Hong Kong in their Department of Zoology.

Lew was a world-class conservationist in the field of wetlands and migratory waterbirds. He worked tirelessly and honestly over decades for conservation and the wise use of wetlands at the Hong Kong Mai Po Wetland, followed by the Ramsar Secretariat in Switzerland. His last position was as a Chief Executive of the Secretariat of the East Asian - Australasian Flyway Partnership (EAAFP) based in Incheon, Republic of Korea. He has been one of the most outstanding conservation leaders in the flyway and an inspiration to many people with a diverse range of qualities, from the high level officials, to business leaders, to farmers. His achievements are too many to number, and Lew made a difference in many parts of the world with his commitment, deep knowledge, expertise, and passion for wetlands.

In 1991, he started work for WWF as manager of Hong Kong Mai Po Nature Reserve. He understood that the reserve, so close to the urban metropolis of Hong Kong, needed active management to enhance its value to wildlife and people. He developed a strategic vision for the reserve through the development and implementation of habitat and infrastructure management initiatives. He also developed and ran a range of education and awareness programmes for students and public visitors. Mai Po Nature Reserve has become a model sites for migratory waterbird conservation along the Flyway, due in no small part to Lew’s work as reserve manager, supervising 20 staff in different aspects of reserve management, education and outreach and partnership building. He was involved in the innovative program to manage fishery production in freshwater zones of the reserve that has seen Mai Po become an important non-breeding site for the endangered Black-faced Spoonbill. Today, Mai Po is a vibrant testament to Lew’s early work, bustling not only with the thousands of migratory waterbirds that make it home, but also the visiting parties of schoolchildren learning about the value of wetlands for the first time, birdwatchers hoping to catch a glimpse of the critically endangered Spoon-billed Sandpiper and the delegations from many countries that come to Mai Po to understand how to manage a reserve in an urban setting. While at Mai Po, Lew also supported the establishment of Wetland Link International – Asia in 2006, a network promoting greater communication and cooperation among wetland education centres across Asia, and the creation of the Asia Waterbird Conservation Fund (AWCF) in 2005, a small grant fund to protect wetlands for migratory waterbirds. Despite his busy schedule in later years, Lew always took time to provide feedback and advice to AWCF on applicant proposals.

Lew then joined the Ramsar Secretariat in 2008 as a senior regional advisor for Asia and Oceania. For ten years Lew was advising on and supporting the strategic development and effective implementation of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands. Lew’s work for the Ramsar Secretariat provided support and advice to the 33 contracting parties in Asia and eight in Oceania. He advised on the identification, designation and management of Ramsar sites in the region, represented Ramsar at regional and international meetings and supported Ramsar Regional Initiatives, notably, in Asia, EAAFP and the Ramsar Regional Center for East Asia. He has been involved in many training and capacity-building initiatives, focusing on community-based involvement in management, tracking management effectiveness and integrating disaster risk reduction into wetland policy and management, among other subjects. During this time, Lew developed excellent relationships with government representatives responsible for wetland management, as well as NGO partners, scientists and conservationists and his diplomatic skills allied to determination and attention to detail garnered wide respect.

The professional and personal network that Lew established in Asia while at Ramsar held him in good stead as he undertook his last post as Chief Executive of the East Asian – Australasian Flyway Partnership (EAAFP) which fosters international collaboration to protect migratory waterbirds, their habitats and livelihoods of people dependent upon them. With his leadership and expertise, he quickly assumed the role of communicating and coordinating many projects and programs with the 37 official Partners from government and non-government organisations, as well as collaborators and stakeholders. During his term, the 10th Meeting of Partners was successfully organized in China, developed a new Strategic Plan for the next ten years, and DPR Korea also joined both the Ramsar Convention and Partnership. His last mission for EAAFP was to help bring together the different countries and partners to save the intertidal wetlands of the Yellow Sea, a critically important staging area for millions of migratory waterbirds. The work Lew pursued, the actions he took will carry on, inspired by his efforts, implemented by those who so admired him. Wetlands across the world will be safer as a result of Lew’s achievements.

Beyond Lew's career, his moral at home continuously showed a wholehearted passion for nature and the great outdoors. We will fondly remember the numerous hiking trips to the Swiss Alps, or Korean and Hong Kong countryside on the weekends and school holidays; there was never a mountain too small or too large that we could not climb together. Tracking out the birdcalls and sightings, there was always a spot of wisdom to be shared and a photo to be taken to document the experience. He never settled with our favoured hikes but always looked and planned towards discovering new paths and trails that truly captured our time spent together. In addition, Lew would regularly enjoy sporting activities such as cycling around Lac Léman and coaching the Hong Kong Flying Kukris rugby teams with his children. His profound devotion for spending time with his family amongst career commitments is something we will hold dearly to our hearts.

It is with great sadness that we acknowledge the passing of Lew Young on the 5th of March 2019, at the age of 60 years old. Lew will forever be remembered with love by his family – his wife, Deborah Cha, his daughter, Naomi, and his son, Cennydd. Asia’s wetlands have too lost a passionate champion, and the conservation community lost a dedicated colleague and genuine friend. Lew was generous with his time, his advice and his support to anyone who cared about saving wetlands. His advice was so valued because he knew what it took to manage a wetland, for all its diverse benefits, for building a strong constituency for wetland conservation at all levels and for bringing together people of diverse skills and backgrounds in partnerships for site management. His passion was for involving local communities, helping them to explore opportunities to use wetlands in a sustainable and beneficial way and then passing these experiences on to others, through education and exchange. Lew’s thoughtfulness, his considered opinions, his sage advice won him many admirers, but more than that his evident passion was an inspiration to many people, a mentor to others and a friend to many more. He will be missed indeed, but his legacy is assured, in the many wetlands he helped protect and the many colleagues and friends who continue his work. 

This memorial website is created in his loving memory. We would gladly receive photos and graciously read through any stories or tributes you may want to share, so do feel free to post them here on his memorial website.

Obituaries and articles online:

• Ming Pao Hong Kong, 6th March 2019 - Read Here.
• Birds Korea, 6th March 2019 - Read Here.
• Ramsar Convention, 6th March 2019 - Read Here.
• World Wetland Network, 6th March 2019 - Read Here.
• South China Morning Post, 7th March 2019 - Read Here.
• Apple Daily Hong Kong, 7th March 2019 - Read Here.
• Hanns Seidel Foundation, 8th March 2019 - Read Here.
• International Union for the Conservation of Nature, 11th March 2019 - Read Here.
• Bird Life International, 15th March 2019 - Read Here.
• East Asian-Australian Flyway Partnership, 26th March 2019 - Read Here.