Hi everybody -
For your info, below is a media release for World Migratory Birds Day from
the Australasian Wader Studies Group (AWSG).
Cheers,
Hugo
Hugo Phillipps
Queenscliff, Vic
World Migratory Birds Day
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 33 km
sea wall which cut off the life giving tides to 40,000 ha 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.
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."
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.
Notes
· * 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.
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