Dance for Sura
On a hot summer day, diverse people danced together in front of the Seoul Administrative Court. Why did we dance there?
In June 2022, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced the Master Plan for Building Saemangeum International Airport in Gunsan, North Jeolla Province. The ministry planned to reclaim the Sura Tidal Flat and construct this new airport there, although, within a 10-minute walking distance from the site, there is Gunsan Airport, which has shown chronic losses of over 3 billion won a year due to a lack of demand.
Sura is the last remaining tidal flat in the Saemangeum reclamation project. Various plants and animals live there, including endangered species. Tidal flats are especially valuable in this era of the climate crisis because they absorb enormous amounts of greenhouse gases.
In September 2022, a group of more than 1,300 citizens filed a lawsuit to cancel the master plan for building this airport. On June 13, the Seoul Administrative Court held the fourth trial of the lawsuit. That day, before the trial, people who wanted to save Sura gathered in front of the court, and some young students sang a song that one of them had written and composed for Saemangeum.
We went to the courtroom together to hear the trial. The audience packed the courtroom. Many people sat on the floor too, due to a lack of chairs.
At the trial, we heard the witness Dr. Nial Moores, who has conducted research and surveys on birds in East Asia for over 30 years. He spoke about why the government should not construct the new airport, explaining the outstanding, universal value of the Sura Tidal Flat. He said that Saemangeum is a globally important habitat for migratory birds according to the standard of the Ramsar Convention, that is, the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance, especially as Waterfowl Habitat.
Migratory birds such as great knots fly from Russia to Australia via Saemangeum. The west coast of Korea is crucial to the survival of such migratory birds. If these birds flying such a long distance cannot eat and rest well at a stopover, they cannot survive. Great knots are endangered species according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Sura contains many living things including legally protected species like Saunders’s gulls. The construction of the new airport means the loss of the globally important bird habitat. Building the airport will lead to the deaths of so many living things that depend on Sura.
Moreover, because Saemangeum is included in the flyway of migratory birds, bird strikes with aircraft can occur if the airport is constructed, which can threaten passengers’ lives too.
After the trial, we danced in a circle to peaceful music in front of the court to conserve Sura. Now is the time to preserve the precious tidal flat as best we can, living peacefully with other living things.
Kim Sun-ae (blog.naver.com/everythingchanges) wrote "Old Potato, New Potato" and translated "Little Lord Fauntleroy."