The Sura Tidal Flat (Sura getbol) at Saemangeum, on Korea's west coast, is a critical stopover on the East Asian–Australasian Flyway for millions of migratory birds, and home to globally threatened shorebird species.
A proposed new airport would be built directly on this ecosystem, and we are fighting it in court.
We have already won once September 2025. Following a historic lower court ruling ordering the cancellation of the airport construction, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) has filed an appeal at the Seoul High Court, backed by a massive legal team from four major law firms.
The next hearing is scheduled for August 2026, and the stakes could not be higher.
Appeal to the World Heritage Committee
The 48th Session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee
Must Reflect the Condition of Withdrawing the Saemangeum New Airport Plan in the Inscription of ‘Getbol, Korean Tidal Flats (Phase II)’!
"Getbol, Korean Tidal Flats" (Gochang, Seocheon, Shinan, and Boseong–Suncheon) was inscribed as a UNESCO World Natural Heritage site at the 44th session of the World Heritage Committee in 2021. In its inscription decision, the Committee recommended a Phase II extension covering additional tidal flats — Gunsan, Muan, Goheung, Yeosu, Ganghwa, Yeongjongdo, Songdo, Hwaseong, and Asan Bay — to further strengthen the site's Outstanding Universal Value (OUV), and set as a condition of inscription the "management of additional development that could negatively impact the heritage's conservation.“
Accordingly, the South Korean government was obligated to complete the procedures to extend World Natural Heritage status to nine additional tidal flat areas before the 48th session of the World Heritage Committee. Gunsan was one of the nine, and within Gunsan, the Sura Tidal Flat was the leading candidate for inscription. Yet far from completing the Phase II inscription of the Sura Tidal Flat, the South Korean government continues to press ahead with the Saemangeum New Airport project — an act of additional development that directly undermines the conservation of the heritage site. Moreover, despite a landmark ruling by the Seoul Administrative Court on September 11, 2025, that voided the master plan for the Saemangeum New Airport, the government continues to appeal the decision in higher courts. This site carries a 650 times higher bird-strike risk from Muan Airport - the site of the Jeju Air crash which claimed 179 human lives along with an untold number of bird lives. To disregard this risk is to disregard the tragedies that have come before it. This directly violates the World Heritage Committee's recommendations, posing a dire risk that could remove "Getbol, Korean Tidal Flats" from the World Heritage List, while inviting another catastrophic bird-strike disaster. It is an act of state violence that can never be tolerated or accepted. As the host nation and Chair of the 48th World Heritage Committee, the South Korean government should be ashamed of forcing through a project that intends to destroy World Heritage; it should reflect, apologize, and immediately withdraw the Saemangeum New Airport project.
The Sura Tidal Flat in Gunsan, the site planned for the Saemangeum New Airport, is a coastal wetland with a rich ecosystem. It is the last unreclaimed tidal flat remaining in the Mangyeong River basin after 30 years of the Saemangeum reclamation project, and it is a critical stopover site on the East Asian–Australasian Flyway (EAAF). Within a 13 km radius of the planned site, 315 bird species across 56 families are found, including 59 legally protected species — among them Class I endangered species such as the Black-faced Spoonbill and the Oriental Stork, and Class II endangered species such as the Saunders's Gull — altogether supporting more than 240,000 individual birds. Three Black-faced Spoonbill breeding sites also lie within this 13 km radius. With only about 7,000 individuals remaining worldwide and over 90% of them breeding on the Korean Peninsula, the Sura Tidal Flat is a vital habitat requiring strict protection for the species' survival. Sura Tidal Flat also lies just 6–7 km from the Seocheon Tidal Flat, part of the inscribed World Natural Heritage site whose OUV as an essential habitat for biodiversity and endangered-species conservation is officially recognized. Despite local borders, Sura Tidal Flat is directly connected to the Seocheon Tidal Flat as a single ecological zone, thus holding ecological value equal to that of a World Natural Heritage site. It far exceeds the requirements for World Heritage inscription and Ramsar Wetland designation.
Before the seawall was built, the Saemangeum tidal flats (the estuarine tidal flats of the Mangyeong and Dongjin Rivers) were the largest stopover site in the Yellow Sea on the East Asian–Australasian Flyway, visited by more than 500,000 shorebirds. In particular, about 30% of the global population of the Great Knot used this site. After the seawall was built, however, 97% of the shorebirds that this vast tidal flat once supported vanished from the Earth forever. In particular, the Great Knot population has nearly disappeared, with no evidence that it has migrated to or resettled in other areas.
Because it is ecologically linked to the Seocheon Tidal Flat, the Sura Tidal Flat functions as part of the World Heritage site's "wider setting" and is indispensable to sustaining the OUV of the inscribed "Getbol, Korean Tidal Flats." Therefore the Saemangeum New Airport project risks causing permanent, irreversible damage to the site's OUV and is subject to a Heritage Impact Assessment (HIA) as a development affecting the heritage's wider setting. Under the World Heritage Impact Assessment guidelines, an HIA must be conducted before decisions are made on development projects inside or outside a site, in order to prevent damage. Yet the South Korean government announced the master plan for the Saemangeum New Airport without ever conducting an HIA. Instead, it claims it will mitigate the impact by artificially building an "alternative habitat" near Sura — one where birds cannot realistically survive. Under HIA guidelines, however, a World Heritage site's OUV is by definition irreplaceable, meaning no offset measure can compensate for its loss. Therefore offset measures such as an alternative habitat cannot legitimately be applied to the Saemangeum New Airport project in the first place.
We strongly urge the members of the World Heritage Committee to confront the contradiction that is inherent in the South Korean government's conduct. Namely, its violation of the 2021 inscription recommendations by pressing ahead with a development project that destroys the site’s OUV. For the resolute conservation of the “Getbol, Korean Tidal Flats” World Heritage site, we earnestly request that the World Heritage Committee strongly recommend, as a condition of the Phase II inscription evaluation, the withdrawal of the Saemangeum New Airport master plan, and that this condition be explicitly stated in the official decision document. We further request that the Committee recommend that the South Korean government submit a nomination for the “Getbol, Korean Tidal Flats (Phase III),” to include the remaining tidal flats areas in the Saemangeum region including Sura Tidal flat.
Intended plans for the Saemangeum New Airport is not simply a matter of regional airport development; it is a critical matter for the survival of multiple species whose conservation is already acknowledged as a matter of global urgency. The Sura Tidal Flat is not something the South Korean government or local authorities may eliminate at will for an unnecessary airport — or for a military airfield tied to the expansion of U.S. military bases aimed at China. As a core node in a globally connected migratory flyway, this extraordinary tidal flat is an irreplaceable heritage that we, together with the international community, bear a duty to protect for the sake of global biodiversity and migratory bird habitats. An airport can be built at any time, if needed. However, there is no replacement for a tidal flat and no amount of money can recreate the tidal flat conditions that many lives already depend on. We have no right to annihilate precious, irreplaceable lives. Tidal flats are not empty land that belong to governments, local authorities, or capital; they are a heritage to be protected so that future generations of life can depend on them and thrive for generations to come. The World Heritage inscription of "Getbol, Korean Tidal Flats" is not a trophy to be boasted of, but a responsibility and a promise to safeguard endangered species, precious lives, and their habitats. We urge the South Korean government and the Jeonbuk State authorities to live up to and fulfill this heavy promise. We are not the owners or occupants of this Earth, but merely guests who briefly pass through it. In the hope that the South Korean government, local authorities, and the World Heritage Committee will join forces to protect this last sanctuary of life so that future generations can live here in peace, the Joint Action for the Cancellation of Saemangeum New Airport makes the following demands:
1. There is no World Heritage ‘Getbol, Korean Tidal Flats’ without the Sura Tidal Flat. We urge the World Heritage Committee to recommend the cancellation of the Saemangeum New Airport project as a condition for the inscription of ‘Getbol, Korean Tidal Flats (Phase II)’.
2. The Sura Tidal Flat sustains the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) of the World Heritage Seocheon Tidal Flat. The World Heritage Committee must explicitly state the condition of withdrawing the Saemangeum New Airport in the Phase II inscription decision document.
3. The Sura Tidal Flat is alive and must remain alive. We ask the World Heritage Committee to recommend that the remaining tidal flats in Saemangeum, including Sura Tidal Flat, be nominated for ‘Getbol, Korean Tidal Flats (Phase III)’.
July 23, 2026
Joint Action for the Cancellation of Saemangeum New Airport