Straits Times 23 Nov 07
SEOUL - SOUTH Korea's Parliament yesterday approved a plan to turn a huge coastal wetlands area into an industrial zone, signalling approval for a project that has been fiercely criticised by environmentalists.
The government created the Saemangeum mud flat in 2005 by building a massive seawall, envisaging its transformation into farmland.
However, the decline of the farming industry caused the government to change course.
It now wants to turn the 40,000ha site into an industrial zone attracting foreign investment.
The Bill approved yesterday authorises the use of the land for industry rather than farmland by easing restrictions and providing incentives for foreign investors.
Environmentalists and some local residents fear potentially irreversible environmental damage to the district on the west coast.
Last year, the Supreme Court ruled in favour of the government, enabling it to build the 33km-long seawall.
Conservationists say the project will destroy South Korea's most important wetlands area for shore birds and waterfowl and erase a rich fishery and aquaculture resource and a irreplaceable natural asset.
The project was conceived in 1986 when the need to boost food production was treated as a national priority.
Large swathes of farmland are now unused as the rural population falls with more people preferring to live and work in the cities. AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
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