A typical day in Gangjeong
village. Police enforce a recent ban on recreational kayaking
to keep possible protestors out of the sea.
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Please
read the letter below, and then email the IUCN, demanding that it
call on the South Korean government to put an immediate halt to the
construction of the Jeju Island navy base, a halt to the construction
of the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project, and a halt to Korea’s
development of nuclear power.
STATEMENT
TO THE IUCN AND
THE
WORLD CONSERVATION CONGRESS
July 10,
2012
We, civic environmental groups in
South Korea, denounce the IUCN and the World Conservation Congress
that have overlooked and misrepresented environmental and social
conflicts in South Korea
1. In
September 2012, the International Union for Conservation of Nature
(IUCN) will organize the World Conservation Congress (WCC) at ICC
JEJU in Jeju Island, which is expected to be attended by more than 10,000
people from over 1,100 organizations in 180 countries.
We,
civic environmental groups in South Korea, have a high regard for the
international cooperation projects executed by the IUCN, which
endeavor to help develop and implement policies that contribute to
protecting the environment. We also recognize that IUCN is globally
influential; the organization carries significant weight over the
registration of UNESCO World Heritage Sites, sets criteria regarding
internationally endangered species and develops conservation plans.
We also
respect the milestones achieved by the IUCN, including the Ramsar
Convention in 1971; the World Conservation Strategy in 1978, which
proposed the concept of “sustainable development”; the Convention on
Biological Diversity in 1992, and the Resolution on Biodiversity,
passed at the 1996 World Conservation Congress in Montreal. In
addition, we recognize that it was the IUCN which enabled numerous
technological advancements which are currently in use in the field to
protect biological ecosystems, such as the Technical Guidelines on
the Management of Ex-situ populations
for Conservation.
2.
Meanwhile, the Lee Myung-Bak administration has destroyed four major
rivers, continues to blindly pursue nuclear power, and continues to
forcefully construct a naval base at Gangjeong village on Jeju
Island, despite fierce opposition, both locally and nationally.
Against
this backdrop, civic environmental groups and activists in South
Korea continue to denounce the administration and are taking action
against its destructive projects. We call for the South Korean
government to halt its construction work at the four rivers and allow
nature to reclaim it. We also oppose the Lee administration’s policy
of promoting nuclear power under the guise of Green Growth and
exporting it to the Third World. Furthermore, we are vehemently
against the government’s execution of a plan to build a naval base on
Jeju Island, which is destroying biodiversity and brutally violating
human rights in the name of national security.
Given
the above, civic environmental groups in South Korea state the
following to the IUCN, the organizer of the World Conservation
Congress (WCC) in 2012, and its Organizing Committee:
3. The
World Conservation Congress will be held this year in South Korea,
yet the Congress gravely neglects or misrepresents environmental and
social conflicts in the host country. Because the Congress is
financed by the Lee Myung-Bak administration and sponsored by
industrial conglomerates, there is growing public concern that the
WCC is promoting policies of the Lee administration without examining
whether they are truly designed to preserve the environment.
This
year - 2012 - is the fifth, and last, year of President Lee’s tenure,
in which his administration is taking advantage of the WCC to justify
his poor environmental, peace, and labor policies. The South Korean
government is using the convention to advocate for its questionable
“Low Carbon Green Growth” campaign, its appalling Four Major Rivers
Restoration Project, as well as its policy of prioritizing nuclear
power and favoring corporate construction conglomerates.
We are
concerned that the IUCN Secretariat is not addressing any of the
current environmental issues in South Korea among the themes for the
upcoming WCC. Rather, Director General Julia Marton-Lefevre of IUCN
faithfully endorses the Korean government and its dubious policies.
The
Director General said "Korea's green growth policies and Four
Major Rivers Restoration Project are the results of the efforts to
ensure nature conservation and sustainable development” during a
meeting with President Lee on June 4. In an interview with a Korean
reporter, she described the rivers project as “reasonable.”
4. We
civic environmental groups of South Korea raise this question: Are
members of the IUCN and its Director General aware of the grave
implications of the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project?
Under
the Lee administration, South Korean society has endured tremendous
social tensions and environmental conflicts. The government has
prioritized development at the expense of wreaking havoc on the
environment and the health of its citizens.
For example,
in 2008, the 10th Meeting of the Conference of the Contracting
Parties to the Convention on Wetlands was held in Korea. At
that meeting, President Lee publicly declared to withdraw a plan to
build a “Grand Canal” in Korea, only to re-allocate its budget to
execute the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project, which has
devastated the nation’s four crucial rivers. Sixteen dams were built
at the rivers, destroying habitats for endangered species, critical
biological diversity, and nearby wetlands. The rivers project
violated several national laws, such as the National Budget Law, the
River Law and the Environmental Impact Assessment Law. Construction
contracts for the rivers project are reported to total around $900
million.
Before
its Director General asserted that the Four Rivers project was
“reasonable,” the IUCN should have conducted an on-the-ground
assessment of the project, which would have shown how it is, in fact,
undermining the organization’s hard work of preserving biological
diversity. In December 2002, the Technical Guidelines on the
Management of Ex-situpopulations
for Conservation were approved at the 14th Meeting of the Programme
Committee of Council, in Gland, Switzerland. Nonetheless, the South
Korean government’s Four Major Rivers Restoration Project has been
committing gross violations of IUCN guidelines, by decimating the
habitats of several endangered species, including the Danyang aster (Aster
altaicusvar. uchiyamae). Does
the IUCN, the international environmental steward, recognize that the
rivers project has utterly destroyed a haven for migratory birds’ –
the Haepyeong wetland located at Gumi City, Kyeongsangbuk-do province
in a flagrant breach of the Ramsar Convention? Is the IUCN aware that
organic farmers in Paldang, Dumulmeori, continue to defend their
farmlands against forced evictions by the Lee Administration?
5. We
respectfully ask for the position of IUCN on these critical matters.
Is the IUCN aware that 3,000 university professors and five leading
religious groups in South Korea oppose this project? The
environmental organizations in South Korea are united in opposition
to this project, demanding punishment of those responsible, the
removal of the dam, and the restoration of the rivers. We
respectfully ask for your official position on this dire situation.
We, the
civil environmental organizations of the South Korea, challenge the
IUCN Director General’s position on the Four Major Rivers Restoration
Project and therefore request the IUCN to clarify its position.
6. In addition,
we express deep concern with the IUCN's support of the construction
of a naval base in Gangjeong village, Jeju Island. Last April, based
on false information provided by the South Korean government, the
IUCN issued an official position stating that "construction of
the naval base in Gangjeong is valid according to legitimate
processes." It is questionable whether the IUCN put any effort
into verifying the credibility of the data provided by the South
Korean government.
The
IUCN’s statement on the Gangjeong naval base contradicts its earlier
resolutions regarding the negative impacts of military bases on the
environment. At the General Assembly in 2008, the IUCN adopted
"the Recommendation for protection of dugongs in Henoko,
Okinawa, Japan" and at the General Assembly in Buenos Aires in
1994, passed a resolution addressing the relationship of
"military base to conservation area.” The IUCN's objective to
protect global ecosystems cannot coexist with the goals of increasing
militarization at the regional or global scale. We oppose the IUCN’s
position regarding the naval base project in Gangjeong village, on
Jeju Island.
7. The
civil environmental organizations of South Korea, which seek peaceful
coexistence on the Korean peninsula and with all our Northeast Asia
neighbors, urge IUCN to express its clear position. Specifically
regarding the naval base project in Gangjeong, we would like you to
clarify whether the IUCN is aware of the serious violations of
environmental laws, which have led to the destruction of species
which are assigned as “endangered” by the Korean government. These
endangered species include the red-footed crab (Sesarma intermedium)
and Clithon
retropietusV. Martens. We ask you to clarify
how the IUCN arrived at its conclusion that the naval base
construction “is valid according to legitimate processes.”
Just to
clarify, the naval base is being built at a UNESCO Biosphere
Conservation Area (designated in 2002), and was designated a Cultural
Protection Zone by the South Korean government in 2000 and 2004. In
2002 the government’s Ministry of Land designated it a Marine
Ecosystem Conservation Area; in 2006, the government of Jeju Island
designated it a Marine Provincial Park; in 2006, the Ministry of
Environment designated it an “Ecological Excellent Village”; in 2007,
the Jeju Island government designated it an Absolute Retention
Coastal Area; and in 2008, the Ministry of Environment designated it
a Natural Park. We ask you to please clarify how the IUCN would
consider a project as “legitimate,” when the government mobilizes
both public and private police forces against residents who have
committed no crime other than to object to the project’s desecration
of this precious conservation area.
Gangjeong
village in Jeju is an area that must be conserved in accordance with
the values of the IUCN. That would mean that the military base
construction must be blocked. The IUCN must actively seek to halt the
naval base construction at Gangjeong and to restore and preserve the
area’s natural ecosystems through a resolution at the WCC General
Assembly.
8. We,
in the spirit of peace on our Korean peninsula, are besieged by the
South Korean government's arbitrary administration of law in regard
to the environment, and its dictatorial push for national projects
for whom only the nation’s largest corporations benefit. Since
President Lee took office, his administration has expressly weakened
laws which had protected South Korea’s environment.
South
Korea environmentalists are gravely concerned that the government
will take advantage of the WCC General Assembly proceeding this
September in Jeju to advance its illegitimate national projects. We
therefore demand a clear explanation of the IUCN's position regarding
the Four Rivers Restoration Project and the Gangjeong Naval Base
project. We formally request the IUCN and the 2012 WCC Organizing
Committee's clear position and response, which will be a central
factor to the position taken by the Korean civil environmental
organizations at the WCC General Assembly.
9. In
keeping with the IUCN’s prodigious achievements toward preserving the
biodiversity of the planet, we expect the IUCN and the WCC Organizing
Committee to show significant efforts to resolve environmental
disputes and related social conflicts in the Republic of Korea, the
host nation of the WCC.
As funicular
cable cars on the sacred mountains of Jiri-san and Seorak-san
threaten Asiatic Black Bears; as sustainable farmers from Gangwon
province struggle with the seizure of their land to build a golf
course; as tidal power plants at Incheon Bay and Garolim Bay threaten
the livelihoods of local fishermen; as residents battle nuclear power
plants in Gori, Youngduk and Samcheok; as the farmers and
fisherpeople of Jeju Island cope with the destruction of their reef
and farmland in order to build a navy base; as country folk struggle
to exist after their villages were subsumed by water to construct
dams on Mt. Jiri and Youngju; as laborers strike against brutal
working conditions at SSangyoung Motors-- As these manifold
violations take place, we shall, with our partners in the
international community, take actions to expose the daily brutality
levied upon the environment and the people of South Korea, and to
correct the wrong doings of the Lee Myung-Bak regime.
We wish
for a peaceful resolution to these many environmental and social
conflicts, and request that the IUCN and the WCC Organizing Committee
clarify their position on these issues as soon as possible.
For more background
information, click
here.
Support
Committee
National
Network of Korean Civil Society for Restoration of Four Major Rivers
Provincial Civil Committee against Golf Courses in Gangwon Province
Gangjeong
Village Association
Jeju
Islanders in the Mainland Caring for Gangjeong
National
Network of Korean Civil Society for Opposing
to cable car in National Park
Military
Bases Peace Network
(Gunsan US Military Airbase Retake Civil Movement)
Counseling
Office of U.S. Base Victims in Gunsan
The
National Campaign for Eradication of Crime by U.S. Troops in
Korea
Pyeongtaek
Peace Center
Peace
Nomad
Green
Korea United
NANUM
MUNHWA
Cultural
Action
Korean
Confederation of Trade Unions
Life
Peace Fellowship
Seoul
Human Rights Film Festival
Civil
Society Organization Network in Korea
Center
‘Dle’ for Human Rights Education
Korea
Human Rights Foundation
Jeju Council
of Social Issue
Jeju Pan-Island
Committee for Stop of Military Base and
for Realization of Peace Island
National
Network of Korean Civil Society for Opposing
to the Naval Base in Jeju Island
Jirisan
Action Network
Jirisan
Netwoks
Institute
for Sustainable Society
People’s
Solidarity for Participatory Democracy
Pastoral
committee of Environment in Seoul Diocese
Catholic
Human Rights Committee
Korea
Culture Heritage Policy Research Institute
Korea
Institute For Peace Future
Korea
Wetland NGO Network
Korea
Alliance for Progressive Movement
The
National Network of Environmental Organisation of Korea
Green
Korea Gongju
Green
Korea Kwangju
Nation
Park Conservation Network
KCEMS
Korean Christian Environmental Movement Solidarity
Korean
Network for Green Transport
Green
Future, Green Korea United
Green
Korea Daegu, Green Korea Daejeon
Green
Korea Busan, Citizens Alliance for Bundang Ecosystem
Buddhist
Environmental Solidarity
Forest
for Life, Korean Ecoclub
Eco-Horizon
Institute, Suwon Eco Center
Energy
Peace
Eco
Buddha
Korean
Women`s Environmental Network
Good
Friends of Nature – Korea
Cheonji
Boeun Environmental Group of Won Buddhism
Green
Korea Wonju
Indramang
Life Community
Green
Korea Incheon
Back to
Farm National Movement Headquarters
Jeju
Solidarity for Participatory Self-government and Environmental
Preservation
Nature
Trail-For the Beauty of This Earth
The
National Council of YMCA‘s of Korea
National
Young Women's Christian Association of Korea
Korea
Resource Recycling Federation
Environment
and Pollution Research Group
Korean
Teacher's Organization For Ecological Education And Action
Pastoral
committee of Environment in Seoul Diocese
Korea
Federation for Environmental Movement
Citizens’
Movement for Environmental Justice
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