By Kim Bo-eun
The World Conservation Congress will push Korea to excel as a green growth nation with increased awareness on the protection of nature, said Ashok Khosla, president of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
The president valued Korea’s economic success and its efforts against global environmental challenges the country has shown through the preparations of the conference on Jeju Island.
“Korea with an impressive economic miracle is at the stage of finding it necessary to start making investments in its environment,” the president stated in a written interview with The Korea Times.
“It is happening in Korea already ― urban renewal, massive forestation, clean technology ― and I hope very much that the World Conservation Congress and the presence of the IUCN will accelerate this process, particularly in the area of living resources and their diversity.”
He said that the international community should turn their eyes on the protection of biodiversity despite the financial crisis that is sweeping across Europe and other parts of the world.
“Many ― though of course not all ― causes of our financial crises lie, ultimately, in our neglect of the health and productivity of our environmental resources. And I believe that this will increasingly be the case in the future,” he said, adding the price for neglecting nature will be huge.
“The crises we have seen over the past four years are but little blips in the global economy compared with what will come in the future unless we take better care of the environment that supports our needs and our lives.”
In that regard, the president thinks Jeju Island is a good place to host the quadrennial conference as Jeju boasts numerous sites of natural and cultural heritage. He said both the nation and the island province have made a major commitment to greening their economies.
“The significance of this venue for the World Conservation Congress is to enable conservationists from all over the world to see for themselves and judge the successes or shortcomings of these initiatives. The significance for the hosts is that they will have access to some of the world’s most knowledgeable experts whose views could be of the greatest value in assessing the results and making any needed corrections,” he said.
He also valued efforts made by Korean companies to achieve green growth, especially that of POSCO, a world-leading steel maker.
The company recorded 39.2 trillion won ($34.5 billion) in sales and 4.2 trillion won ($370.3 million) in operating income in 2011.
Joining the efforts of the government to restore the marine environment, POSCO explored the idea of using iron and steel-making slag to promote marine forestation in damaged areas on the country’s eastern coast and the southern coast of Jeju Island.
“Steel slag is an environmentally safe by-product of steel-making and has been widely used in construction, civil engineering and soil fertilization. POSCO established a set of strategies and worked with the Research Institute of Industrial Science and Technology (RIST) to restore marine habitat using steel slag,” he said.
“After years of researching, POSCO and RIST developed a steel slag marine structure, Triton, which is made from material with a high proportion of the mineral elements (in particular iron and calcium) that benefit the marine environment,” Khosla said.
“The Triton fish shelter therefore provides ideal conditions for the growth of seaweed and other sea organisms. Research conducted at the site revealed a seven-fold increase in biomass 18 months after sea forestation by Triton. This was facilitated by the ionized iron, which accelerates the germination and growth of algae spores, while calcium purifies contaminated sediment and water quality,” he said.