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