May 12, 2007
World Migratory Birds Day - Press Release for Australasian Wader Studies Group
World Migratory Birds Day has little to celebrate at Saemangeum on the west coast of South Korea. It is now one year since the completion of the 33km sea wall which cut off the life giving tides to 40,000ha of tidal mudflat. Huge numbers of migrant birds are expected to perish due to the world's largest land reclamation project, which has all but destroyed their most important refuelling station.
Several bird species, already near extinction, are affected, and numerous species, from shellfish to fish to birds are being harmed by the drainage of the Saemangeum Wetland in South Korea. Prior to this destruction it met multiple criteria of the Ramsar Convention for designation as a protected Ramsar wetland.
The Saemangeum is the region's most important refuelling stopover for probably 400,000 migrating waders negotiating a 25,000 km round trip between Australia and New Zealand and breeding sites in Alaska and Siberia. At the height of migration this month, 200,000 waders of at least 25 species will seek food on the Saemangeum in a single day.
Monitoring decline
Counting shorebirds on Saemangeum. © 2007 Birds Korea. Press image for enlargement.
In April/May 2006, the international Australasian Wader Studies Group, a special interest group of Birds Australia, joined Birds Korea, a local conservation group, in the Saemangeum Shorebird Monitoring Program (SSMP). This is a joint three year program (2006-2008), designed to monitor and publicise the impacts of this massive reclamation project on populations of migratory shorebirds, both by counting shorebirds in the Saemangeum area, Gomso Bay and Geum Estuary on northward migration (in April and May), and by comparing this data with related research programs being conducted in Australasia. The data generated are being made freely available and are also published in various forms. The 2007 Program is now underway and is already reporting huge changes in the estuary and its use by birds and people.
Some 50 people from 9 countries are participating in this survey including 6 from Australia. One of the participants, Ken Gosbell, Chairman of the Australasian Wader Studies Group, describes the scene this year as depressing. "To have previously seen this estuary full of the bustle of shorebirds feeding on shellfish and worms in the mud and sand and people gaining their livelihood from the tidal flats contrasts with the desert like habitat of today. The wall has blocked the life-giving ebb and flow of the sea, boats are stranded waiting for a tide that will never come and the mudflats are strewn with mile upon mile of litter. The Saemangeum really was the jewel in the crown yet all around me the place is dying.".
Near extinct species face further decline
The threatened species of Spoon-billed Sandpiper and Nordmann's Greenshank face further decline as their remaining populations rely on the tidal-flats of the Yellow Sea, and on Saemangeum in particular. More than 100,000 Great Knot have been seen at Saemangeum and these birds could be too poorly fed this year to survive their final flight north. A chink of light still glimmers, however, for the birds whose fate seems almost sealed. Sluice gates have been built into the Saemangeum wall, which if kept open would save at least part of the wetland. In addition, the adjoining Geum estuary, also planned for reclamation, must be preserved.
The AWSG and Birds Australia together with Birds Korea urge the Australian government and the world community to offer support to South Korean authorities in conserving and managing Saemangeum. The group is also encouraging people to write to the South Korean embassy in Australia calling for the sluice gates to be kept open and for the Geum to be preserved.
Park Meena, the national coordinator of Birds Korea, said: "International appeals to the South Korean authorities would underline just how precious Saemangeum is. The Ministry of Agriculture claimed that the Saemangeum birds will just move to neighbouring estuaries but the birds there are already fighting over food and at least one of these other estuaries is also slated for reclamation."
"The Saemangeum area could be a huge lure for eco-tourists from all over the world if it was restored. The birds are still coming and parts of the site are still alive so there is a chance we can save it. If the sluice gates were opened the tides would return, restoring life to the mudflats and bringing food both to the birds and people with whom they co-exist."
Saemangeum has always been a haven for migratory birds as they make their long journey to the breeding grounds. This year, however, while World Migratory Birds Day is celebrated around the globe, bird experts from around the world are at Saemangeum, this year monitoring the impacts on birds of the loss of this vast wetland.
Interesting facts:
South Korea is a signatory of the Ramsar Convention which is designed to protect wetlands. The government did not nominate the Saemangeum for Ramsar protection however. South Korea is hosting the triennial Ramsar conference of the parties next year.
A government research body last year warned that the level of parts of the Yellow Sea could rise up to 30cm because of the reclamation project. This would cause other tidal land to be flooded. There are less than 1000 individuals remaining of both the spoon-billed sandpiper and Nordmann's Greenshank. More than 30% of the World's Great Knot, a shorebird that eats small shellfish, depends on Saemangeum for food.
Ken Gosbell
Chair, AWSG