Dong-koo Yun, Deputy Cheif Executive of EAAFP Secretariat
The 2017 Biodiversity Forum in Incheon was held in Incheon, 24th of August, and hosted by the Incheon Metropolitan City and co-hosted by the Local Sustainability Alliance of INCHEON, the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (lCLEI) Korea Office. The theme of the forum was ‘Cities with biodiversity for sustainable development’. This forum has been held since ‘2015 Biodiversity Forum in Gangwon province’ to consider ideas about the National Middle and Long term Biodiversity Strategies.
2017 Biodiversity Forum in Incheon © Local Sustainability Alliance of INCHEON
Over 150 participants joined the event, including members of the national government and local governments in Korea, experts from the Ministry of Environment, Ulsan City, and the National Institute of Biological Resources, and from NGOs including the Incheon Black-faced Spoonbill Network and GREENKOREA Incheon. The EAAFP Secretariat also joined the forum.
Spike Millington, the Chief Executive of the EAAFP Secretariat addressed the gatherers with a speech of encouragement at the opening ceremony. He emphasized the value of the present biodiversity status in Songdo for our harmonious future.
“As an older person, I have fought for the conservation of biodiversity my whole life, but when I look around me, I feel I have failed in some way. Nature is reduced. People’s connection to nature is disappearing, along with the nature itself. … Soon, new generations will not even know that that nature existed, that richness of life and energy. They will look at an impoverished landscape and regard it as normal. The hope, of course, and one has to remain hopeful, is that young people, new generations, will care and will be better at doing something about it. The hope lies with, for example, students at Incheon University, with dedicated NGOs and societies, people getting together to declare a love of nature, of biodiversity and starting to do something to conserve it. We need to encourage these people, to help them make their voices heard, to help them influence decisions. – Spike Millington, Chief Executive of EAAFP” © Local Sustainability Alliance of INCHEON
“I hope this workshop, in some way, can light this spark and signal a commitment to doing better in Korea, and around the world, to conserve and restore biodiversity, for us and for those who follow us. – Spike Millington, Chief Executive of EAAFP” © Local Sustainability Alliance of INCHEON
There were presentation sessions and a discussion session to share the national policies, local policies, field experiences, and encourage the cooperation.
Dong-Koo Yun, the Deputy Chief Executive gave a presentation about the East Asian-Australasian Flyway (EAAF), the plans for conserving the migratory waterbirds and the places they live such as the IUCN resolution and the Yellow sea conservation plan. He encouraged the audience to maintain their awareness of the migratory waterbird conservation and to continue to cooperate on this matter.
The officials from the Local Sustainability Alliance of INCHEON stressed that ‘There should be strong roles and policies from the national and local governments to enhance biodiversity in a practical and efficient way for the future’.
Also, there were exhibition booths run by attended organizations. EAAFP held its booth to promote the EAAF and raise public awareness through the distribution of brochures and the promotion of its participatory art project ‘To Our Winged Traveler (TOWT)’.
In front of the EAAFP booth © EAAFP
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