National Institute Environment Research (NIER) investigated the winter migratory birds approximately in 128 main wetlands all at the same time from January 21st to 22nd 2006.

The census has been played a role that contributed in introducing and raising public interest towards conservation of Migratory birds internationally and established the ways to protect winter migratory birds nationwide by monitoring the changes annually, recognizing the number of birds and species that are visiting Korea through the census which was built since January 1999.

The census this year were investigated by NIER and Kyungi University, Seoul National University and private organization, approximately 134 bird experts which were divided into 67 teams visiting wetlands in open fields, rivers, lakes, bays and seashores distributed in interior or harbors nationwide.

Most investigating activities were done in Inland areas such as Chulwon fields, Junam Reservoir, Woopo Swamp, Chungju River; and West Coast areas such as Han River, Shiwha Lake, Asan Bay, Chunsu Bay, Geumkang River, Younghan Lake, Gochunam Lake including South Coast areas such as Sunshun Bay, Kangjin Bay, Nakdong River; and East Coast Areas such as Kyungpo Lake, Songji Lake, Whajinpo and other migratory habitants.

In the previous year, on 15th to 16th January, the census detected a total of 182 different species and 1186000 winter migratory birds. It was investigated that the number of birds are annually increasing that it reached the highest amount this year since 1999 when the census was first implemented in the bird research.

Unfortunately, however, the report made no remarks concerning Saemangeum. Called ''the Jewel of the Yellow Sea'', Saemangeum is the most vital wetland in the entire Austalasian Flyway for migratory birds. A reclamation project of the wetland is nearly complete. When completed, Saemangeum will no longer be the prime resting point for some 27 species of migratory birds, and will uproot about 25,000 Korean fishermen who have depended on the area''s waters for centuries. About 80% of Korean''s have voiced against the project, but the government has ignored them and chosen to continue with the building of a 33km dyke along the wetland. Birds that need the wetland include a large number of endangered species, including the Spotted Greenshank (global population: less than 1000). Once complete, the project is certain to be the nail in the coffin for many bird species. South Korea is a signatory of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, which requires members to legally protect globally important areas of wetland biodiversity, such as Saemangeum. The Saemangeum Reclamation Project runs against the Ramsar Convention.