The evolution of coastal wetland policy in developed countries and Korea

This paper reviews the evolution of the coastal wetland policy in developed countries, leading to finding 3 eras of development of the coastal wetland policy. Before having recognized the wetland functions and services until 1960s, the economic focus had been prevalent, allowing wetland to be exploited mainly for economic uses. But as the wetland ecosystem functions came to be realized, policies to preserve them had been introduced in developed countries, by which the wetland policy had transited ‘step by step’ from an economic to an ecological focus. Through these steps, developed countries came to have the legal and institutional systems for wetland preservation, mitigation and restoration, and management for the wise and sustainable use in conformity to the international standards such as the Ramsar Convention and others since 1990. Thus, they have reached more complete ecological focus in their wetland management with the increase in relevant socio-cultural activities such as the ecosystem education, ecotourism, etc. Roughly speaking, it led to the 3 ‘eras’: the wetland exploitive era, policy transition era, wetland conservation era. In this vein, Korea also experienced a similar exploitive era of economic focus when wetland conversion had been dominated by agriculture, residence and industry before 1990s. From then till 2005, Korea had experienced sufferings from conflicts arising from large reclamation projects such as those in Shihwa and Saemangum, through which she had spent policy transition era and then began to introduce a new policy of ecological focus as in developed countries. Korea can be described as entering a new era of ecological focus with the introduction of relevant advanced systems such as reinforced 10 year of wetland conversion plan with stricter review and permit system, wetland protected area system, special plan to restore existing reclaimed areas to original wetlands, etc.