Confirmed habitat of the Class 2 endangered plant 'Daeheung-ran' near the site of Jeju Airport 2
Seongsan-eup Dodongbong-Daesusanbongseo Discovery... "Biodiversity Proof Result" of Emergency Citizens' Council
A class 2 endangered wildlife species, Daesung-ran, found at Daejeonbong and Daesusanbong in Seongsan-eup, Seogwipo-si, near the proposed site of Jeju's second airport. Photo/Jeju Jeju 2nd Airport Residents' Association
The Daheung-ran, a class 2 endangered wild plant designated by the Ministry of Environment, has been confirmed to be found near the planned site of Jeju's second airport.
The Jeju Airport Gangcheongjersey Emergency Residents' Council, which organized its own environmental investigation committee to conduct a vegetation survey around the planned site of the second airport, announced on the 30th that it found two habitats of Daheung-ran.
The two habitats are Daeheung-ran in Dudo-bong, Sinsan-ri, Seongsan-eup, Seogwipo-si, and Daesusan-bong, Goseong-ri, Seongsan-eup, Seogwipo-si. The Dodongbong colony was confirmed on the 23rd of last month, and the Daesusubong colony was confirmed on the 30th of the same month.
Daesungran is an epiphytic plant of the genus Bochunhwa, with an upright stem that grows up to 10 to 30 centimeters in height. The stems and fruits are dark green in color when the fruits are in bloom, with thin, papery, translucent, membranous scaly leaves hanging sparsely from the nodes. The flowers are white with magenta on the top of the stem in clusters of 2 to 6.
In Jeju, it lives mainly in dark evergreen forests, but in other areas, it can be found in sunlit areas such as seasong forests. It blooms from June to August and bears fruit from August to September. It is mainly distributed in forests with humus-rich pine family plants and is known to be very difficult to manage due to its sporadic emergence.
Daeheungran is a saprophytic orchid with beautiful flowers that has been indiscriminately collected in the past. In Jeju, about half of its habitat was destroyed by forest clearing and road construction, and it was designated as a Class 2 Specified Wildlife and Plants (now Endangered Wildlife and Plants) in 1993.
Experts say it is impossible to transplant because it is highly affected by fungi in the soil. It usually exists in small populations, which makes it difficult to protect its habitat.
The Gyeongsangbuk-do Citizens' Assembly claimed that the findings confirm the high biodiversity of the proposed Airport 2 site. In particular, they were concerned that the development of Airport 2 would adversely affect the local natural environment and ecosystems, as there is a controversy over the cutting of Daesusan Peak.
"Daheung-ran is a species with very demanding habitat conditions, and the presence of Daheung-ran alone shows the biodiversity of the forest," said Kim Jeong-soon, head of the survey team of the Emergency Residents' Association, which oversaw the vegetation survey. "We will use this discovery to further investigate the location of Airport 2 and inform the community about how ecologically inappropriate it is."
"We believe that this discovery is the tip of the iceberg, and we plan to further expand our ecological surveys of the area around Airport 2 and the planned site to prove how ecologically inappropriate the location of Airport 2 is and to strongly demand that the project be withdrawn," said the Gyeonggi Residents' Assembly.
