Peace and Nature Conservation

To all Koreans, the iconic and majestic Red-crowned Crane is an auspicious symbol of good luck, happiness, and long life.  The logo of the DPRK state airline, Air Koryo, is a crane.  Hundreds of cranes adorn the high walls that surround the mausoleum of Kim IL Sung.  In both Korean states the Red-crowned Crane is strictly protected as a Natural Monument. 

The Red-crowned Crane is endemic to northeast Asia. Primarily attributed to hunting and habitat loss during the past century, they are now endangered.  There are two populations: a non-migratory group of about 1200 individuals in northern Japan, and a migratory group of about 1,500 on the Asian mainland.

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) was once a major wintering area for Red-crowned Cranes.  They fed on large invertebrates in the tidal pools and mudflats of the west coast, and on gleanings in rice paddies in more inland areas.  Prior to 1990, the former USSR provided DPRK with an ample supply of petroleum products to produce chemical fertilizers.   Following the evolution of the USSR into several sovereign states, petroleum products had to be purchased from Russia, leaving the DPRK with insufficient amounts of fertilizer.  The DPRK leader encouraged farmers to develop organic fertilizers, the use and proficiency of which is now coming back into practice.  But competition between birds and farmers for precious farm lands, fields and food resources have helped to stress and endanger Korean crane populations.

To promote goodwill and economic progress amongst the Korean people, Hyundai Corporation from ROK funded construction of a large tourism center at Mount Kumgang in DPRK just north of the eastern portion of the DMZ.  Hundreds of tourists from ROK visit Mt. Kumgang daily to the economic benefit on DPRK.  Other corporations from ROK built a complex of factories in DPRK just north of the western portion of the DMZ.  Using ROK capital and DPRK labor, commerce flourishes to the benefit of both states.  Now planners are hoping to develop land in the DMZ and the CCZ.  One option proposes turning the most important wintering site for cranes, the Chorwon Basin, into Reunification City! 

These ominous threats to the welfare of cranes and other wildlife together with their habitats in the DMZ and ROK influenced the International Crane Foundation and BirdLife International to initiate communication with colleagues in DPRK.   Dr. George Archibald, ICF co-founder and DMZ Forum board member, visited DPRK March 25 – April 8, 2008, to meet with the nation’s leading ornithologist and conservationist, Dr. Pak U Il, and his colleagues at the Biodiversity and Eco-Engineering Center of the State Academy of Sciences in Pyongyang.  Dr. Archibald was accompanied by Dr. William Duckworth, a British ornithologist and conservationist, who had worked in DPRK on a conservation program for several years.   The joint team then traveled to the east coast to meet with leaders of the agriculture community at the most important former wintering area for Red-crowned Cranes in DPRK, the Anbyon Plain, near the port city of Wonsan just north of Mt. Kumgang and the DMZ.  March 28-30 they visited the Anbyon Plain and met with the Manager of Pisan Cooperative Farm, Mrs. Kim Yon Sim, the Chairman of the Anbyon County People’s committee, Mrs. Kang Yong Ok, and several other leaders.

This project has been approved by the Government of DPRK perhaps because organic farming and the conservation of Red-crowned Cranes were already priorities of the government.  The migration of cranes between the Anbyon Plain in DPRK and the Chorwon Basin along the DMZ in ROK provides an opportunity for information exchange between researchers and conservationists in the two states.  Helping the cranes is becoming a venue for scientific exchange between the two Korean states.  This cooperation promotes goodwill in one of the most politically sensitive and potentially dangerous spots on earth.  Helping the cranes can be to the widespread benefit of humans and ecosystems.

The DMZ is an historic monument of Korea’s civil war that also offers the opportunity to serve as a symbol of peace for a divided nation. The Korean DMZ was established over a half a century ago following the armistice of Korea’s civil war. While portions were intensely disturbed during the course of the 3 year conflict, the systems have since recovered in the near absence of human impacts for over half a century.  These ecosystems contain globally irreplaceable ecological and genetic resources that can serve as a long-term biodiversity cache to help conserve and can be drawn upon to help restore Korea’s natural history, systems and landscapes (Kim 1997, 1999, Kim 2006, 2007, Kim and Wilson 2002).  A Peace and Nature Park within the Gangwon region of the DMZ represents a way to recapture Korea’s tradition of “…land of embroidered mountains and rivers.”

The DMZ and adjacent CCZ (Civilian Control Zone) stretches the ~250 km (150 miles) length of the Korean peninsula and varies from 5 to 20 kilometers (3 - 12 miles) wide.  The Southern portion of the DMZ is rated of “High Preservation Value” within the South Korean National Environmental Zoning Map. The zone is traversed by many rivers and riparian systems, and includes rich matrices of forests, wetlands, prairies, bogs and estuaries. Between Mt. Keumgang and Mt. Seorak, there is near primary forest vegetation, consisting of large tracks of unbroken forests and grass lands. Partial surveys have found over 1,200 plant species; 2,700 wildlife species, including habitat suitable for Asiatic Black Bear, Amur leopard, lynx and the rare Amur Goral. Hundreds of bird species are found here, several of which, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), are globally endangered, including the Black-faced Spoonbill, Red-crowned and White-napped Cranes and Black Vulture; and over 80 fish species, 18 being endemic. These species represent over 2/3 of those found in Korea; and it is thought that the DMZ may be the only place where many of them still exist. Hundreds of bird species migrate through the DMZ going to and from Mongolia, China, Russia, Vietnam, Japan, the Philippines and Australia. Some 10% of the world’s cranes winter on the Cheorwon Plain in the CCZ.  The DMZ also contains a vast wealth of culturally and archeologically significant sites. Famed Harvard biologist, Edward O. Wilson, has called it “Yosemite and Gettysburg all rolled into one.”

While conserving the natural and cultural resources is enormously compelling, it also becoming increasingly urgent. With available land becoming a precious commodity, every year, more and more development is taking place closer and closer to the area, especially the CCZ, bringing with it increased air and water pollution, habit fragmentation and invasions by non-native species.