Gwangju City Selected for Ministry of Environment's Bird Collision Prevention Project Competition

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Seon-gang] Gwangju Metropolitan City announced on the 13th that two sites, the Health and Environment Research Institute (building) and Ssangam Hillstate River Park in Gwangsan-gu (transparent soundproof wall), were selected for the Ministry of Environment's 2021 Building and Transparent Soundproof Wall Bird Collision Prevention Tape Attachment Support Project.

This project aims to promote and spread damage reduction measures due to frequent injuries and deaths of birds caused by collisions with buildings or transparent soundproof walls, marking the first case of bird collision prevention promoted by Gwangju City.

The Health and Environment Research Institute, which opened in December last year, is adjacent to Gwangju Stream, a major habitat for birds and wildlife, and being a newly constructed public building, it was selected for its representativeness and symbolism to promote the effect of reducing bird collisions.

Ssangam Hillstate River Park in Gwangsan-gu was selected because citizen participation monitoring of bird collisions showed it to be the area with the highest number of bird collision cases, leading to the urgent need for reduction measures on the transparent soundproof walls near the Yeongsan River.

The two selected sites plan to attach pattern stickers with bird collision reduction effects to building glass windows and transparent soundproof walls by October to help wild birds recognize transparent structures as obstacles and prevent collisions.

After the project, continuous monitoring will be conducted in cooperation with building management agencies, and the effectiveness of bird collision reduction will be analyzed to promote the effect and encourage voluntary spread.

Gwangju City enacted the "Gwangju City Bird Collision Reduction Ordinance" on the 20th of last month, the first among metropolitan local governments, to ensure the enforcement of bird collision reduction policies, and plans to expand reduction projects through future surveys.

According to the Ministry of Environment's survey on wildlife damage caused by artificial structures (December 2017 to August 2018), approximately 7.88 million birds nationwide, or 20,000 birds daily, die from bird collisions, highlighting the urgent need for damage reduction measures.

Song Yong-su, head of the Climate and Environment Policy Division of the city, said, "Since this project is the first case promoted by the city to reduce bird collisions, it will serve as an opportunity to spread social consensus," and added, "We will actively strive to prevent wild birds from being sacrificed to artificial structures."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.