Dr Nial Moores, National Director, Birds Korea
Following sixteen months of meetings, research (on birds through the year and on invertebrates in the summer last year), seed collection and preparation, and finally with receipt of all the administrative and legal permissions, restoration work proper finally started in late March 2026 at our project site in Maekdo Ecopark in the Gangseo District of Busan City.
This project, kindly supported by SER and Microsoft, and conducted under Birds Korea’s MOU with the Busan Nakdong River Projects Management Office, aims to convert a rice-field into a floodplain-type wetland with a self-sustaining native plant community that can be used by foraging Eastern Taiga Bean Goose 큰부리큰기러기 and other floodplain wetland species.
The field is one of three (or sometimes more?) in Maekdo Eco-park that is planted each year with rice, which is then harvested – in order to provide grain artificially once a week to geese and swans through the winter. Management therefore means the field is kept dry through the winter; followed by flooding and deep-ploughing and planting in spring; before being harvested once more in the autumn and left to dry out through the winter. Our research on invertebrates last summer unsurprisingly suggested rather low diversity…
While artificial feeding has been genuinely essential during the past decade for delaying a decline of Eastern Taiga Bean Goose 큰부리큰기러기 within Busan, this management approach is expensive, labour-intensive, and sadly also increases the risk of exposure of geese to disease, such as Poultry Flu / Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza. It also benefits few other floodplain species; and an additional concern is that artificial feeding programs can be stopped suddenly.
Habitat enhancement, creation and restoration, on the other hand, can help to reduce management costs over the longer-term; can help with water quality; usually helps to support a much wider assemblage of species; and can in this case be used by Busan City to help promote progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals.
The main concept of our restoration project at Maekdo is simple. Once all permissions had finally been received, under supervision of Land Aura, the field was re-profiled, with a gradual slope, at deepest accessing the water table at -50cm, so that the field can support a diverse assemblage of native wetland plants.
Next, under the supervision of Prof. Byun Chaeho and his team, a range of seeding and planting approaches will be used to populate the field, in the understanding that diverse plant communities are needed to provide foraging opportunities for geese and to prevent rapid colonization by native reed (which would otherwise soon become too dense to allow use of the field by geese). Work with volunteers to do this planting was to have been on April 4th and 10th; but due to heavy rain, will now be later this week, on April 10th and 11th. All 110 volunteer spots appear to have been filled already.
Once planted and seeded, we will then continue to monitor the site and adjacent habitats for two years; assess success or otherwise; and as needed, conduct further planting and seeding.
Throughout, one part of Birds Korea’s role has been to use this restoration project to help promote the global importance of floodplain wetlands in the lower Nakdong River, especially by raising the local and national profile of the Eastern Taiga Bean Goose 큰부리큰기러기.
This is because the Eastern Taiga Bean Goose 큰부리큰기러기 is a floodplain wetland specialist, which has evolved structurally to forage on wetland plants, often by digging out their roots from soft muds. The species is a great bio-indicator. Conservation of the habitat of this species will help to ensure the conservation of a diverse assemblage of additional floodplain species, including plants, insects, amphibians, mammals and wetland birds.
The species is also found regularly in internationally important concentrations in Busan and at all of the better-known southeastern floodplain wetlands (including Upo, Junam and Hwapocheon). This is even though the Eastern Taiga Bean Goose 큰부리큰기러기 is likely to be globally rare and declining rapidly. There are few good data nationally on Eastern Taiga Bean Goose 큰부리큰기러기, however. Due to the challenge of identification, the national winter census, conducted under the auspices of the Ministry of Environment, does not even try to separate Tundra Bean Goose Anser serrirostris 큰기러기 from Taiga Bean Goose 큰부리큰기러기: they are instead still lumped together as “Bean Goose” (as they are still by Wetlands International 2026).
This, we hope, will change. The Tundra Bean 큰기러기 and Taiga Bean Goose 큰부리큰기러기 are recognized as separate species by international checklists such as Avilist, and since 2025, by the Korean Ornithological Society (Birds Korea recognized them as separate species more than a decade ago, based on e.g., differences in habitat preference, size, calls, plumage details and a lack of overlap in breeding areas). And the “Korean Non-Breeding population” of Eastern Taiga Bean Goose 큰부리큰기러기 is currently estimated at only 7,700 individuals by Wetlands International (2026) in their portal developed for application of Ramsar criteria. Indeed, the total population of middendorffii (subdivided into three biogeographic populations) is estimated to contain under 50,000 individuals. This makes Eastern Taiga Bean Goose 큰부리큰기러기 potentially rarer than the globally Endangered Swan Goose Anser cygnoides – a species with a (well-deserved) high conservation profile!
As is well known by the Ministry of Environment and we hope by local decision-makers with responsibility for the conservation of biodiversity, Ramsar Criterion 6 states that: “A wetland should be considered internationally important if it regularly supports 1% of the individuals in a biogeographic population of one species or subspecies of waterbird” (see: https://wpp.wetlands.org/data/Threshold ). The 1% threshold of the Korean Non-Breeding biogeographic population of Eastern Taiga Bean Goose 큰부리큰기러기 is set at only 75 individuals. Therefore, any wetland in the ROK supporting 75 or more Eastern Taiga Bean Geese 큰부리큰기러기 in mid-winter is internationally important as defined by Ramsar criteria – whether or not it is a Ramsar site.
Based on available evidence, the vast majority of the Korea Non-Breeding Population of the Eastern Taiga Bean Goose 큰부리큰기러기 winter in the southeast of the nation; and internationally important concentrations of several thousand Eastern Taiga Bean Geese 큰부리큰기러기 are regular every mid-winter at Upo, Junam Reservoirs, Hwapocheon and in Ecoparks in Busan – all floodplain wetlands along the lower Nakdong River.
While Upo is already a famous Ramsar site, and some protections are in place at other sites, much more needs to be done. First, a network is needed to conduct simultaneous counts and to fill in many of the remaining information gaps on their distribution and ecology. Second, their habitat needs to be enhanced in some areas (e.g., by reducing disturbance) and restored in others – we hope, supported by data and experience developed through this restoration project. And third, rather stronger legal protections are required for all those wetlands that support Eastern Taiga Bean Geese 큰부리큰기러기 in internationally important concentrations.
This is why we consider our project at Maekdo to be in many ways just a single step on a much longer journey….Even so, it is still quite pioneering in the domestic context,
First, while most restoration is conducted by companies under contract to various government bodies, this project is being undertaken as a genuinely diverse collaboration, with support from the Society for Ecological Restoration and Microsoft, and the deep engagement of: local government bodies (including the Busan Nakdong River Projects Management Office, and the Nakdong River Estuary Eco-centre, who have played a vital role in winning permissions); an independent NGO (Birds Korea, the project lead), working with members of other NGOs and networks, such as the Ricefield-Wetland Network; private companies (Microsoft, the environmental planning company Land Aura, and also the Korean Birder YouTube channel); and lead academics / researchers, including Associate Professor Byun Chaeho at Gyeongkuk National University and Professor Ho Choi, at Seowon University; Professor Amael Borzee (advising on amphibian conservation from overseas); and Dr Kim Su-Kyung, a co-founder of Birds Korea who has decades of experience in rice-field biodiversity monitoring and restoration of Oriental Stork 황새 – a high-profile floodplain species.
Second, as a diverse collaboration, this project intentionally includes a substantial awareness-raising element, and remains fully open to new responsible partners. In this way, a YouTube video is under preparation by Korea’s top bird videographer Kim Eojin and we held seminars at the Nakdong Estuary Eco-centre in July and September last year, and a meeting on April 4th this year (again – many, many thanks to the Centre for their facilitation and participation). The April 4th meeting was arranged to discuss a possible simultaneous survey of the Eastern Taiga Bean Goose 큰부리큰기러기 at key sites for the species next winter. The response seemed positive…Thank you to all who gave time to attend, and for your many valuable contributions.
Of course, there is always so much to do – still. If you can, please do join us!
