Three East Asian sites added to Unesco World Heritage list for their natural value and their diversity of rare and endangered animal and plant species
- Four areas of Korean tidal flats, mountain forests in Thailand, and rainforests on four subtropical islands near Okinawa have made the World Heritage list
- They were all nominated for their natural value, and all play host to threatened species, some of which are unique to the areas
At the 44th session of the Unesco World Heritage Committee – which, because of coronavirus restrictions, had been delayed a year and took place largely online (it was officially hosted by Fuzhou, China) – 34 properties were inscribed onto “the list”.
1. Getbol, Korean Tidal Flats
This site comprises four distinct and slightly different wetlands on the southern and southwestern coasts of South Korea at Seocheon, Gochang, Shinan and Boseong-Suncheong. Unesco describes the site as a whole as having been shaped by “a complex combination of geological, oceanographic and climatologic conditions that have led to the development of diverse sedimentary systems”.
By some counts, the getbol (Korean for “tidal flats”) host 2,150 species of flora and fauna, including 22 globally threatened or near-threatened species.
They are an important habitat for 47 endemic and five endangered marine invertebrate species and 118 migratory bird species, some of which fly on to Hong Kong’s Mai Po marshes.
The Seocheon Getbol consists of sand and/or muddy sand flats, which are very important for migratory birds and as a spawning and nursery ground for fish, according to the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands.
