By Lee Sun-ho
Korea’s Jeju Island has become a world-famous venue in recent years for hosting many gala international events for the conservation of nature. It was especially pronounced in September this year due to the hosting of two unprecedented gatherings that concluded with significant declarations for humankind.
One was the quadrennial 23rd World Conservation Congress (WCC) from Sept. 6-15 organized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), dubbed Nature’s Olympics, which invited some 10,600 participants from U.N., government agencies and non-government organizations from over 180 countries at the Jeju International Convention Center, concluding the Jeju Declaration on the closing day.
The other was the Official Inauguration of Jeju Island as one of the New7Wonders (N7W) of Nature, part of the canon of 7, on Iho Beach on Sept. 13 marked by the unveiling of a specially-cast bronze plaque in front of a crowd of 20,000 people initiated by the N7W Foundation, ending with the announcement of the N7W Global Network Declaration.
The two declarations have common pledges acknowledging the importance of nature conservation and climate change, solutions to some of the Earth’s most pressing needs for the encouragement of ecotourism, protection of biodiversity through green growth, governance over natural resources, swift action in environment health emergencies and hazards, and the continued hosting of feedback of world leaders’ dialogues to Jeju.
It is noteworthy to mention Korea-related agendas under the theme of “Resilient Nature” included a conservation strategy for the demilitarized zone (DMZ) sustainable management of the Baekdu Great Mountain Range, as mentioned by President Lee Myung-bak at the congratulatory address of the IUCN-WCC.
An encouraging WCC resolution by vote on Sept. 15, the closing day, was the green light on the part of Korea’s lawful super-modern naval base construction in Gangjeong Village in Seogwipo against the suggestion urging a stop to the common sea-rock destructing work, which has been pushed by the Center for Humans and Nature (CHN), member of the IUCN based in the U.S.
As echoed by outgoing IUCN President Ashok Khosia (Pakistan) the 2012 Jeju conference was the best-ever WCC with goodwill on all sides. Building on the IUCN’s strength to provide science-based knowledge and policy-relevant advice to overcome key challenges faced by all of humanity, there is a mounting insight that we will scale up actions both for the land and the sea through gigantic, targeted conservation attempts to bring together information on species, habitats, ecosystems and human dependency on nature.
We have to work with the public and private sectors to enhance the transfer of green technology as well as to share knowledge, experience and skills to integrate biodiversity and ecosystem values into glocal (global+local) production and consumption.
Bernard Weber, president of the N7W Foundation welcomed the launch of the first-ever N7W Global Network Summit which will take place in March 2013 on Jeju Island with the initiative of a partnership between the N7W Foundation and the Jeju-based N7W Global Network Committee.
It pleased us to hear that the delegations attending the N7W Network Announcement agreed to pragmatic solutions to achieve sustainable, environmental, social and economic objectives base on the motto of “Our Heritage is Our Future.”
The IUCN and N7W Foundation, both Swiss-headquartered cosmopolitan entities, need to coordinate with each other on a complementary basis to tackle eternal human well-being on the conservation of nature on this planet. Such a wishful mutual compromise should be well implemented on an efficient, consistent but future-oriented manner in line with the changing patterns of environmental nature and following the life lessons of our ancestors.
It is also of utmost importance to take good care of our cultural heritage and our community livelihood, by pan-governmental economic activity for sustainable development and through glocal endeavors supporting environmental world peace.
The two Jeju declarations in September will encourage the knowledge and actions needed to allow humankind to share both responsibility for and benefits of biodiversity conservation, by providing strong leadership in advocating better and more equitable governance of the use of endowed nature and natural resources in public policy and corporate behavior at worldwide levels. Fancy-looking international declarations should not remain as a formality for their own sake only without any outstanding achievements in reality.
The writer is a member of the investment deliberation committee of the Jeju Free International City Development Center (JDC) in Jeju City. Contact him at kexim2@unitel.co.kr.