Saemangeum
N 35°49'48.63"; E 126°34'15.22"

Site Images

Articles

Birds Korea - A Week in
The Life And Death of Saemangeum

"Reclamation And Green Growth:
Saemangeum in images"

Professional photographer Professor Charles Page visited Saemangeum for four consecutive springs (2005-2008) with Birds Korea to document the conversion of East Asia's most important shorebird site into a wasteland.

To see the impacts of reclamation captured photographically at:
http://www.charlespagephotography.com/

Saemangeum and the Saemangeum Shorebird Monitoring Program (SSMP) 2006-2008


Spoon-billed Sandpiper and Great Knot: A Case Study of Two Iconic Species

SSMP Updates

Update May 26 2008
Update May 15 2008
Update April 29 2008
Update April 10 2008
 Update March 01 2008
Update May 28 2007
Update May 06 2007
Update April 29 2007
 Update April 20 2007
Update April 07 2007
Update March 28 2007
Update March 20 2007
 Update May 03 2006
Update March 07 2006
2006 preliminary data
Time to Act

Publications


Saemangeum CD
October 2008
 
SSMP Report
2006-2008
SSMP Report
2007
SSMP Report
2006
View online
 		 Download PDF
 		 Download PDF
 		 Download PDF
 

Medialinks

December 22 2008:
Report warns of shorebird extinctions

April 16 2008:
Shorebird staging-sites in short supply

November 23 2008:
FEATURE-S.Korea builds city from sea at
wetland's expense

October 26 2008:
South Korea land grab killing migratory birds

May 2007:

UK's RSPB slams Saemangeum Reclamation
in press-release

To co-incide with World Migratory Bird Day 2007 the world-renowned UK charity The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) - one of whose staff, Sarah Dawkins, has been working with Birds Korea on the Saemangeum Shorebird Monitoring Program - has just posted a press-release about the Saemangeum reclamation on their website entitled "Wildlife starves on emptied wetland".

Written in consultation with Birds Korea's Director Nial Moores, the press-release clearly stresses the disastrous effect that the reclamation has already had, and inclues the following quote from Sarah Dawkins:

"Estuaries should be fantastic places, full of the bustle of shorebirds feeding on shellfish and worms in the mud and sand. 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.

Saemangeum really was the jewel in the crown yet all around me the place is dying."

Saemangeum - Media Coverage in the UK

Media coverage of Saemangeum following the RSPB's press-release was been gratifyingly extensive.

In the UK alone the following online reports/articles were noted on Saturday 14th May:

The Independent:
http://news.independent.co.uk/...533990.ece

The Times Online:
www.timesonline.co.uk/...1779606.ece

The Daily Telegraph website:
www.telegraph.co.uk/.../eakorea12.xml

BBC Online:

Channel 4 News website:
www.channel4.com/

Also:

http://www.inthenews.co.uk
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk

Additional to the online reports, several Birds Korea/SSMP members and senior RSPB staff members also recorded live radio interviews:

  • Sarah Dawkins [RSPB/SSMP] recorded an overnight World Service programme

  • Mark Avery [RSPB] recorded World Service news bulletins

  • Nial Moores [Birds Korea/SSMP] spoke to BBC Five Live

  • Sarah Dawkins [RSPB/SSMP] and Andre Farrar [RSPB] spoke to Sky News Radio.

Please support Birds Korea: your membership, donations, advice and participation really do make a difference!

Yellow Sea/Saemangeum(-related) Reports etc

  • Korean Wetlands Alliance (Edited by N.Moores) 1999. Internationally important wetlands especially as waterfowl habitat. National NGO Wetlands Report: Ramsar 1999.
  • Moores, N. et al. (a 2001) Yellow Sea Ecoregion: Reconnaissance Report on Identification of Important Wetland and Marine Areas for Biodiversity. Volume 2: South Korea. Joint publication of WWF-Japan, Wetlands & Birds Korea, and Wetlands International China Program
  • Moores, N. (b 2001) Internationally Significant Wetlands to be 100% Reclaimed. WWF Arctic Bulletin, No. 3.01, pp. 12-13.
  • Moores, N. 1999. A survey of the distribution and abundance of shorebirds in South Korea during 1998-1999. Stilt 34: 18-29.
  • Asia-Pacific Migratory Waterbird Conservation Committee (2001) Asia-Pacific Migratory Waterbird Conservation Strategy: 2001-2005. Wetlands International- Asia Pacific. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
  • Barter, M.A. 2002. Shorebirds and The Yellow Sea: Importance, threats and conservation status. Wetlands International Global Series 9, International Wader Studies 12, Canberra, Australia.
  • Perennou, C.P., Mundkur, T., and Scott, D.A. 1994 The Asian Waterfowl Census 1987-1991: distribution and status of Asian waterfowl.IWRB spec. Publ. No. 86. Slimbridge, UK and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
  • Wells, D.R. and Mundkur, T. (eds) 1996. Conservation of Migratory Waterbirds and their Wetland Habitats in the East Asian-Australasian Flyway. Proceedings of an International Workshop, Kushiro, Japan. 28 Nov-3 Dec 1994. Wetlands International-Asia Pacific, Kuala Lumpur, Publication No.116, and International Waterfowl and Wetlands Research Bureau-Japan Committee.
  • Lighthouse Foundation: FASS - For a Sustainable Saemangeum

Bird Species threatened by Saemangeum:

External links:

Wetland/Shorebird Conservation Organisations