amanakuni Home Page | なまえのない新聞ハーブ&アロマテラピー | 八丈島の部屋

HOT NEWS

韓国で諌早湾の10倍規模の干拓が決定?

メール作戦に参加を!


韓国在住の保護活動家(以前九州で鳥を見ていたこともある)ニル・モース(Nial Moores) 氏がオリエンタルバードクラブのメーリングリストに流した情報によりますと、韓国で諌早湾干拓の10倍規模の干拓の決定がおこなわれようとしており、反対の電子メールを大至急送ってほしいそうです。

モース氏からの電子メールによりますと、このSaemankeumの干拓は、干潟3万ヘクタール、浅瀬1万ヘクタールの合計4万ヘクタールの大干拓計画で、シギチドリその他の生息地が犠牲になります。その場所では、ピーク時200羽のヘラシギ(近年の秋の渡り)、60羽一群のカラフトアオアシシギ(1998)、6万羽のオバシギ、4万羽のハマシギのほかクロツラヘラサギ、ズグロカモメなどの生息する、東アジア有数の鳥類生息地になっているそうです。(ヘラシギ、カラフトアオアシシギ等は、東アジア特産の稀少種ですので、この干拓が実現すると、種の存続にとって大打撃になる可能性もあります。)

送ってほしいメール文面は下記(★から★まで)です。

★ココカラ

To all those it may concern,

We would respectfully like to add our voices to those of Korean NGOs and of
the Ministry of Environment and the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and
Fisheries, in asking for the cancellation of the Saemankeum Reclamation
project.
We understand the extreme international importance for biodiversity of the
Saemankeum area (comprising both the Mankyeung and Tongjin estuaries), and
will follow with interest all efforts being made by your government to
conserve the area.

Yours respectfully,

氏名(英文)
所属団体(英文、あれば)

★ココマデ

この文面に英文で氏名と所属団体(あれば)をタイプの上、

wetlandfriends@hotmail.com

まで送って欲しいとのことです。送られたメールは、韓国の関係政府機関、(必要におうじ)マスコミ、そしてWetland and Birds Koreaのウェブサイトに送られるとのことです。

この干拓の情報は、Wetland and Birds Koreaのウェブサイト

http://wbk.or.kr

にあるそうです。

転載自由ということですので、やや長いですがモース氏のメールを転載します。

*******モース氏メール始まり**************************************
Best Chance to Help Stop the World's Largest Ongoing Tidal-Flat Reclamation
Project: Seamankeum,
The World's Top Site For Spoon-billed Sandpiper and Nordmann's Greenshank.

Dear all,
Apologies for any cross-postings (or sense of dejavu!).

Two years ago, with your help, South Korean environmentalists conducted a
highly successful international e-mail campaign that helped delay the ongoing Saemankeum (pronounced "Say-Man-Gum" Reclamation project.
The 40 100 ha Saemankeum Reclamation on the west coast of Korea calls for the
construction of a 33km long seawall (presently 59% complete), converting 30000 ha of tidal-flats and 10 000 ha of shallows into rice-fields and reservoirs. This makes it the largest such project in the world.
In size it is equivalent to 10 Japanese Isahaya Bay Reclamation projects, or
to blocking off most of the Wash in the UK.
The Saemankeum project, part of a national reclamation Master Plan calling for
conversion of at least 70% of all remaining estuary and tidal-flat nationwide, was initiated in 1991 without genuine environmental impact assessment or debate.
However, in the interim South Korean environmental awareness has been growing
rapidly, as well as an understanding of the negative impacts of reclamation.
Following growing protests (including the last e-mail campaign), the government has suspended the project for over a year, while it tries to work out ways to assess the possible impacts of damming two adjacent estuaries, and converting their 40 000 ha of intertidal wetlands into rice-fields.

Now, in May 2001, after months of conflicting signals, the South Korean government finally appears poised to make a decision on whether to restart the project, or to cancel it once and for all.

The decision is a politically difficult one for the incumbent government.
Opinion within South Korea is both passionate and divided. Huge sums of money
have already been invested in it, and those in power within the local region want it continued for the jobs the construction supports.
However, on the other side, a growing number of the public, all major environmental groups and both the Ministries of Environment and the Ministry of Maritime affairs and Fisheries are strongly opposed to the reclamation, on the grounds that the existing tidal-flats are critically important for biodiversity and fisheries, while the reclamation will create enormous pollution problems, and degrade a significant part of the broader Yellow Sea environment.
For those interested in wetland and bird conservation both within and outside
of Korea, Saemankeum is a critical but clear case.
Both government and independent research confirm that the existing tidal-flats
are the most important shorebird habitat in the nation.
Saemankeum is for example the best place worldwide for the fast-declining and
probably critically endangered Spoon-billed Sandpiper Eurynorhynchus pygmeus, with peaks of 200 individuals in recent autumns representing possibly 5-10% of the remaining world population. A single group of 60 Nordmann's Greenshanks Tringa guttifer seen in 1998, out of less than 1 000 worldwide, also constitutes the highest peak count globally in recent years.
Other top bird species include peaks of 40 000 Great Knot Calidris tenuirostris (out of a world population of less than 350 000), 40 000 Dunlin Calidris alpina articola (believed largely Alaskan breeders), and internationally important concentrations of other globally threatened species such as Saunders's Gull Larus saundersi (ca 700 at maximum, or 10% of the world's population), Black-faced spoonbill Platelea minor and Chinese Egret Egretta eulophotes.
Probably some 30 species of waterbird in total are supported by the site in
concentrations recognized by the Ramsar Convention as "internationally important" and many of these are Species of global Special Conservation Concern.

Beyond the immediate impacts of this reclamation in itself, the project's
continuance would signal clearly that South Korea values reclamation over conservation. It would significantly undermine efforts being made by the Ministries of Environment and Maritime Affairs and Fisheries to conserve intertidal wetlands and their natural resources, and to honor national obligations under the Ramsar "Wise Use of Wetlands" Convention. As a result, other projects
in progress or being considered (which could claim a further 50% or more of
remaining tidal-flats nationwide) would become substantially more difficult to cancel.
In addition continuing the Saemankeum Reclamation would send a clear signal of
support for reclamation in neighboring countries Japan, North Korea and China, each of which have also been undertaking extensive reclamation projects, detrimental to the broader Yellow Sea eco-region and global biodiversity.
In sharp contrast, however, the cancellation of the Saemankeum project now
would be a major force for change not only within South Korea but throughout the Yellow Sea eco-region, enabling substantial policy changes leading towards long-term conservation of the region's charismatic but threatened wildlife.

With a government announcement on the project to be made in the coming two
weeks (on or around May 23), now really is the best chance to show support for those in government and society who are opposing this most destructive of reclamation projects.

With many thanks in advance,
[Image]
Nial Moores
International Liaison, Wetlands and Birds Korea (The Korean organization
dedicated to wetland and bird conservation through cooperation, research and education)

In cooperation with Green Korea United (Committed to building and maintaining
an ecologically sound and sustainable Korean peninsula and world)

Please give 10 minutes of your time to help stop this reclamation project: 5
minutes to forward this message to your friends, colleagues, and to relevant list-servers or newsgroups, and a further 5 minutes to send a mail of support for NGOs and the Ministries of Environment and of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, who are responsible for wetland conservation in South Korea.
Personal messages are perhaps best, but to save time, please feel free to simply cut and paste the message below and send to:

President Kim Dae Jung, The Blue House
webmaster@cwd.go.kr

CC
wetlandfriends@hotmail.com

To all those it may concern,

We would respectfully like to add our voices to those of Korean NGOs and of
the Ministry of Environment and the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, in asking for the cancellation of the Saemankeum Reclamation project.
We understand the extreme international importance to biodiversity of the
Saemankeum area (comprising both the Mankyeung and Tongjin estuaries), and will follow with interest all efforts being made by your government to conserve the area .

Yours respectfully,

Name
If applicable, organisation.

For further information in English, please refer to Wetland and Birds Korea
home-page at:

http://wbk.or.kr

or Green Korea United's home-page at
http://www.greenkorea.org

*******モース氏メール終り**************************************

韓国のNial Moores氏から、5/21にオリエンタルバードクラブのMLに流されたメッセージ
です。Saemankeum干潟干拓反対のメールはすでに、42箇カ国700通におよんでいるそう
です。5/24日に予定されている記者会見までに1000通を目指し、また月末までに1500通を
目指したいそうです。

月末締切を予定しているそうです。まだメールを出していないかたで干拓反対の趣旨に賛同される方は是非協力してあげてください。また、先の案内を関心のありそうな方に転送していただければと思います。

*****************************
Dear all,

Many thanks from South Korea for your continuing support. We have now
received 700 mails from overseas opposing the Saemankeum tidal-flat
reclamation project (from at least 42 nations). We hope to hit 1 000 mails
received in time for a press conference on Thursday May 24, and 1 500 if
possible by the end of the month, when we will close the petition.
Letters from e.g. leading East Asian-Australasian Flyway researcher Mark
Barter (who after many years research in the region concludes that
Saemankeum is THE most important site in the whole Yellow Sea for
shorebirds), Wetlands International Asia-Pacific, Birdlife and WWF-Japan
will be passed on to the government with all the petitions, and should have
a major impact.
For those who have not signed yet (please do!) or who want more information
about Saemankeum or even birding in Korea, please access our newly opened
(and daily improved) home-page at
http://www.wbk.or.kr
It includes an expanding selection of photos of some of the top wetlands and
birds (including Spoon-billed Sandpiper!) to be found in Korea.
Again, many thanks,

Nial Moores, Kim Su-Kyung,
Petition coordinators
Wetlands and Birds Korea
spoonbill@hotmail.com
wetlandfriends@hotmail.com
http://www.wbk.or.kr

HOT NEWS

amanakuni Home Page