South Korea announces new $14.2 billion plan to develop wetlands

Yahoo News 21 Oct 08;

SEOUL (AFP) – South Korea on Tuesday announced an amended 18.9 trillion won (14.2 billion dollar) plan for developing a vast wetland area on its southwest coast, fuelling fears of environmental damage.

The tidal area around Saemangeum estuary was dammed in 2006 following a long fight between the government and environmentalists, who said the reclamation project would deprive migratory birds of a key habitat and pose water pollution risks.

A new plan approved by the cabinet will see more of the reclamation developed and less used for farmland than was originally envisaged. It is also twice as expensive as the original plan.

The new plan calls for 30 percent of the 18,410 hectare (45,473 acre) site to be used for non-agricultural purposes, 39 percent for farming and the rest unspecified to provide flexibility in the future.

The old plan would have seen development of 70 percent of the land for farming. Agriculture in South Korea has become less competitive in recent years because of the small amount of available arable land and high production costs.

The new plan envisions a two-stage approach that would permit the building of factories, power plants, tourism and resort zones by 2020.

A further 9,890 hectares of reclaimed land will be developed from 2021.

Of the total budget, 12.1 trillion won will be used to prepare land, 4.4 trillion for building infrastructure such as roads, railways and port facilities, and 2.4 trillion won for environmental projects.

Lee Bong-Ho, head of the agriculture ministry's farmland development division, said 7.8 trillion won would come from the central government, 10.6 trillion won from the private sector and 500 billion from local government.

Saemangeum estuary sits at the mouths of two rivers, the Mangyeong and Dongjin. The completion of the 33-kilometre (21 mile) seawall in April 2006 has interrupted the flows of the rivers, which critics say has increased pollution risks.

Activists charge the amended project is worse than the original.

"The central government and the provincial governments have spent a lot of tax money for purifying the two rivers but there is no sign of any progress," the Korean Federation for Environmental Movement said in a statement.

"Under these circumstances, water pollution will only get worse if industrial facilities and commuter towns, instead of farmland, pop up on a large scale."

South Korea Land Grab Killing Migratory Birds - Study
Jon Herskovitz PlanetArk 27 Oct 08;

SEOUL - A huge South Korean land reclamation project has destroyed wetlands, killed migratory birds and pushed endangered species toward extinction, a report obtained at the weekend said.

The Saemangeum land reclamation, completed in 2006 on the west coast and covering about 400 square kms (155 sq miles) -- about seven times larger than Manhattan -- has removed one of the largest feeding grounds on the Yellow Sea for hundreds of thousands of migratory birds who pass by each year, it said.

"Within Saemangeum, (we) recorded a decline of 137,000 shorebirds, and declines in 19 of the most numerous species, from 2006 to 2008," according to the study by conservation groups Birds Korea and Australasian Wader Studies Group that will be released at an international Ramsar convention on wetlands this week in South Korea.

Migratory birds travelling between Russia and Alaska in the north to New Zealand and Australia in the south congregate for often their only refuelling stop at Yellow Sea tidal flats to feast on shellfish and other food.

South Korea, now one of the world's largest economies, launched its reclamation project decades ago to increase its farm land when it was trying to rise from the ashes of the 1950-1953 Korean War and now says it will use the land for factories and recreation sites.

The study indicated that the critically endangered Spoon-billed Sandpiper and the endangered Spotted Greenshank were being pushed to extinction by the loss of wetlands.

"There have been large declines and some of this is irreversible," said Nial Moores, a British-born conservationist and director of Birds Korea. "We anticipate the declines will not only continue but become more obvious in other species."

South Korean environmental officials have said they thought there would be no major harm done to migratory birds because they would be able to find food at nearby wetlands in the country.

"The evidence very strongly indicates that most shorebird populations are declining in the Republic of Korea (South Korea), the study said.

The study said the loss of wetlands at Saemangeum has decreased water quality on the coast, which has led to a loss of marine life and puts other areas at risk.

The conservation groups who conducted the study through bird counts for three years are calling on the South Korean government to restore the tidal flow in the area by opening and enlarging the sluice gates.

(Editing by David Fox)