Barbed wire cuts through the Golan Heights, a rugged plateau that separates Israel and Syria. Only a handful of towns and villages still stand in the DMZ, also known as the "Area of Separation," and they are heavily guarded by checkpoints and patrols.
Few people are currently allowed to cross the line. Yet beyond the fortifications and minefields, UN peacekeeping forces report that there is "beautiful but dangerous fauna and flora. Read: Bringing back bison to restore America's lost prairie.
The Golan Heights -- and Mount Hermon, which dominates the northern half of the buffer zone -- are home to oak and terebinth forests, rare orchids, wildcats, gazelles, hyenas and wild boars. Mount Hermon hosts about species of butterfly, according to the Israel Lepidopterist Society, including a previously unknown species identified in A wild boar walks in a field covered with snow on Mount Hermon in the Golan Heights on March 1, But larger creatures also cross these borders.
The buffer zone and its fortifications shelter wolves and vultures from hunting, according to Shmulik Yedvab, of the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel. However, Yedvab says the fortified border fragments habitats for many migratory species. An estimated million birds travel through Israel twice a year, from Europe and Asia to African wintering grounds, with the Golan Heights providing an essential refuge.
Outside of the buffer zone, the Golan Heights still bears traces of its violent past. The rare Golan Wolf even seeks out the minefields, where humans cannot enter and most animals are too light to trigger explosions, according to Yedvab. Bats shelter within empty military bunkers, in the north-west Golan Heights.
Every few kilometers, disused military bunkers have attracted an "amazing" array of wildlife, Yedvab says.
Read: Toys to tackle climate change. Every time you go to one of these bunkers, there is always a surprise to see," he says. This natural isolation along km miles length of the DMZ has created an involuntary park which is now recognized as one of the most well-preserved areas of temperate habitat in the world. Several endangered animal and plant species now exist among the heavily fortified fences, landmines and listening posts. These include the extremely rare red-crowned crane a staple of Asian art , and the white-naped crane as well as, potentially, the extremely rare Korean tiger, Amur leopard and Asiatic black bear.
Ecologists have identified some 2, plant species, 70 types of mammals and kinds of birds within the narrow buffer zone. Additional surveys are now being conducted throughout the region. The DMZ owes its varied biodiversity to its geography, which crosses mountains, prairies, swamps, lakes and tidal marshes.
Environmentalists hope that the DMZ will be conserved as a wildlife refuge, with a well-developed set of objective and management plans vetted and in place. Using American power and influence to improve the underlying conditions that cause desperate families to flee would be as important, if not more so, than the deterrence of a wall.
Similarly, the administration should take full advantage of the opening Trump created by the historic summit with Kim Jong Un. His speech mentioned what he considered American foot-dragging on nuclear negotiations, but was heavily devoted to topics like the development of energy infrastructure and modern agriculture production. Realistically, Kim cannot develop a sustainable economy without help from other countries.
Bear in mind that the penultimate goal of North Korea, as well as that of the U. I am not sure if a 1,mile U. But I see a future in which the mile DMZ lives up to its name and actually becomes de-militarized, and a peace regime take hold of the Korean peninsula. There are even reports of tigers, believed extinct on the peninsula since before Japanese occupation, roaming the DMZ's mountains.
Approximate though these studies are, the DMZ's ecological promise is great enough to spur many people to action. This article includes content provided by Spotify. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. To view this content, click 'Allow and continue'. The simmering tensions on the Korean Peninsula over the past 60 years have at times reached a boiling point — from the discovery of several military incursion tunnels running under the DMZ from North Korea to the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island — putting the fate of the DMZ and its biodiversity into question.
Efforts to protect the DMZ's ecological and cultural offerings have become imperative. One potential development on the minds of many Koreans is the return of a single Korean nation. A unified Korea would obviate the need for the DMZ and potentially imperil the existence of the various ecosystems the dividing line presently supports.
Many individuals, both on and off the peninsula, hope to preempt the destruction of the DMZ's ecological treasury, should Korea reunify, by establishing a permanently protected area commensurate with the current DMZ boundaries.
Solutions already proffered include the creation of a series of dedicated conservation areas in and along the DMZ, the development of ecotourism and educational zones and attaining World Heritage Site designation through UNESCO.
The former zone spans the western edge of the DMZ south to Seoul and serves as a safe winter resting area for over 1, white-naped cranes. The South Korean government designated the area a national monument in , after scientific studies by George Archibald of the International Crane Foundation and Kim Hon Kyu of Ehwa Women's University determined the region's importance to the continued survival of the species.
The second conservation area, located in the Anbyon Plain, supplements the migratory wintering grounds for both white-naped and red-crowned cranes inside the DMZ in the Choelwon Basin and along the peninsula's western coast. Since its inception in the s, the Anbyon Plain project has been an international, cooperative effort, bringing in researchers from Korea University in Tokyo, the State Academy of Sciences in Pyongyang and Tokyo University.
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