Translated by EAAFP Secretariat

Original article: 유정복 인천시장, EAAFP 사무국장과 자연환경보전 정책 협력 강화키로

Yoo Jeong-bok, Incheon City Mayor, had a conversation with EAAFP Chief Executive, Lew Young, in a reception room of City Hall.

On 4 April, Yoo Jeong-bok, Incheon City Mayor, had a pleasant talk with EAAFP Chief Executive, Lew Young who recently started for his new post in Incheon.

EAAFP was adopted in the list of the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002, and it is an international organization which aims to protect migratory waterbirds in East Asian-Australasian Flyway and use their habitat sustainably. In 2009, the Ministry of Environment, Korea, and Incheon City cooperated to host in Songdo.

Lew Young was born in Hong Kong, where he received bachelor’s degree and master’s degrees in natural ecosystem from the University of Leeds and University of Aberdeen in UK, and he holds a doctorate degree in zoology from Hong Kong University.

For 17 years from 1991 – 2008, he served as a manager of Hong Kong Mai Po Marshes Wildlife Education Center, which WWF (World Wildlife Fund) had been running. He had been active from 2008 in Ramsar Secretariat, Geneva, Switzerland, as a senior advisor for Asia-Oceania, and started to work for EAAFP Chief Executive from 26 March 2018.

Lew Young said, “Both Incheon and Mai Po in Hong Kong hold the breeding and wintering habitat of Black-faced Spoonbill, which exists in only 3,900 individuals and is designated as internationally endangered species, and they are important partners for conserving and prospering the species. Our organization is willing to build a bridge for international exchanges and better understanding between the both cities.”

During his term of office in Ramsar Secretariat, Lew Young conducted the joining the Mundok and Rason Migratory Bird Reserve of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea to the Ramsar Convention, and will attend the ceremony for becoming a contracting party to the Convention in Pyongyang, DPRK.

Incheon Mayor mentioned that, “EAAFP could play a role as an international organization located in Incheon for the cooperation between the provincial cities of China and DPRK and Incheon to conserve migratory waterbirds and wetlands.” He also requested, “to share experience on the plan of protecting the worthful tidal flats in Incheon area such as Southern Ganghwa-do, Yeongjong-do and Song-do and of protecting Black-faced Spoonbill and other endangered waterbirds.”