SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA:  Flight schedules meant that I had a day in Korea on my way back from the Russian Far East.  There are virtually no reliable flights directly between the U.S. West Coast and the Russian Far East — even though they are geographically so close — and the most reliable way to get from the west coast to the regions we work in Russia is through Korea.  And while the airport in Seoul is world-class, I was pleased for the opportunity to escape into Seoul.

In Seoul, I met with Korea Federation for Environmental Movement (KFEM) and Green Korea United.  These are the two leading grassroots environmental groups in Korea; both do very impressive work.  Korean non-governmental organizations are surprisingly strong, partly as a result of the strong civil society that emerged out of Korea’s democratic reforms in the late 1980s.  Every time I visit Seoul, I am amazed to see the popular demonstrations that occur on a daily basis.

While Korea’s environmental movement is very strong domestically, they are not as well known internationally.  Of course, both KFEM and Green Korea are so busy with their domestic issues — from protecting wetlands and migratory birds to fighting toxic pollution left over by the U.S. military presence, from fighting the nuclear industry to stopping dams.  KFEM and Green Korea have taken on climate change as a major campaign, and they are even working to protect biodiversity that has flourished within the no-man’s land of the de-militarized zone (DMZ) that separates North and South Korea.

Korean groups are becoming more concerned about the impacts of Korean companies and investment throughout the Pacific Rim.  KFEM is campaigning to stop Daewoo’s environmental impacts in Burma.  And they are concerned about Korea National Oil Company’s plans to extract oil from the Western Kamchatka Shelf — a rich area for fisheries in the Russian Far East.

I hope we can learn from the amazing successes of Korea’s domestic environmental movement to build environmental efforts around the Pacific Rim!