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Spotted Greenshank © John Holmes

Ki Seop Lee is a Korean ornithologist whose Megalam Research Centre has been carrying out a census of the visiting bird population. He told Earth Report: "There are 2,000 spoonbill sandpipers in the world - they are really rare. Our team saw 200 of these birds here last year. That's 10% of all the world's spoonbills. If they destroy this place by finishing the construction of the sea wall, it will cause their extinction."

Spoon-billed Sandpiper in breeding plumage © Chris Schenk

The highest recorded numbers in East Asia of other threatened shorebird species such as the Great Knot, Terek Sandpiper, Lesser Sand Plover and Bar-Tailed Godwit have been spotted feeding at the site on the Yellow Sea.

Australian Greens Senator, Bob Brown, was invited last year by a consortium of Korean environmental groups to see for himself what the giant civil engineering project is doing to the tidal mudflat: "I couldn't believe it - there in front of my eyes - this massive dike to enclose the mudflats that millions of birds from all round the world come to on their migration to elsewhere in Asia and the South Pacific."

The US$2.3 billion scheme is also devastating the local fishing and shellfish collecting communities living between the Mangyeung and Tongjin rivers on the West Coast. The tidal flats form a significant part of the Yellow Sea Eco-region that is vital for 158 fish species as well for crabs and sea-weeds.

The Shellfish gatherers had no idea of the impact of a dike that will enclose 400 square kilometres of the mudflat. 72 year old Kim Yeon-Ok has made a living collecting shellfish since she was a girl. She told Earth Report:  "We got 80,000Won [US$7,500] compensation...but we didn't realize it would block the sea."

In total, US$400,000 has been paid to the local fishing communities in a one-off compensation. But according to the Kim Yeon-Ok she was lucky, many have not seen a penny. "When I got the money I spent it straightaway. Now I will soon have no livelihood."

The scheme was hatched in the late 1970s when the military government was hellbent on turning South Korea from a Third World agrarian economy to an industrialised country (in 1960 the GNP was the same size as Ghana's). The Seoul government's public relations people gave it a brand new name "Saemanguem" (In Korean 'Sae' means 'new', 'man' comes from the Mankyong River and 'geum' from the Geum river).  

The Seoul Government's reasoning was that with about 30,000 hectares of prime farmland lost to creeping urbanisation each year, it needed to create more agricultural land.  The irony is that since the mid 1990s the country has consistently recorded an annual rice surplus of nearly two million tonnes. Improved rice varieties and changing dietary habits have led to a glut rather than a shortage.

Warning of water pollution and damage to fisheries, a Government-appointed 'Expert Review Panel' recommended abandoning the giant civil engineering project in 2001. Despite cancellation reportedly receiving the backing of the environment and marine ministries, the more powerful agriculture ministry prevailed, and work continued. 

Saemangeum project contruction

Korean protesters hoped that Roh Moo-Hyun, the new President elected this year, would halt the project. Instead his administration has announced that what was intended to be rice paddy will now be used for industrial development.

The government also claims the sea wall will prevent disastrous lowland flooding as well as provide fresh water reserves. Karico, the Consortium set up under the agriculture ministry to carry out the project, says it has implemented environment friendly design modifications and given more attention to water purification systems.

The go-ahead was given in the mid 1980s, but work did not begin until 1991. If all had gone to plan, the Saemangeum salt and mudflats would already have been destroyed. Construction has been plagued by cost and time over-runs.

Environmental protest is relatively new to Korea where there is an embedded culture of the 'Chaebol' - huge household name conglomerates working hand in hand with the government. To date, the lure of lucrative contracts has proved more powerful than a small but vocal domestic protest movement that has coalesced around Saemangeum.

Leading a last ditch effort to salvage a part of the wetlands is a Catholic priest, Reverend Moon who was imprisoned under the military regime before democracy came to Korea in 1997 with the election of President Kim Dae Jung. Under the banner of "SOS - Save our Saemangeum", a loose coalition of religious and green pressure groups are trying to get Koreans interested in stopping the project.

Reverend Moon told Earth Report that he decided to make Saemnageum his life's quest when he met one of the shellfish gatherers living next to the mudflat: "Her story is ingrained in my memory, she said: 'The death of the mudflat is the death of me and the fishermen. The death of the fishermen is the death of the community. The death of the community is the death of the country.'"

Karico, though, seems unmoved. "With its strategic location, in the heart of North-East Asia, Saemangeum will be one of the busiest commercial and industrial hubs of the entire region in the 21^st century," boasts Karico's glossy brochure and video.

Karico sub-contracts to Hyundai Engineering among others to carry out the work. Earth Report tried to contact Hyundai Engineering Chairman in March 2003 for an interview, but its letter has so far not been unanswered.

Earth Report, however, manage to interview Yo Han Koo, Karico's Saemangeum Project Manager. Yo Han Koo denies that Saemangeum will have the dire impact the protestors are predicting: "We expect this place to be the same. We are going to create a large environment for birds to inhabit within the reclaimed lands. Artificial lakes of 1,000 hectares as well as 2,000 hectares of undeveloped water reserves are planned in order to attract bird populations."

But resident ecologists dispute that creating artificial lakes behind the sea wall will save the visiting bird population. A British ornithologist, Nial Moores of 'WBKEnglish' - an organisation working for the conservation of wetlands and birds in Korea - has spent nearly seven years studying the ecosystem of what he says is the most important part of the Yellow Sea for shorebirds on the East Asian-Australasian flyway: "Any small modifications to sea wall design or creation of parks or some filtration system for water really misses the point. Saemangeum, what remains of the Mankyeong and Dongjin River and tidal flats is an estuarine system. The species that belong there, can only be supported by that kind of system. It's an absolutely critical natural resource."

"That whole system - its vitality - depends on free-flowing rivers, it depends on the health of salt marshes, but almost all of the rivers in Korea are barraged leaving just a few small free-flowing rivers to help the system support the abundant life that has existed here for countless thousands of years."

Karico's public relations language is similar to that of the opponents of the scheme. According to Jae Nam Kim of Green Korea United, "They [Karico] have taken the phrase 'environmentally friendly' away from its context. What we are saying is that there is no way that this project can be done in an environmentally friendly way." 

Upwards of two million birds travelling to and from their Arctic breeding grounds use the receding wetlands on the Yellow Sea coast. They arrive exhausted and famished and need to stock up on the food in the mudflats for up to two weeks. Ahead of them on their trip South is a prodigious 4000-kilometre journey to their summer home in Australia. New Zealand, Thailand and Malaysia are the other main destinations.

Internationally important concentrations of 17 shorebird species are annual visitors to Saemanguem. "The Saemangeum tidal flats are one of the most important sites in the Yellow Sea region for migratory shorebirds", says Richard Grimmett, Head of Birdlife International's Asia Division. "If the globally threatened species that use the site are to be safeguarded, the site needs to be protected from further reclamation."

South Korea joined the international Ramsar Convention on Wetlands in 1997. Under Ramsar, countries place their significant sites on a List of Wetlands deemed to be of "international importance". According to Nial Moores, Korea has about 65 sites that meet the Ramsar criteria, with 48 coastal wetlands. To date Seoul has registered just two sites. Saemangeum is not one of them.

Delmar Blasco, the outgoing Secretary General of Ramsar told Earth Report that Saemangeum "is certainly a site of international importance." WWF lists it as one of their Global 200 sites. Blasco says Ramsar took the unusual step in 1999 of urging the Government in an official letter to review the project and declare it a Ramsar site. Blasco says, "So far the government has not been moved."

Under Ramsar, member governments are meant to 'modify existing policies that adversely affect intertidal wetlands'. Seoul shows no sign of acceding to this provision or to a similar one in the Biodiversity Convention of which it is also a member. An "SOS" publication says: 'It is impossible to reconcile South Korea's membership of the Conventions with its action in destroying the jewel of the Yellow Sea.'  

Meanwhile Senator Brown has taken the gloves off. The Senator - whose party was recently described by the London Economist as the 'third force' in Australian politics - says when he sees a Korean car he sees "dead birds" and is asking Australians to boycott them. "The majority of Australians don't know that the Korean government is about to remove maybe 10% of all the migratory bird species in Australia because they'll fly to Korea and starve. The only counter to a massive proposal like this is international outrage.

"What corporations understand is money. Saemangeum is all about greed. If they think the world outside Korea may stop buying their goods, they might do something." 

Pressure on Seoul may yet come from an unexpected quarter. Alarmed at the decline in fish stocks and by plummeting water tables, the government in Beijing has begun a crash programme to restore its wetlands. For example, over one million rice farmers are slated to be ejected from wetlands taken from Dongting Lake in Hunan Province. Under the auspices of the United Nations, China and Korea have formed the Yellow Sea Large Marine Ecosystem project with the aim of creating a 'cross-border integrated management system'. It is going to be very embarrassing for the Koreans to sit down with its neighbour and have to admit it's just destroyed the most important slice of that system.

Tune into Wetting the Appetite on BBC World starting 28th July for the full story. Wetting the Appetite - is China paying too high a price for its spectacular economic growth? Alarmed at sinking water tables, Beijing is responding with a crash programme to restore wetlands – even if that means ejecting over a million farmers from their paddy.

Meanwhile, however, Korean protestors are not giving up even though there is no let up in the work on the sea barrage.

There has been nation-wide publicity for a 60 day march from the site to Seoul led by the Reverend Moon and a Buddhist Monk, Soo-Kyong. Reminiscent of Gandhi's salt march, for every three steps, the protestors took a respectful bow. The 'SamBollbae' (as this form of protest is called in Korea) was joined by some of Korea's best known celebrities.    

Saemangeum protesters

The marchers arrived in Seoul on May 26^th. They are up against the cosy Chaebol/Government culture which shows no signs of crumpling to pressure from home and abroad. They may not get the project cancelled, but there is still one million hectares of mudflat left relatively untouched in the Yellow Sea Eco-region. The lessons learnt with Saemangeum may help them prevent a new Chaebol-inspired coastal desecration. 

Useful links:

• www.wbkenglish.com
• www.birdlife.net
• www.greens.org.au
• www.birdsaustralia.com.au
• www.kfem.or.kr

Contact Senator Brown on: Senator.Brown@aph.gov.au

Dike Hard begins transmission on Monday July 7^th. Transmission times in GMT are: Mondays 21.30; Tuesdays 01.30, 09.30; Saturdays 18.30; Sundays 07.30. Local transmission times may be found by looking up www.bbcworld.com.

Stop Saemangeum! - Letter to President Roh (June 10, 2003)

The Green Korea organisation has prepared a draft letter of opposition to the Saemangeum project. If you would like to help, feel free to add your own comments in the letter below, and then forward it to the email addresses listed at the bottom of the page. For more information or for future updates about such campaigns as Saemangeum, send an email to Yujin Lee at Green Korea, leeyj@greenkorea.org

Dear President Roh Moo Hyun,

I am writing to urge you to reconsider your decision to continue the Saemangeum reclamation project. Preserving what is left of the Saemangeum tidal flats is an opportunity for you to save an invaluable natural resource, prove your own reform-based platform, and put Korea on a better course for the future. Stop the frenetic construction and listen to the will of the people, both inside Korea and out.

While the world, especially Koreans, awaited a promising and forward-looking era with your election, we have instead encountered disappointment. Your victory was a testament to the shifting concerns of the Korean people-from economic growth at all costs to more humanity and sustainability. Such a shift in people's concerns marks a larger global shift-one that recognizes the decline in the diversity of the global ecosystem, the increase in pollution and population growth, and the value of natural resources. Wetlands, of which Saemangeum constitutes 83 percent in South Korea, are the filters and sinks for substances which would otherwise require expensive technical means. Many nations have long recognized the benefits of healthy sanctuaries.

Your intention to invest in North Cholla province is worthy enough, but irreversibly converting valuable tidal flats into an expensive and polluted agricultural area is not a sustainable solution. Below are the reasons why I urge you to stop construction immediately and save what is left of the natural area:

1) Saemangeum is one of the world's most valuable natural areas. It is a wildlife habitat that supports 158 species of fish, or 76.9 percent of all fish species in the West Sea, with over 300 aquatic and plant species. In addition it is a major stopover point for 20,000 birds that annually migrate from Australia to East Asia. During any given year, however, more than 80,000 birds may be found there. Instead of continuing the largest tidal flat reclamation project in the world, and worsening the irreversible destruction of such an ecosystem, I urge you to preserve the remaining land by joining it to the already existing Pyonsan-Bando National Park.

2) Economically, even if the project were to be completed as designed, its costs would outweigh its benefits. In order to attain the level required for the Mankyung river watershed, animal wastes (pigs, milk cows, chickens, grazing cows) would have to be reduced between 95-100 percent, which would prove impossible. Currently, the Mankyung river watershed has the capacity to purify 25 tons of water waste. In addition, the local shellfish industry will be decimated, which accounts for 50 percent of the total national shellfish. Even the economic gains are questionable, and therefore re-examination is in order.

3) The reclamation project defies United Nations multilateral agreements. Agenda 21 of the Rio Declaration demands the protection and sustainable use of natural resources under the aspect of social balance. The World Summit on Sustainable Development goes on to call for reduction in resource degradation, pollution, and waste as well as the involvement of local stakeholders in development projects. South Korea is a member country of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the Ramsar convention, and so has a responsibility to uphold those international multilateral environmental agreements. Taking office after the negotiation of all of these documents places you in an important and opportune position to reaffirm such international agreements, and proceed more sustainably.

Given the extent of construction already completed, I do not advise reversing what has been done as I think that will further damage the local ecosystem. However, I do urge you to halt construction immediately and seize the window of opportunity you have to preserve wildlife, live up to the people's mandate, and seriously reform Korea's current path of development at all costs. Saemangeum is a world treasure, and I hope it remains as such.

Feel free to add your own comments in the letter, and then forward it to the email addresses below.

ROH Moo Hyun President of the Republic of Korea Cheongwadae, 1 Sejong-no, Jongno-gu, Seoul 110-820, Republic of Korea email: webmaster@president.go.kr

KIM Yoeng Jin Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Minister's Room, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Central Government Office, 1 Jungang-dong, Gwacheon-si, Gyeonggi-do 429-719, Republic of Korea e-mail: minister@maf.go.kr

HAN Myung Suk Minister of Environment Minister's Room, Ministry of Environment Central Government Office, 1 Jungang-dong, Gwacheon-si, Gyeonggi-do 429-719, Republic of Korea email: sykwoon@me.go.kr

HUH Sung Kwan Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fishery Minister's Room, Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fishery 139 Chungcheong-ro 3-ga, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul 120-715, Republic of Korea e-mail: skhuh@daunet.donga.ac.kr

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