Suncheon City to Create Ecological Corridor Connecting Suncheonman and Downtown

Restoration of the Dongcheon Estuary Wetland... Connecting Suncheon Bay to the Urban Center
Preserving Ecosystems and Natural Environment Drives Local Economic Revitalization

Suncheon City in Jeollanam-do (Mayor Noh Gwan-gyu) announced that it will focus on restoring the Dongcheon Estuary Wetland, which connects Suncheon Bay to the city center, in order to expand the ecological and economic value of Suncheon Bay into the urban area.

The Dongcheon Estuary, located between Suncheon Bay Wetland and the city center, is an area where the original form of biodiversity and coastal wetlands has been well preserved. Its ecological value and importance have been internationally recognized, and it has been registered as a Ramsar Wetland.

Scenery of Dongcheon Estuary in Suncheon.

However, concerns about ecosystem damage in the wetland protected area have been continuously raised due to agricultural activities in some farmland.

In response, the city secured 12 billion KRW in national funds last year to purchase 18 hectares of farmland in the Dongcheon Estuary. This year, an additional 6 billion KRW from the national budget will be used to purchase the remaining farmland, and full-scale wetland restoration is now underway.

In the first phase, the city will implement a tidal flats restoration project by removing embankments to allow seawater circulation and restore the farmland within the river area purchased in the first half of this year into wetlands.

In the second phase, preliminary administrative procedures are underway to restore the wetland protected area into a waterfront park and retention basin without artificial facilities.

The ecosystem restoration in Suncheon is also contributing to revitalizing the local economy. In 2023, when the Suncheonman International Garden Expo was held, 9.81 million eco-tourists visited Suncheon, and 4.25 million people visited last year as well.

In particular, from last winter, about 7,600 hooded cranes, which account for about 50% of the global population of this endangered species (estimated at 16,000 to 18,000), spent the winter in Suncheon Bay. This has made Suncheon Bay a popular destination for birdwatching tourism, with a steady increase in domestic and international birdwatchers visiting the area even during the off-season in winter.

According to Consumer Insight, a consumer research agency, as of February 2024, the average total expenditure per person for domestic travel is 224,000 KRW, with a daily expenditure of about 74,000 KRW. Based on this, it is estimated that tourists who visited Suncheon for just one day last year spent approximately 31.45 billion KRW in the region.

A city official stated, "Through the Dongcheon Estuary Wetland Restoration Project, which connects Suncheon Bay and the city center as an ecological axis, we will expand the pristine beauty and ecological value of Suncheon Bay into the urban area. This will help establish a sustainable, high-quality ecotourism foundation where nature and humans coexist, and further contribute to revitalizing the local economy."

Meanwhile, since the Dongcheon Estuary was designated as a wetland protected area in 2015, Suncheon City has invested 27 billion KRW in national funds to purchase 35 hectares of land within the protected areas of Suncheon Bay Wetland and Dongcheon Estuary, making continuous efforts for ecological restoration and conservation.

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