Korean DMZ a wildlife haven

By Norimitsu Onishi
The New York Times

CHUNG SUNG-JUN / GETTY IMAGES The Demilitarized Zone between the two Koreas, left virtually untouched since it was created in 1953, has become a haven for animals, birds and plants that are seldom seen elsewhere on the peninsula.

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CHORWON, South Korea — From atop an observatory on the southern limit of the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea, Lim Sun-nam peered through binoculars. He paid no attention to the barbed-wire fences, the guard posts with armed soldiers, or the propaganda billboards on the northern side exclaiming "Against America" and "Prosperity of the People."

No, Lim took in the verdant hills undulating across the 2-½-mile-wide strip of land and the river snaking through it, all of it blanketed by the sun's warm gaze, here in one of the DMZ's most scenic points. His eyes searched for the deer, wild pigs and pheasants living in the zone, as well as the elusive animal whose existence here he has spent the last seven years trying to prove: the tiger.

Although Lim may or may not find the tiger, environmentalists have recognized this area — one of the most enduring symbols of the Cold War and one of the most fortified and heavily mined stretches on earth — as the Korean peninsula's, and possibly East Asia's, most important wildlife refuge. They have been pressing to preserve it but are feeling a special urgency now because of the growing reconciliation between the North and the South.

Environmentalists' fear

The environmentalists fear that a South Korea that puts economic development first and a North Korea that has no environmental movement could together lead to the zone's rapid destruction as a refuge.

This natural barrier traverses wetlands, rice paddies, prairies, hills, forests and mountains for more than 150 miles. Enclosed by barbed wire and left virtually untouched since it was created in 1953, the zone has become a haven for animals, birds and plants that are seldom seen elsewhere on the peninsula.

Migratory birds, including the endangered black-faced spoonbill and the white-naped and red-crowned cranes, fly in and out, oblivious to land barriers. Rare animals like the Asiatic black bear, the Eurasian lynx, goral antelopes — and maybe even the tiger — make this area their year-round home.

But these days, thousands of South Koreans pass every week through an eastern corridor to a resort in North Korea; on the western side, a new highway and a railroad linking the two sides have been built.

"The DMZ is the last major vestige of Korea's natural heritage," said Kim Ke Chung, a professor at the Center for BioDiversity Research at Penn State and chairman of the DMZ Forum, an organization based in the United States that is dedicated to preserving the zone. "It's probably the only good thing to come out of the Korean War and Cold War. So we have to preserve this as a nature reserve."
 
The DMZ Forum recently conducted a conference in Seoul to gather support for designating the zone a UNESCO World Heritage Site, a classification that would curb all development. William B. Shore, secretary of the forum and a former fellow at the Regional Plan Association of New York, said the zone should become a center for eco-tourism as an alternative to turning it into a weekend getaway for residents of Seoul.

"People are now willing to pay large sums to see wild animals in the proper setting," Shore said. "Eco-tourism would protect the DMZ from becoming the Hamptons of South Korea."

Heritage status needed

South Korea and North Korea, however, would have to ask for World Heritage status, but North Korea has shown no interest in the issue, said Sohn Hak-kyu, governor of Kyonggi Province, which abuts the zone and was host for the conference.

However, South Korea has begun recognizing the zone's natural legacy.

Early this year, South Korea's National Tourism Organization proposed creating an eco-tourism center here in Chorwon, an area about 60 miles northeast of Seoul and famous for its bird-watching.

South Korea also built ecologically friendly safeguards into the new road and railroads, with so-called eco-bridges and eco-tunnels to allow animals to cross safely over or under the roads. North Korea, which initially suspected that the crossings served some military purpose, has not shown any interest in building similar safeguards into its portions of the roads, Sohn said.

For some South Koreans, the zone represents something deeper than a natural paradise. On a peninsula where nature has traditionally been imbued with spiritual meaning, it is the only tract of land that has remained intact from before Korea was divided. As a last refuge for species no longer seen elsewhere, it represents a spiritual loss to some.

The tiger symbolizes that loss more than any other animal. Tigers once populated the peninsula and, in traditional culture, were considered holy animals embodying a mountain deity.

The tiger's importance in Korean culture was underscored during the 1988 Seoul Olympics, when it was chosen as South Korea's mascot. The last tigers were believed to have been hunted down by Japanese colonial rulers, which adds to the animal's symbolic importance.

Lim has been searching for the tiger for seven years.

"I am searching not only for the tiger, but the spirit and soul of Korea," he said. "Because the DMZ is not polluted — it's preserved — the Korean spirit is still alive there."

Lim, 48, a former documentary filmmaker, has found and videotaped what appeared to be tiger footprints inside the restricted civilian-controlled zone just south of the DMZ. He says that what he has seen leads him to believe that 10 tigers live in the zone.

Since conducting research on the tiger in the late 1990s, Lim has devoted his life to his quest. He quit his job in 2001 and sold his house. He and his family moved in with his older brother, who supports him but has also pressed him to get a new job. His wife got a part-time job, and his elder daughter, he said, urged him to continue his search since giving up would make "people think he was a phony."

Some wildlife experts in South Korea think the tiger is extinct and that footprints seen by Lim belong to wild dogs.

Lim waves away such criticism, saying, "You won't find tiger footprints on college campuses."