February 22, 2006

Preserving Korea’s Demilitarized Zone for Conservation and Peace: Building a Global Coalition

The demilitarized zone has become one of the most fortified and heavily mined strips of land on earth after more than 50 years of serving as a buffer between the two Koreas. But 50 years of being off-limits to human commerce has also left it one of the most pristine strips of undisturbed wilderness in Northeast Asia.

Species of flora and fauna that have disappeared from South Korea amid its rapid industrialization still thrive in the DMZ. To ensure this unique biodiversity survives as the North and South move towards political and economic reconciliation, The Korea Society convened a meeting of 30 experts to discuss the prospects for forming a new DMZ conservation coalition.

The attendees represented 18 American and Korean organizations with an interest in preserving Northeast Asia's ecology, including The DMZ Forum, the Turner Foundation, the Sierra Club, the Korean Federation for Environmental Movement, the Asia Society, Harvard University and the UN Foundation.

All in attendance agreed that the creation of a formal coalition would make action to protect the DMZ much more likely. There was also a consensus that efforts to preserve the DMZ, which would necessarily include the DPRK, could serve as a catalyst for improving relations much as the Goodwill Games and ping-pong diplomacy helped to thaw the Cold War.

The experts spent a full day discussing the contingencies of forming such a coalition, including which stakeholders would need to be contacted, how the relevant parties should be engaged and what further steps should be taken in the near future.