By Park Si-soo
Staff Reporter

CHANGWON ㅡ The government will add three more wetlands in Korea to the Ramsar Convention's list for conservation next year, raising the number of Ramsar-listed wetlands here to 14.

The Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs said Tuesday it's working to give three more coastal wetlands the status of a Ramsar-listed site.

The three are located in Jangbong Island, Incheon; Seocheon, South Chungcheong Province; and Gomso Bay, North Jeolla Province. The three candidates have already been under the government-led ``wetland conservation program,'' the ministry said in a statement.

In particular, the wetland in Jangbong Island, measured at 68.4 square kilometers, is the largest among those under the government's conservation program and has served as an important habitat for such endangered species as the Chinese Egret and Oystercatcher, it added.

The ministry plans to hand over the Ramsar Information Sheet (RIS) containing information about Jangbong Island to the Ramsar administration this week to provide essential data. Adopted in 1990, RIS was designed to provide baseline data for measuring changes in the ecological character of wetlands listed or to be listed under the convention.

The RIS on the wetlands in Seocheon and Gomso Bay will be submitted next year, the ministry said.

If listed, the total area of Ramsar-listed wetland here will reach 18,218 hectares from the current 8,198 hectares.

``Eight wetlands under the government's protection all meet the criteria required to be protected under the Ramsar Convention,'' a ministry official said. ``We will place the remaining wetlands on the Ramsar List one by one.''

pss@koreatimes.co.kr