▲ Yubudo Island in Seocheon-gun, Chungcheongnam-do

Seochon, Chungcheongnam-do has finally been selected as the venue for the commemorative ceremony for the 15th World Wetlands Day scheduled to be held in May 2016.

The venues for the event, which is intended to raise public awareness of the value of wetlands and the need for conservation, have alternated between inland wetlands (Ministry of Environment) and coastal wetlands (Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries) since 2002.

The World Wetlands Day (February 2) was designated in 1996 in celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Ramsar Convention signed in 1971. As the first of the modern global intergovernmental treaties on the conservation and sustainable use of natural resources, the Ramsar Convention was signed in the city of Ramsar, Iran to raise international awareness of the importance of wetlands and the need for conservation.

Currently, 169 countries are signatories to the convention; the general meeting takes place every three years. The Ramsar List of Wetlands of International Importance currently includes 2,218 sites around the world.

The event was held in Dongbaekdongsan Wetland on Jeju Island in May this year, and Chungcheongnam-do successfully hosted the ceremony to celebrate the World Wetlands Day in 2008.

The World Wetlands Day 2016 will be held at the Marine Biodiversity Institute of Korea and the National Institute of Ecology in Seocheon, with the participation of over 2,000 people including wetland-related civic groups and officials of the central and local governments.

The event will feature a workshop on the subject of ecological restoration in coastal areas and estuaries, during which the presenters will speak on the ecological value of coasts and estuaries, sustainable growth through ecological restoration, and research findings on ecological restoration in coasts and estuaries.

In addition, the event will include a symposium on the marine biodiversity of Korea and future direction of research on the subject, a briefing and discussion on international cooperative projects for development of Geumgang River and Yubudo Island.

Chungcheongnam-do is expected to take this opportunity to declare its commitment to ecological restoration involving coasts and estuaries, to ensure clean tidal mudflats in Chungcheongnam-do, and to raise the province’s profile as a tourist attraction for marine experience programs as well as enhance public awareness of the importance of conserving the marine environment.

In particular, the event is seen to draw attention to the tidal mudflat on Yubudo Island whose inclusion in the UNESCO World Heritage List is being pursued by the province; thus increasing its chances of listing.