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WWF eco project begins

Catherine Deshayes

World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and Panasonic Corporation announced that they started working together on the Yalu River Coastal Area Ecosystem Based Management Demonstration Project (the "Coastal Area Management Project") in January 2010...

This project is in the second stage of the seven-year Yellow Sea Ecoregion Support Project, which Panasonic has been supporting since its launch in 2007. The seven-year project aims for environmental conservation of the coastal areas surrounding the Yellow Sea which is located between China and the Korean Peninsula.

The Coastal Area Management Project has officially started today with the signing ceremony taking place in Shenyang City, Liaoning Province, between the WWF, the world's leading conservation organization, the Ocean and Fishery Bureau of Liaoning Province Government, and the UNDP/GEF Yellow Sea Large Marine Ecosystem Project Management Office1).

In the Coastal Area Management Project, scientific surveys will be carried out at the estuary on the Yalu River in Dandong City, Liaoning Province, over three years roughly from January 2010 to March 2013. These surveys are expected to produce scientific data that help analyze the ecological linkages of the coastal ecosystem, especially between the fishery, migratory birds and benthic community including fishery resources in the coastal area, eventually aiming at a stage where necessary measures for sustainable use and conservation of the environment can be achieved in collaboration with the divisions concerned in the local government (ocean and fisheries, environmental divisions, government affiliated research institute).

It is anticipated that through collaboration among the Liaoning Province Government, the UNDP/GEF Yellow Sea Project, WWF and Panasonic, which is working to promote environmental conservation as a corporation, an ecosystem-based management will be introduced to China and a good practice of sustainable development will be created.

1) The UNDP/GEF Yellow Sea Project works with coastal states of the Yellow Sea (China,

Republic of Korea and DPR Korea) to develop and implement regional and national environmental strategies and action plans. UNDP is one of the implementing agencies of the GEF (the Global Environmental Facility) that funds projects that protect the global environment, and the project is coordinated by the UNDP/GEF Yellow Sea Project Management Office.

2) The Yalu River estuary has a vast expanse of wetland that is blessed with a richness of benthic organisms -- including crustaceans such as blue crab, and shellfish such as Manila clam. Hundreds of thousands of migratory birds use this wetland, and the site is also used as a rich fishing ground.