BBC Korean wetland plan 'to go ahead'

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>BBC DAILY E-MAIL: UK EDITION

>Saturday, 03 April, 2004, 9:00 GMT 01:00 -08:00:US/Pacific

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> * Korean wetland plan 'to go ahead' *

>Conservationists are resigned to a development

>project going ahead in what they say is the most

>important site for shore birds in the whole of

>east Asia.

>Full story:

>http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/-/1/hi/sci/tech/3594195.stm

>

Korean wetland plan 'to go ahead'

By Alex Kirby

BBC News Online environment correspondent in Seoul, Korea

South Korea will inevitably complete a highly

controversial project to reclaim a huge area of

coastal mudflats used by migrating birds, a

scientist says.

 

Dr Peter Bridgewater, secretary-general of the

international wetlands treaty, said he was

certain it would go ahead.

 

Dr Bridgewater said he believed the Korean

government would try to make the project

environmentally acceptable.

 

Ornithologists say the mudflats, at Saemangeum on

the Yellow Sea, are vital to about two million

migrating birds.

 

Dr Bridgewater, who heads the Ramsar Convention

on wetlands, made an official visit to several

ministries here on 1 April, including the

ministries of foreign affairs and environment.

 

Try to act

 

He told BBC News Online: " They all said

Saemangeum was well advanced, and they had plans

to complete the key design feature of closing the

estuary by the end of 2005.

 

" They said they'd listened to people's concerns,

and that the project would be eco-friendly as a

result.

 

 

 

[saemangeum is] simply the most important site

for shore birds in the whole of east Asia, on

present knowledge

Nial Moores, ornithologist

" I pointed out to them that while it was

excellent to design wetland systems into the

proposed reclamation, these resources might not

be available to migrating birds.

 

" I offered to provide further advice if it would

help, and urged the idea of nominating new Ramsar

sites to the north and south of Saemangeum so as

to make an integrated approach to conservation

and development.

 

" I was impressed at the way they listened to my

suggestions and feel they are striving for the

best solution for a project which is now so

advanced it will inevitably have to be completed.

 

" It will certainly go ahead, but there are ways

to make it more environmentally acceptable and I

think they will try to act on the ideas. "

 

'Time to lead'

 

The South Korean government says it needs the

land for farming and supplying fresh water. The

33-km embankment central to the scheme will be

the world's longest sea dyke.

 

Conservationists say Saemangeum is an essential

place for birds to feed and rest on their

migrations between the Arctic and the South

Pacific.

 

 

Nial Moores, a British ornithologist living in

South Korea, is one of the founders of WBKEnglish

(Wetlands and Birds Korea English), a

conservation group.

 

He describes Saemangeum as " simply the most

important site for shore birds in the whole of

east Asia, on present knowledge " .

 

He told BBC News Online: " South Korea's a global

leader in terms of its economy and social

influence.

 

" It's time for it to live up to its

responsibility and become a regional leader in

conserving its wetlands and other shared natural

resources. "

 

Some of the birds which visit Saemangeum each

year undertake spectacular migrations.

 

A knock out

 

Mr Moores said: " Most of the birds which pass

through breed in Siberia, and some in Alaska, and

they spend the northern winter in south-east

Asia, Australia and New Zealand.

 

" The bar-tailed godwit is an unspectacular bird,

about the size of a pigeon. Going south, they've

been known to fly non-stop from Alaska to New

Zealand in four or five days.

 

" Coming back they fly from Australia to the

Yellow Sea, where they stop to feed at Saemangeum.

 

" If the scheme does go ahead, it will knock out

from 10% to 30% of the world's population of

great knots, because there's no equivalent

habitat anywhere else in South Korea. "

 

The government has not declared Saemangeum a

Ramsar site, though Dr Bridgewater said last year

it richly deserved to be listed.

 

 

Story from BBC NEWS:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/sci/tech/3594195.stm

 

Published: 2004/04/03 01:44:28 GMT

 

© BBC MMIV

 

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