Dr Nial Moores, Director, Birds Korea / 새와생명의터, IUCN SSC Threatened Waterfowl Specialist Group
It is a brief introduction to a tremendously priceless on-line useful resource developed by Andreas Kim, the previous web-spinner of Birds Korea’s now archived web sites and impartial researcher, maybe best-known for his work for the Mokpo Namhang City Wetland and elsewhere in Jeollanam Province, Republic of Korea (ROK).
Globally, biodiversity is in decline. One in 5 migratory species are susceptible to extinction, and even the World Financial Discussion board’s International Dangers Report 2024 cites biodiversity and ecosystem collapse as a serious risk. As of 2022, the Republic of Korea (ROK) ranked 78th for biodiversity within the international Environmental Efficiency Index.
Any such evaluation of environmental efficiency, at first, requires good information and sturdy evaluation. Fortuitously, this century there was a rise within the variety of home analysis establishments engaged on biodiversity-related points within the ROK. And their development has began to assist construct public assist for nationwide insurance policies which may cut back charges of biodiversity decline, as set out within the ROK’s legally-binding Fourth Nationwide Biodiversity Technique (2019-2023).
One of the best recognized supply of knowledge on waterbirds within the ROK, and the government-led analysis most frequently utilized by Birds Korea in our work, is the “Simultaneous Winter Chook Census” carried out below the auspices of the Ministry of Setting / NIBR since 1999 (MOEK 1999-2023). This Census has lately (since 2014-2015) been carried out at greater than 200 websites all through the ROK, with surveys carried out by various groups containing authorities researchers, college researchers and even NGO members. The Census is targeted largely on waterbirds and wetland habitats and has now generated a full quarter century of rely information. This has been a remarkably tumultuous interval for the nation’s waterbirds and wetland species, wherein lots of the ROK’s most vital tidal flats, each massive and small, have been misplaced to or been degraded by reclamation (Saemangeum, Asan Bay, Namyang Bay / Hwaseong, Mokpo Namhang City Wetland and so on); wherein dredging and dam building was undertaken as a part of the 4 Rivers Challenge to be adopted by extra infrastructure tasks impacting rivers and riverine habitats alike; wherein outbreaks of Extremely Pathogenic Avian Influenza (“poultry flu“) have change into power and widespread; and can also be a time wherein intervals of subzero temperatures in winter have change into markedly shorter. How have all these modifications impacted hen populations and hen distribution?
Due to its scope, period and comparatively public nature, the Census at present gives the most effective information for researchers inside and outdoors of Korea to make use of in an evaluation of modifications in inhabitants and distribution of waterbirds within the ROK this century. Birds Korea has due to this fact long-depended on the “waterbird census” for rely information to tell abundance codes utilized in our guidelines and in our inhabitants pattern assessments in Standing of Birds, printed again in 2014; and rather more not too long ago, in assessments of the doubtless impacts of e.g., airport building at Gadeok Do in Busan and in Saemangeum. The info are additionally ceaselessly used, after all, by authorities researchers in specialist papers in peer-reviewed journals; and in Purple Checklist Assessments made by NIBR.
Within the early days of the Census, copies of the annual stories had been printed and despatched out to all events, together with Birds Korea; then pdfs had been posted on-line by the Ministry of Setting as a substitute; and in more moderen years, the stories have been posted as on-line eBooks. Lots of the earlier on-line stories seem like not publicly accessible, significantly lowering their usefulness in figuring out longer-term tendencies in numbers.
To make these information rather more accessible and helpful, Andreas Kim undertook the mammoth activity of scanning each annual report, and organising all of the maps and information in them right into a single easy-to-use database that’s straightforward to navigate each in English and in Korean. The database, accessible right here, permits customers to see modifications in numbers at any given web site via just a few clicks of the keyboard…
Completely different choices additionally permit database customers to see whether or not or not there’s a statistically vital pattern on the nationwide degree in any of the recurrently occurring species. There are additionally lists of websites that meet Ramsar standards to assist in up-dating a shadow checklist of internationally vital wetlands.
Our collective, sincerest thanks go to Andreas Kim for the development and up-dating of this fabulous database; and now for offering as well as a really useful introduction to the stories.
If you’re involved in hen conservation in Korea and the broader area, please make time to entry the database and to obtain “25 Years Winter Waterbird Censuses of Korea“.
