More than three million flowers will bloom at the Expo Park, and the host city will protect vulnerable shorebirds 

Expo 2023 Suncheon Bay International Garden park is nearing completion and will be ready for the opening date of 1 April. 

The International Horticultural Expo will transform the entire city centre into a garden under the theme of “living in a garden.” This month, the Expo construction team will finish planting more than three million flowers and trees around the Expo Park.

Korea’s oldest daily national newspaper, The Chosun Ilbo, reported on the city and Expo organiser’s preparation efforts in this article: “3.3 million flowers and trees redecorate Suncheon Bay”. 

Alongside the preparations for the 2023 Suncheon Bay International Garden Expo, Suncheon City signed an agreement to help protect the native Hooded Crane. This shorebird native to East Asia is evaluated as Vulnerable on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species.

The estuary of the Geum River in Seocheon county, including Yubu island, is one of four coastal wetlands inscribed in July last year by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) as a World Heritage Property. These sites also include the well-known Suncheon Bay on the south Coast, which hosts almost a third of the world’s population of Hooded Crane, and the mudflats of Gochang and the Shinan archipelago.

On 12 February, Suncheon City signed an agreement with Cheorwon-gun, Seosan-si, Yeosu-si, Gwangyang-si, Goheung-gun, and Boseong-gun to build a Hooded Crane belt on the southern Coast. These local governments decided to form a network of regional government heads to preserve the hooded crane habitat and make efforts to prevent avian influenza through habitat dispersal.

The proposal includes building a Hooded Crane belt on the Southern Coast and expanding the Hooded Cranes Hope Agricultural Complex to protect this endangered species.

Suncheon City announced on 15 February that in addition to the 62ha of the Hooded Cranes Hope Agricultural Complex that is being operated in Suncheon Bay, it is also promoting a plan to create a 109ha complex in the nearby Inan Garden.