For the past three years we have been supporting the efforts of environmental organizations in South Korea to stop a project that would destroy the country’s most important wetland ecosystem, also a critical stopover for migratory birds.
The campaign has reached a critical moment as the Supreme Court begins hearings on the issue.
Please read the campaign update below, sent by our campaign partner KFEM (Friends of the Earth Korea), and send your endorsement of their letter to this email address: ma@kfem.or.kr
Let’s let the Supreme Court know that Saemangeum is of worldwide significance, and that world citizens care. Thanks!
Paula Palmer, Executive Director
Global Response
Tel. 303 444-0306 ext. 103
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An Urgent Plea for Support in Stopping the Saemangeum Reclamation Project in South Korea
Environmentalists in South Korea and around the world request urgent support for the most important environmental Supreme Court case in South Korean history. Environmental groups, fishers, and bird conservationists are fervently working to stop the reclamation of 40,100 hectares of tidal flats and shallows that are vitally important for an estimated 500,000 waterbirds annually. The Saemangeum estuary supports 30 waterbird species in internationally important concentrations, including the globally-threatened Spoon-billed Sandpiper, Spotted Greenshank, Black-faced Spoonbill, and Saunders’s Gull.
The Saemangeum Project, which is already 400 million USD over-budget and will require at least another 4.3 billion USD to complete, was recently allowed to go ahead when the Seoul Administrative Court’s landmark decision against the project was overturned on appeal. The Korean Supreme Court will begin hearing the Saemangeum case on February 16th, 2006. The timing is crucial given that all but 2.7 km of the 33 km seawall has already been built. The Ministry of Agriculture wants to complete the initial seawall during the month of April, 2006. The completion of the seawall will severely affect populations of birds that migrate along the East Asian-Australasian Flyway. For background in English on the Saemangeum project and the numerous globally threatened bird species it will affect, please visit the websites of the Korean Federation for Environmental Movement-FoE Korea: http://english.kfem.or.kr; and Birds Korea: http://birdskorea.org/BK-Startpage.shtml. We would like to thank you for your past support and hope that you will speak out again against the Saemangeum project at this key moment. Please continue reading for a brief account of the legal struggle against the project and use the model protest letter at the bottom to voice your disapproval.
Brief History of the Legal Battle against the Saemangeum Project
The movement against the Saemangeum project became a national movement in 1998 when environmental groups and religious leaders became fully aware of the destruction it would cause to not only the environment, but also the 25,000 people whose economic livelihoods depend on the estuary for fish and aquaculture. Numerous protests were held at Saemangeum and in Seoul from 1998 onwards, with the project gaining international attention, especially as the area has been identified as the single most important site for shorebirds in the Yellow Sea – itself a key region for global shorebird conservation. Saemangeum and the movement against it became one of the most important environmental and media issues in South Korea in the spring and summer of 2003 with the “3 Steps and 1 Bow” Campaign. A Catholic Priest, Buddhist Monk, Protestant Reverend, and Won Buddhist Monk, along with tens of thousands of supporters, took part in an arduous 65 day campaign in which they walked from Saemangeum to Seoul whereby they took 3 steps and then 1 full bow to the ground. After garnering national news throughout the summer, symbolic reenactments were performed in the U.S., UK, and Italy.
As part of the movement against the Saemangeum project, 3,500 local people and leading Korean environmentalists filed a court case to stop the construction of the 33 km seawall in August 2001. This case brought some relief as the court ordered new construction on the seawall to stop in July 2003. After a month, however, construction resumed. On February 4th, 2005, the Seoul Administrative Court ruled that the project should either be cancelled or required to apply for new permits given that the intent of the project had changed. The Court ruled that the environmental impact assessments conducted were inadequate, that the original plan to create more farmland was no longer the real objective given that Korean rice farming is no longer competitive and thus declining nation-wide, and that there was no way to ensure that the water would be usable given concerns about pollution.
The Ministry of Agriculture did not apply for new permits, but rather successfully appealed the ruling at the Seoul High Court on December 22nd, 2005. The Appellate Court argued that the economic cost of abandoning the project now outweighs the environmental cost. Furthermore, because of global warming and possible reunification with North Korea, South Korea should pursue self-sufficiency in rice. This is an odd argument, however, given that the land given to rice production has declined 10% in the last two years. Furthermore, WTO regulations and Korea’s push to sign Free Trade Agreements with the US and other major agricultural exporters contradicts the goal of food self-sufficiency. This is but a minor contradiction, however, when one considers the fact that South Korea is a signatory to both the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance and the Convention on Biological Diversity. South Korea will also host the next Ramsar Convention in 2008. It is thus surprising for the government to continue supporting the destruction of the most biodiverse and internationally important wetland system in the nation, and one of the most important anywhere in the entire East Asian-Australian Flyway. The 3,500 fishers and environmentalists who brought the original case have now appealed to the Supreme Court, with the opening statements slated for February 16th, 2006.
This is the biggest environmental case in Korea's history, and the future of Saemangeum is vitally important to the East Asian-Australasian flyway and the Yellow Sea eco-region. Urgent international support is crucial in halting this environmentally devastating and economically wasteful project.
Please send your endorsement for the following letter to Mr. Lee Yong-hun, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Korea by March 1 as KFEM is going to submit the endorsement in early March before the final ruling of the Supreme Court is made in mid March.
Thank you for your support.
Ma Yong-Un
International Campaigner
Korean Federation for Environmental Movement (KFEM)-Friends of the Earth Korea (FoE Korea)
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Dear Honorable Lee Yong-Hun,
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Korea
I am writing most respectfully to urge the cancellation of the Saemangeum project. If the seawall is completed, and the Saemangeum estuarine system converted to freshwater and “land”, South Korea will lose the single most important known site for migratory shorebirds both nationally and in the Yellow Sea. Loss of this estuarine system will cause significant damage both to the national interest, and to South Korea’s international image. It will undermine national conservation laws and government initiatives, cause declines in certain species of migratory waterbirds, and cause enormous damage to fisheries along the West Coast and throughout a significant part of the Yellow Sea. While we understand that the Korean government has already spent a lot of money on this project, the long-term environmental and economic costs that will result from completing the project are beyond measure.
Though the stated goal of creating land for rice farming is already disputed given free trade and farming trends in South Korea and other developed countries, the environmental destruction that the project will cause is, in the opinion of numerous national and international experts (based on significant research and historical precedents), both definite and widespread. The loss of 40 100 ha of brackish sea and tidal-flats will cause enormous damage to water quality and fisheries, which in turn will be felt most acutely by local fishers and by the hundreds of thousands of birds that are supported by the natural estuarine system. The Saemangeum reclamation will destroy essential and optimal habitat for globally threatened migratory species such as the Endangered Spotted Greenshank (with a world population of less than 1000 individuals), Spoon-billed Sandpiper (probably less than 2 000 individuals globally), Black-faced Spoonbill (with a world population of around 1681 individuals) and Saunders’s Gull. Thus, the Saemangeum Project will not only harm the environment and biodiversity of South Korea, but that of a much wider region, negatively impacting on a chain of countries from New Zealand and Australia in the south to Russia and the US to the north and east. These countries, recognizing the many values of wetlands, are not only working to protect their wetlands, they are restoring them. These efforts, however, will not help numerous species of migratory waterbirds if the Saemangeum project is completed. Indeed, while the Saemangeum tidal flats are part of South Korea’s national territory, migratory waterbirds belong to many nations, and most importantly, to future generations.
South Korea has taken many steps in recent years to try to reverse environmental destruction caused by very rapid industrialization. By becoming a signatory to the Convention of Biological Diversity and the Ramsar Convention, and especially by hosting the next Ramsar Conference (in 2008), the South Korean government has shown a strong desire to be recognized internationally for its efforts to conserve wetlands and biodiversity, as an essential part of sustainable development and national natural resource management. The South Korean government should thus meet its national and international obligations to maintain populations of waterbirds and internationally important wetlands, as called for by the Articles of the Ramsar Convention. Canceling the project will allow greater acceptance of wetland conservation under national laws, and will enable the 2008 Ramsar Conference to be a celebration of Korea’s environmental heritage and the South Korean government’s enlightened environmental leadership.
Sincerely,
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