Please Help World Migrating birds, Restore Saemangeum wetland

Tens of thousands of migrating birds are facing starvation because the worlds largest land reclamation project has all but destroyed their most important refueling station. Saemangeum is the regions most important refuelling post for around 400,000 migrating waders negotiating a 15,000 mile round trip between the southern hemisphere and south-east Asia, and breeding sites in Alaska and Russia. At the height of migration, over 150,000 waders from more than 25 species seek food at Saemangeum in a single day. The spoon-billed sandpiper and Nordmanns greenshank face extinction as their remaining populations rely on the tidal-flats of the Yellow Sea and on Saemangeum in particular. The Saemangeum is a world treasure for the world's migrating birds but in a massive blow for conservation and wildlife, the Seoul High Court has decided that the South Korean Government can resume the Saemangeum wetland reclamation, which according to the Korean media is "designed to transform large tidal flats off the countrys southwestern coast into farmlands and a freshwater reservoir". 

The 40,000ha Saemangeum project on South Korea's west coast has generated enormous controversy as the area is one of the most important wetland sites for migrating waterbirds in Asia, with around 400,000 waterbirds annually passing through the wetlands or using them as   staging area.

The wetlands also support the highest fish diversity in Korea, and are a vitally important spawning ground. The livelihoods of 25,000 Korean fishermen depend on them

Richard Grimmett, Head of BirdLife International's Asia Division said: "The Saemangeum project will have one of the biggest environmental impacts of any construction project in Asia over the coming decade. It will mean the loss of tidal mudflats and a feeding area for vast numbers of shorebirds on their East Asia-Australasian migration, and will impact fisheries and livelihoods in the Yellow Sea."

In April, 2006, dumper trucks poured their final loads of rubble and rock into the last remaining gap in a 33-km long dyke, and closed off 40,000 hectares of this vast estuary from the sea. With almost no tide, the shellfish beds - that had until that day supported the world's largest concentration of Great Knot - started to die. By April 2007, most of Saemangeum's tidal-flats had either been flooded, or turned into desert - huge expanses of drying mud, littered with dead shells, plastic, and even fishing boats - all part of a massive "reclamation" project, with still no clear end-use.

As South Korean lawmakers debate Saemangeum's future, we need to send them a clear message, 40,000 times, one email for every hectare of wetland being destroyed:

Let them know that: Saemangeum is still internationally important for shorebirds, still supporting species like the rapidly-declining Endangered Spoon-billed Sandpiper.

·         South Korea is a signatory to the Ramsar Convention, and will even host the next Ramsar Conference of the Parties in 2008. It is time for South Korea to honor the obligations of this Convention.

·         We need urgently to open the sluice-gates in the Saemangeum seawall, to restore more of the tidal-flow, and bring life back to some of the estuary.

·         The neighboring Geum Estuary is still threatened with "reclamation" (a euphemism for the damming and destruction of intertidal wetland). This site too is extremely important internationally, and needs to be protected by national law and designated a Ramsar site.

Birds Korea, a conservation group in South Korea, wants the UK government and the EU, together with governments elsewhere, to offer support to South Korean authorities in conserving and managing Saemangeum. The group is also urging people to write to the South Korean embassy in the UK calling for the sluice gates to be kept  open.

Nial Moores, Director of Birds Korea, said: International appeals to the authorities here in South Korea would underline just how precious Saemangeum is. The Ministry of Agriculture claims 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 estuaries may also be reclaimed.  

Please sign this petition and the petition links below as many as you can.
We need the whole world to know that Saemangeum wetland is an important staging area for our global migrating birds

For more information please see the ff links:

http://10000birds.com/two-minutes-for-the-spoonbilled-sand-wwwrestoresaemangeumcom.htm

http://www.europe-solidaire.org/spip.php?article7840

http://eyesage.blogspot.com/2007/07/restore-saemangeum-click-here.html

http://dartfordwaffler.co.uk/index.php/124/

http://www.birdskorea.org/Habitats/Wetlands/Saemangeum/BK-HA-Saemangeum-Mainpage.shtml

http://korea.ahrchk.net/english/mainfile.php/news200306/22/

http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0704-05.htm

http://www.globalresponse.org/history.php?record=2168

http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200704/200704040021.html

http://www.tve.org/earthreport/archive/doc.cfm?aid=1246

http://english.kfem.or.kr/hot/hot1.htm