A conflict of greens: Green development versus habitat preservation - The case of Incheon, South Korea

Environment

Volumn 53, Issue 3, 2011, Pages 3-17

  Ko, Yekang ^a   Schubert, Derek K ^b   Hester, Randolph T ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA   (United States)

^b John Northmore Roberts Associates   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 79957532024     PISSN: 00139157     EISSN: 19399154     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/00139157.2011.570640     Document Type: Article

References (79)

1. Framework Act on Low Carbon, Green Growth of 2010, Law 9931, 14 April 2010, Republic of Korea.
2. Presidential Committee on Green Growth, Five-Year Plan for Green Growth (2009-2013) (Seoul, Republic of Korea, 2009), http://www.greengrowth.go.kr/www/ green/tenpolicy/ohplan/plan1.cms (accessed 10 January 2011).
3. United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Overview of the Republic of Korea's National Strategy for Green Growth (Geneva, Switzerland: UNEP, April 2010), http://www.unep.org/PDF/PressReleases/201004-unep-national-strategy.pdf (accessed 17 July 2010).
4. Songdo International City (also called Songdo International Business District, IBD) is not officially part of South Korea's plans for green growth but we include it under the label of "green development." Songdo IBD is one of the three IBDs-Yeongjong, Cheongna, and Songdo-in Incheon Free Economic Zone (IFEZ). With US$41 billion of government investment, IFEZ aims at becoming a business hub of Northeast Asia by accommodating advanced technologies and capitals in South Korea. Out of a total area of 209 km2 (around one-third of Seoul or Singapore), about 73 percent is "reclaimed" former tidal flats. Incheon Free Economic Zone (IFEZ), IFEZ, http://eng.ifez.go.kr (accessed 3 June 2010).
5. Songdo IBD, Sustainable City, http://www.songdo.com/songdo-international- business-district/whysongdo/sustainable-city.aspx (accessed 8 June 2010).
6. Incheon Metropolitan City, "Incheon City Low Carbon Green Growth Plan for the World Best Green Incheon," press release (through Incheon TV News Network) (Republic of Korea, 10 December 2009).
7. United Nations Economic and Social Commissions for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), Green Growth-environmentally sustainable economic growth for the well being of all, http://www.greengrowth.org (accessed 10 July 2010).
8. Ibid,.
9. According to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Human Development Index (HDI, a composite measure of the nation's status of well-being using health, education, and income data) of 2010, South Korea is ranked in 12 out of 169 countries. The HDI of South Korea is 0.877, far above the averages for the region (East Asia and the Pacific: 0.650) and the world (0.624). It is accessible at http://hdrstats.undp.org/en/countries/profiles/KOR.html (accessed 20 January 2011).
10. South Korea's National Statistical Office (NSO) reported that the fertility rate among women 15 to 49 was 1.15 in 2009, which is one of the lowest birth rates in the world. This information is accessible at http://www.index.go.kr/egams/stts/jsp/potal/stts/PO-STTS-IdxMain.jsp?idx-cd= 1428 (accessed 20 January 2011).
11. S. Connelly, "Mapping Sustainable Development as a Contested Concept," Local Environment 12, no. 3 (2007): 259-278. (Pubitemid 46681037)
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13. S. Yun, "The Ideological Basis and the Reality of Low Carbon Green Growth," ECO 13, no. 1 (2009): 219-266.
14. Ibid,.
15. After President Lee established the Presidential Committee on Green Growth (http://www.greengrowth.go.kr/english/en-main/index.do) in 2009, the Presidential Commission on Sustainable Development was reorganized as the Korean National Commission on Sustainable Development (http://www.pcsd.go.kr/eng/ index.html) under the Ministry of Environment.
16. C. Oliver, "New Development Bites the Hand that Feeds Eco-tourism," Financial Times, September 21, 2009.
17. J.K. O'Donnell, The U.S.-ROK Alliance: A Catalyst for Green Growth? (Washington, DC: Center for U.S.-Korea Policy, The Asia Foundation, March 2010), http://asiafoundation.org/resources/pdfs/ODonnellGreenGrowth.pdf (accessed 17 July 2010).
18. United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), note 3.
19. Yun, note 12.
20. For more details, see D. Normile, "Restoration or Devastation?," Science 327, no. 5973 (March 26, 2010): 1568-1570.
21. According to the Presidential Committee on Green Growth's 2009 report "Strategies for Energy Goal Management and Clean Energy Expansion," "Expansion of Nuclear Energy" is first included in the subordinate chapter of "Expansion of Clean Energy Supply" prior to renewable energy. The report is at http://www.greengrowth.go.kr/resource/new-images/ policy/02-sin02.pdf (accessed on 13 January 2011). From the fiscal aspect, in the budget for green technology, the development of nuclear fusion technology was assigned to the highest ratio (34.9%) in 2008, and it became even larger (35.8%) in the 2009 budget. On the contrary, the development of renewable energy technologies occupied only 19.2% in 2008 and decreased even more to 18.5% in 2009; Yun, note 12.
22. Yun, note 12.
23. Wikipedia, Tidal barrage, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tidal-barrage (accessed 14 January 2011).
24. Ganghwa is an island (Ganghwa-do) and a county within Incheon Metropolitan City.
25. United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Project 0349: Sihwa Tidal Power Plant CDM Project, http://cdm.unfccc.int/Projects/DB/ DNV-CUK1143710269.08 (accessed 27 July 2010).
26. Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs, "South Korea Is Increasing Ramsar Registered Wetlands Twice More," press release (Seoul, Republic of Korea, 3 November 2008)
27. S. Chan, W. H. Fang, K.S. Lee, Y. Yamada, and Y.T. Yu, International Single Species Action Plan for the Conservation of the Black-faced Spoonbill (Platalea minor), CMS Technical Report Series No. 22 (Cambridge, UK: BirdLife International and the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS), 2010), http://www.cms.int/publications/TechSeries/ts22- black-faced-spoonbill.pdf (accessed 5 June 2010).
28. Ramsar Convention, Resolution X.22 (Changwon, Republic of Korea: Ramsar Convention, November 4, 2008), http://www.ramsar.org/pdf/res/key-res-x-22-e.pdf (accessed 30 July 2010).
29. Korean Federation for Environmental Movement (KFEM), "President Lee's Congratulatory Message for Ramsar COP Is a Fraud. Annul the Coastal Reclamation and the Canal Plans," press release (comment) (Republic of Korea, 29 October 2008). KFEM is the largest national environmental NGO in South Korea and a member of the global NGO Friends of the Earth. KFEM was established in 1993 when eight Korean environmental NGOs united, and now has 52 local offices around South Korea.
30. Wetland Conservation Act of 1999, Law 5866, 8 February 1999, Republic of Korea. Under the current Wetland Conservation Act, "With an executive order, it is possible for the Minister of MLTM, local mayors, and governors to rescind and/or shrink the wetland preservation area in case of public interests and military purposes
31. Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs, Environmentally- Friendly Development Strategies for Incheon Bay Tidal Power Generation, internal report (Seoul, Republic of Korea, March 2009).
32. Normile, note 19.
33. M. J. Dadswell and R. A. Rulifson, "Macrotidal Estuaries: A Region of Collision Between Migratory Marine Animals and Tidal Power Development," Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 51, no. 1 (1994): 93-113.
34. R. H. Charlier, "Sustainable Co-generation From the Tides: A Review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 7, no. 3 (2003): 187-214.
35. Ibid,.
36. Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs, "South Korea Is Increasing Ramsar-Registered Wetlands Twice More," press release (Seoul, Republic of Korea, 3 November 2008).
37. J. Vidal, "Severn Tidal Power Shortlist 'Biased', Campaigners Say," guardian.co.uk, 8 May 2009, http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/ 2009/may/08/severnestuary-tidal-scheme?intcmp=239 (accessed 14 July 2010).
38. B. Dorminey and The Daily Climate, "Testing the Waters with Tidal Energy," Scientific American, 6 December 2010, http://www. scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=testing-the-waters-with-tidal-energy (accessed 29 January 2011).
39. H.R. Park, "Ganghwa Tidal Power Plant, What Is the Problem?," Environment and Life, Spring 2010 (Vol. 63), 204-220.
40. Ibid,.
41. Korean Federation for Environmental Movement (KFEM), note 28.
42. Incheon Metropolitan City et al., Master Plan for Ganghwa Tidal Power Plant Joint Development Project, internal report (Republic of Korea, May 2007).
43. R. Costanza et al., "The Value of the World's Ecosystem Services and Natural Capital," Nature 387 (September): 253-260.
44. The estimated annual value of a hectare of Korean tidal flats (US $32,660) includes marine products ($9,993), ecosystem preservation ($8,548), habitat ($7,533), water purification ($3,702), recreation ($1,443), and disaster prevention ($1,442). This estimation is from the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Marine Products, "Coastal Wetlands Conservation Plan," presented at the Symposium for Tidal Flat Conservation and Sustainable Use, Gochang, Republic of Korea, 28 September 2006.
45. J. H. Mang et al., Improving Environmental Assessment in Tidal Flat Reclamation (Seoul, Republic of Korea: Korea Environment Institute, 2007), http://library.me.go.kr/DLiWeb25/comp/search/viewer.aspx?type=F&cid= 176063&id=20391&url= (accessed 20 July 2010).
46. Ibid,.
47. Costanza et al., note 42.
48. Incheon Development Institute, Seeing the 120 Years of Incheon through Maps (Incheon, Republic of Korea: Incheon Metropolitan City, 2004), http://www.idi.re.kr/WEBBOOK/prg/skin01/ebook.htm?C060323002.xml&pagenum=0 (accessed 10 July 2010).
49. Songdo IBD, note 6.
50. LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is "an internationally recognized green building certification system, providing third-party verification that a building or community was designed and built using strategies aimed at improving performance across all the metrics that matter most: energy savings, water efficiency, CO2 emissions reduction, improved indoor environmental quality, and stewardship of resources and sensitivity to their impacts," developed by U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). U.S. Green Building Council, Intro-What LEED Is, http://www.usgbc.org/DisplayPage. aspx?CMSPageID=1988 (accessed 22 July 2010).
51. U.S. Green Building Council, LEED for Neighborhood Development, http://www.usgbc.org/DisplayPage.aspx?CMSPageID=148 (accessed 22 July 2010).
52. Songdo IBD, note 6.
53. Gale International, "South Korea's Songdo International Business District Is a Winner of Inaugural Sustainable Cities Award," press release, (New York, 16 June 2008), http://www.songdo.com/Uploads/FileManager/Gale/ Press%20Releases/2008/2008.06-uli%20songdo%20award.pdf (accessed 22 July 2010).
54. Birds Korea, Large-Scale Wetland Reclamation of Song Do Tidal-Flat Approved, http://www.birdskorea.org/Habitats/Wetlands/Songdo/BK-HA-Songdo- Tidalflat-reclamation-2009-03.shtml (accessed 12 June 2010). This page also includes the table "Species Recorded in Internationally Important Concentrations at the Song Do Tidal-flat since 2006
55. Incheon Development Institute, note 47.
56. Ministry of Land, Transport, and Maritime Affairs, "60.8km2 of Tidal Flats Disappeared in Last Five Years," press release (Seoul, Republic of Korea, 4 May 2010).
57. Incheon KFEM, "Tidal Flat Loss in Incheon Is the Largest in the Nation and It Will Be More Serious in the Future," press release (Incheon, Republic of Korea, 20 August 2009).
58. Oliver, note 15.
59. Birds Korea, Song Do Tidal-flats, http://www.birdskorea.org/Habitats/ Wetlands/Songdo/BK-HASongdo.shtml (accessed 28 July 2010).
60. Songdo IBD, note 6.
61. After a series of protests by environmental and civic groups, Incheon decided in December 2009 to reserve 6.11 km2 (3.61 km2 in Section 11 and another 2.50 km2 in Sections 6 and 8) and approved to continue to fill the rest of the remaining tidal flats. The LEED-ND guidelines list a specific procedure when a project might affect an endangered species, and the developers did not go through that process. The area of the remnant tidal flat is not based on a scientific plan.
62. U.S. Green Building Council, LEED for Neighborhood Development Certified Pilot Projects and Plans List-Updated 01/05/11, http://www.usgbc.org/ShowFile. aspx?DocumentID=5205 (accessed 20 January 2011).
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71. Mang et al., note 44.
72. Lyle, note 66, 235.
73. Lyle, note 66, 18; Van der Ryn and Cowan, note 68, 185.
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75. D. K. Lee and B. M. Kim, "Important-Satisfaction Analysis as a Management Strategy of Suncheon Bay Ecological Park," Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture 37, no. 6 (2010): 39-47.
76. Ibid,.
77. C. H. Koh, "Korean Megatidal Environments and Tidal Power Projects: Korean Tidal Flats-Biology, Ecology and Land Uses by Reclamations and Other Feasibilities," La Houille Blanche, no. 3 (1997): 66-78.
78. Federal Register, Notice of Availability of the Draft Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement for Solar Energy Development in Six Southwestern States and Notice of Public Meetings, http://www.federalregister.gov/articles/ 2010/12/17/2010-31725/notice-of-availability-of-the-draft- programmaticenvironmental-impact-statement-for-solar-energy#p-3 (accessed 13 January 2011).
79. A. Leopold, A Sand County Almanac, and Sketches Here and There (London and New York: Oxford University Press, 1989), 211.