|
Symposia and Meetings |
Tidal Flats Korea 2008 |
Recent Progress on the Coastal Wetland Restoration
International Symposium, University of Seoul, Korea,
8 - 9 September 2008
Henk de Vries, It Fryske Gea, The Netherlands
On 8 and 9 September
2008, the Seoul National University in South-Korea organised, with other
partners, an international symposium on coastal wetland restoration.
Along the entire
west coast of Korea lies a long stretch of tidal flats up to 10 km in
with. They are a part of a mosaic of tidal flats along the banks of the
south eastern part of the Yellow Sea. The South Korean Wadden Sea has a
total area of 2850 km² and is exposed to a tidal range of 4 to 10
meters.
Unlike the European
Wadden Sea, the Korean back lands are hills and mountains. Salt marshes
have mostly disappeared due to intensive land reclamation during in the
past century, when the higher tidal areas with their flourishing salt
marshes were converted into agricultural land.
The Korean tidal
flats have a rich soil life, on which large numbers of birds nourish.
They form an important stepping stone in the migration routes of shore
birds in the East Asian-Australasian Migratory Bird Flyway. Local
fishing communities benefit from the rich bivalves and fish populations,
mostly using small scale fishing methods.
There are increasing
threats to the Korean tidal flats from large scale land reclamation. The
objectives of the symposium was to get an overview of the best recent
practice in coastal wetland conservation and restoration.
In the Symposium a
number of examples were presented from the Dutch and the German Wadden
Sea (by Henk de Vries of It Fryske Gea), from the United States of
America (by the NOAA) and from Japan. The symposium was well visited
with app. 100 person in Seoul and app. 70 persons in Gochang. The
conclusion of the Symposium was that there is much to be restored in
Korea, that there is a turning point in the approach towards embankments
on the national level and which still has to be introduced with local
governments and that until now there is no compensation for lost tidal
flats due to embankments.
After the symposium
field trips were made to a well preserved tidal flat area with an
increasing recreational pressure (Gomso Bay) and to the recently
reclaimed Saemangeum tidal flat. A large dam like the Dutch Afsluitdijk
was finished in 2006, resulting in the loss of 400 m2.
The development
pressure on the Korean tidal flats is huge and therefore the protection
of this unique ecosystem has to be appealed widely and urgently.
Conservation policy in Korea for tidal flats is very new, started in the
beginning of 2000. The symposium contributed in an overview of
conservation and restoration of tidal areas all over the world. It also
put the spotlight on the importance of this habitat, not only for Korea,
but also in international perspective.
Henk de Vries, September 2008
Korean tidal flats and its shorebirds highly
endangered!
Report from a visit to the Korean Tidal
Flats on 22 - 25 October 2008
Klaus Günther, Schutzstation Wattenmeer,
Husum, Germany
Prior to the
„International Symposium on East
Asian Coastal Wetlands“ on 27 October 2008,
I took the chance to
make a 3-day travel tour to visit the Korean tidal flats at the west
coast and some other costal areas. I got very opposing impressions about
the tidal flats. The first one was overwhelming, when Dr. Han-Su Lee
(President of Korea Environment Ecosystem Institute) guided me for a
whole day to the almost natural tidal flats of Yubu-Island in the Geum
Estuary to the north of the huge industrial coast of Gunsan City and the
Saemangeum reclamation area. At the morning high tide, we saw hundreds
of Eastern Oystercatchers (subspecies of the Eurasian Oystercatcher),
Eurasian Curlews, Far-eastern Curlews, many Grey and Kentish Plovers,
Dunlins and Sanderlings as well as single Black-faced Spoonbill,
Mongolian Plover, Great Knot, Red-necked Stint, Terek Sandpiper and
Saunders Gull. But, as an unexpected highlight, I first saw a single,
later during falling tide, up to 5 Spoon-billed Sandpipers at the same
time, scattered among the other shorebirds on the stretch of tidal flats
a few hundreds of meters northwest of the small fishing village on Yubu-Island
(36.00 N 126.36 E). It was hard to believe to see more than 1%, perhaps
even up to 5% of the population with only these few individuals. The
Spoon-billed Sandpiper is one of the rarest and most endangered
shorebird species in the world, facing extinction in the near future!
The population dropped by 70 per cent in 20 years on breeding grounds in
Russia, where conservationists as a latest estimate fear only 100 pairs
remain ( for more information:
http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/sandpiper-decline876.html&template=news_archive_item).
It is extremely frightening that it is planned to reclaim these tidal
flats in the Geum Estuary as well.
On the second day,
Dr. Byoung-Seol Koh and Dr. Song of the Tidal-flat Research Center
(National Fisheries Research and Development Institute in Gunsan) guided
me to the Saemangeum reclamation area. It was absolutely frustrating to
see the huge embanked tidal flats, all dry and dead – not a single
shorebird was visible. At the southern end of the almost 35 km long
giant sea dike a huge visitor center had been built to promote the
embankment as a great benefit for the Korean society, gaining new land
for industrial and agricultural development and human welfare, but
totally neglecting the impressive ecological impact. Surprisingly, the
still vital tidal flats south of the Byunsan peninsula seemed to be very
poor for shorebirds, giving the impression, that there are big
differences in between the tidal flat areas concerning quality for
shorebirds compared to the e.g. Yubu tidal flats or the formerly
Saemangeum tidal flats, which used to be rich in birds!
On the third day I
was guided by Mr. Jong-Kwan Choi, the Team Manager of the Ecosystem
Investigation and Oil Spill Research Group of the Tae-An marine national
park office. He showed me some parts of rocky coast and bays with gravel
shores, which were impacted by the disastrous oil spill of the "Hebei
Spirit" accident in December 2007. Of course there was no oil visible
any more, but as it was explained to me, nature is still suffering from
the oil-pollution. Finally we visited the eastern part of the Tae-An
peninsula, were huge flocks of ducks and geese (e.g. Pintail ducks,
Baikal Teals & Bean geese) were feeding in harvested rice-fields.
However, within these
few days it became obvious, that there are many comparable developments
of the coasts of South Korea (the Yellow Sea Region) and the Wadden Sea
at the North Sea coast concerning reclamation history and the increasing
need of nature protection. However, it should be aimed for to protect
all remaining South-Korean (Yellow Sea Region) tidal flats under
national law and to designate them as international important wetlands
under the Ramsar-Convention. There is no other option, to protect the
fast declining shorebird populations of the East-Asian -Australasian
Flyway and to prevent the extinction of species like Spoon-billed
Sandpiper, Spotted Greenshank and Great Knot!
I am very grateful to
the Korean colleagues for the perfect organization and for all the help,
support and hospitality!
Klaus Günther,
November 2008
The 10th
Conference of Parties of the RAMSAR convention on wetlands was held in
Changwon, Korea, on 29 October – 4 November 2008 under the motto
“Healthy wetlands – healthy people”. As a preparatory event, an
international symposium on intertidal wetlands was jointly organized by
the Korean Tidal Flat Forum (Getbol Forum), the Common Wadden Sea
Secretariat, BirdLife International, the UNDP/GEF Yellow Sea Project and
the Tidal Flat Research Center of NFRDI the day before, on 27 October,
hosted by the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs and the
County of Gyeongnam.
access to scientific data and
information, as an inevitable precondition for good management and
conservation. On behalf of the trilateral Joint Monitoring Group on
Migratory Birds (JMMB, Mr. Klaus Günther (Schutzstation Wattenmeer,
Husum, FRG), presented long term trends of migratory waterbird
population in the Wadden Sea and discussed how trends, which for some
species vary between the different Wadden Sea regions, can be explained
taking into account the whole flyway. Mr. Harald Marencic (Common Wadden
Sea Secretariat) presented the results of the LancewadPlan project which
prepared an inventory of cultural assets in the Wadden Sea region and a
draft strategy on how to protect and develop the cultural heritage on a
transboundary scale. In another talk, he presented the experiences of 30
years of trilateral cooperation, which has resulted in a protection
level on a transboundary and ecosystem scale supported by a broad number
of stakeholders.
The
symposium was a step toward such a more intensive exchange between the
trilateral cooperation and the Yellow Sea. It also illustrated the many
work themes which can be addressed, ranging from scientific aspects,
monitoring, eco-tourism, coastal protection, habitat restoration and
integrated coastal zone management (see also report by Mr. Henk de Vries
It Fryske Gea). The existing relationships between Korea and the
National Park Schleswig-Holstein, the GKSS Research Center Geesthacht
and the Alfred-Wegener-Institute for Polar and Marine Research, which
were established in the mid 1990s, have already shown mutual benefits of
such an intensive exchange.
Link:
East Asian Tidal Flats,
International Symposium, Changwon, 27.10.2008
For further information please contact:
Mr. Harald Marencic
Common Wadden Sea Secretariat (CWSS)
Virchowstr. 1
D-26382 Wilhelmshaven
Phone: +49 (0)4421 9108 15
marencic@waddensea-secretariat.org
