• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.106 no.2
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• pp.111-120
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• 2017

The best source of information on the conservation status of species at a global scale is the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Until now, 236 vascular plants from Korean peninsula have been evaluated using the IUCN red list categories and criteria. It indicated that five taxa were considered as critically endangered, 20 as endangered and nine as vulnerable species as a threatened status. On the other hand, the rest (189 taxa) were assessed as a least concern, which did not qualify for threatened species categories. Korea Ministry of Environment published a revised version of 57 species list by re-classifying endangered species with idiosyncratic qualitative criteria for two levels (I and II) followed by status reviews in 2011. However, two thirds species proposed by Ministry of Environment do not qualify as threatened. The major difficulties found in applying IUCN Red List criteria at the global scale was a lack of knowledge on the status of species at broader geographic scales and the perceived difficulty the causes. The lack of consistency between two lists constrains the prioritization of species-based conservation work at the national level. Due to a lack of centralized monitoring data for most species, this status is largely qualitatively and so it carries a high level of uncertainty. This is reflected in the high number of species with an unknown population trend. The current list of endangered species of flora and fauna by the Ministry of Environment should be recognized as the national list (local and population extinction), which is different from the IUCN Red list due to the different geographical contexts. Also, it is necessary to improve the quality of evaluation and conservation management system rather than presenting massive number of endangered species list.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.101 no.1
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• pp.7-19
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• 2012

After having announced legislation for threatened or endangered species on the List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants in 2005, the Korea Ministry of Environment proposed (in June 2011) amending the list, thereby delisting or reclassifying endangered species using new quantitative criteria for two levels (I and II), as well as status reviews. The new legislation included 40 species remained in their original endangered status, but 19 species were delisted, 5 species were proposed as candidates for delisting, 29 species were given a new endangered listing, and 3 species were proposed for an endangered listing in Korea. We assessed the threatened status of 98 plants using the IUCN Red List Criteria (version 3.1) at the global level, and compared the Ministry's revised criteria with the IUCN Red List Criteria and ESA criteria used in the USA. Most species proposed by the Ministry do not qualify as threatened and one of the major difficulties found in applying IUCN Red List Criteria at the global scale was a lack of knowledge on the status of species at broader geographic scales and the perceived difficulty this causes. Under the current classification process, many endangered species, such as Abeliophyllum distichum, Leontice microrhyncha, Echinosophora koreensis, Leontopodium coreanum, Iris odaesanensis, and Corylopsis coreana at global level were excluded here. Knowledge gaps and uncertainties mean that the number of taxa at high risk of extinction may be substantially greater than is currently understood. Due to a lack of information on its taxonomic status, currently there is controversy over the Red List status of Physocarpus insularis. Also, Caragana koreana, which was an invalidly published name, should be excluded here. Although the Korea Ministry of Environment insisted this procedure was conducted by applying the modified IUCN threat categories and definitions, this evaluation has been carried out based only on subjective views and misapplication of the IUCN Red List Criteria. The current listings by the Korea Ministry of Environment should be challenged. We suggest that broad species concepts on endemic species are applied and also criteria that adequately address the proper quantitative knowledge should be used. It is suggested that the highest priorities for the Red List should be given to endemic species at least in the Korean peninsula first at global scale.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.109 no.4
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• pp.371-381
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• 2020

The Ministry of Environment (ME) is planning to adopt in 2020 the IUCN regional Red List for "Guidelines for listing and delisting rare & endangered species and management of endangered Species System". The ME designated 377 species of vascular plants on the regional Red List. In a previous study it had been suggested that 103 species from this list are candidates for the regional Red List. With respect to a possible Red List, we assessed 59 species (after excluding 34 additional NA species and ten endemic species). These assessments indicated that 16 species are at the "threatened" level. Of those, one species is Critically Endangered, ten are Endangered, and five are Vulnerable. A further four species are classified as Near Threatened, 30 as Of Least Concern, and nine as Data Deficient. We found that most of the assessments proposed by the Ministry of Environment were not supported by scientific data, including quantitative geographic data (over 70%) in Criteria B. In order to determine the endangered species belonging to the orchid family, it is necessary to obtain records of illegal activities or data on overcollection. The current problem with the Ministry of Environment Red List has been the lack of management of scientific data on species showing a trend in decreasing population in the mid- to long-term; thus, there is a lack of critical resources for policy-makers. The ME legally designated categories and assessment, and the lack of expertise in failing to comply with the legal law by itself. The key to presenting an accurate overview of the state of Korean flora is to fill the information gaps with respect to significant geographical and taxonomical biases in the quality and quantity of data. By regularly updating the qualified data, we will be able to track the changes in the conservation status of the flora and inform the necessary conservation policies.

• The Korean Journal of Ecology
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.305-320
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• 2005

Recently 64 species in Korea have been ranked as rare and endangered taxa by the Ministry of Environment using two categories, I and II. The original threat categories produced by the Ministry of Environment were developed to provide a standard for specifying animals and plants in danger of extinction and has been influential sources of information used in species conservation in Korea. However, the criteria by Ministry of Environment were applied to the whole taxa only by regional boundaries, especially in South Korea, rather than international context, and it also lacked an explicit framework that was necessary to ensure repeatability among taxa because of the absence of quantitative criteria to measure the likelihood of extinction. The World Conservation Union (IUCN) has developed quantitative criteria for assessing the conservation status of species. The threatened species categories, the 2000 IUCN Red List, proposed by SSC (Species Survival Commission) of IUCN have become widely recognized internationally. Details of threatened Korean plants, identified by applying the IUCN threat categories and definitions, were listed and analyzed. The number of species identified as threatened was only 34 out of 64 taxa (48.4%), while the rest of taxa were rejected from the original lists. Many of the species (51.6%, 33 taxa) excluded from the original list proposed by Ministry of Environment do not qualify as Critically Endangered, Endangered or Vulnerable because these taxa were widely distributed either in Japan or in China/far eastern Russia and there is no evidence of substantial decline in these countries. An evaluation of taxa in Korea has been carried out only based on subjective views and qualitative data, rather than quantitative scientific data, such as rates of decline, distribution range size, population size, and risk of extinction. Therefore, the national lists undermine the credibility of threatened species lists and invite misuse, which have been raised by other cases, qualitative estimate of risk, political influence, uneven taxonomic or geographical coverage. The increasing emphasis on international responsibilities means that global scale is becoming more significant. The current listings by Environment of Ministry of Korea should be challenged, and the government should seek to facilitate the resolution of disagreements. Especially the list should be flexible enough to handle uncertainty and also incorporates detailed, quantitative data. It is suggested that the highest priorities for the Red List should be given to endemic species in Korea first. After setting up the list of endemic species to Korea, quantitative data on population size and structure, distributional range, rated of decline, and habitat fragmentation should be collected as one of long term projects for the Red list categories. Transparency and accountability are the most important key factors. Also, species assessors are named and data sources referenced are required for the future objective evaluations on Korean plant taxa.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.93-108
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• 2014

The inventory list of wildlife species inhabiting or distributing in Gyeonggi Province was made by compiling species data from precedent surveys, 10 national level nature surveys, 1 survey that Gyeonggi-do conducted, and 46 local surveys presented in scientific journals. Total 2,913 wildlife species including 2,041 vascular plants, 39 mammals, 304 birds, 34 herptiles, 145 fish, and 350 benthic macro-invertebrates were listed in the inventory. It explains 47% of nationwide total species in vascular plants, 31.5% in mammals, 58.2% in birds, 65.4% in herptiles, 12.2% in fish. The total number of important species including endangered species, national monuments, national red lists, etc. was 628 species, accounting for 21.6% of all listed species in Gyeonggi Province. More than 90% of endangered bird species, almost half of endangered fish and herptile species were found in Gyeonggi Province. In particular, abundant bird diversity and inhabitation of many endangered bird species were identified in Gyeonggi Province. Species diversity was greater in the northern area adjacent to the Demilitarized Zone and the eastern forest area. The distribution of the important species such as national endangered species was more distinct in these areas, especially in Gapyeong and Yeoncheon Counties. The inventory list compiled in this study implicates the level of management for biological resources and can provide information for policy decisions regarding new survey sites, protection management of specific species and areas, management practices by spatial characteristics. It should be more compiled and updated with survey data to be utilized as basic indices for local biodiversity strategies and management of biological resources.

• Korean Journal of Plant Resources
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.90-109
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• 2016

This study aims to investigate the flora of Mt. Cheonma (Namyangju-si, Gyeonggi-do, Korea), including Korean endemic, rare and endangered plants. To support the biodiversity and usefulness of this investigation, we checked the red list plants, floristic regional indicator plants, climate change adaptation target plants and naturalized plants, and compared composition of plant species in Mt. Cheonma with nearby mountains. Totally, we performed 22 field investigations from April 2012 to October 2014. The number of vascular plants in this region is 433 taxa and comprised of 94 families, 266 genera, 378 species, 2 subspecies, 46 varieties, and 7 forms. Among them, there are 13 endemic plants designated by Korean Forest Service, whereas only 10 taxa are endemic species by Korean Ministry of Environment (KME). According to the IUCN criteria, there are 12 rare and endangered plants composed of 9 Least Concerned (LC), 2 Vulnerable species (VU), and one Endangered species (EN) found by Korea National Arboretum (KNA). Meanwhile, 8 taxa including 7 Least Concerned (LC) were found in Red List of KME. The floristic regional indicator plants designated by KME were 49 taxa. In addition, there are 14 taxa in The Adaptable to Climate Change Plant List designated by KNA, while only 19 taxa are naturalized plants. Generally, there are 190 common taxa in Gwangju Mountains area, and only 51 taxa are distributed in Mt. Cheonma.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.107 no.4
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• pp.361-377
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• 2018

The aim of this study was to examine whether the guideline by the Ministry of Environment (ME) successfully and appropriately applied the IUCN Red List criteria at regional level and the rare and endangered national list considered eligible. A certain number of vascular plants, which are widely distributed in the world or in east Asia, deemed to be ineligible for assessment at a regional level as Not Applicable category (NA), because it occurs at very low numbers in South Korea. Among 377 vascular plant taxa evaluated by the ME, NA included 238 species, which represented 63.1%. The number of synonymized species or illegitimate name species were 13 species, which accounted for 3.4%. 21 species (9.3%) were threatened at global level and 103 species were possibly candidates species list for Red List assessments at regional level in the near future. The proportion of NA or waiting list was 66.6% among the list assessed by the ME. The most common errors involved incorrectly application of species extinction in case of population extinction in South Korea to the assessment and provided incorrect interpretation of the Red List criteria at regional level. The most assessments proposed by ME were not backed up without quantitative data quality, justifications, and sources. It is suggested that the risk of extinction should be reassessed at least in the Korean peninsula within the light of their overall distribution including far eastern Russia and North eastern China in north and for Japan and Taiwan in south for regional assessment. The results obtained here using the IUCN criteria at regional level showed that the list proposed by the ME produced an overestimation of the number of threatened vascular plants. Also, the misapplication of the term 'species extinction' for regional assessment was open to some degree of subjectivity and misinterpretation.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.105-131
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• 2015

This study was carried out to investigate the flora of Gyodongdo island (Ganghwa-gun). The vascular plants from 11 field surveys were revealed to belong to a total of 629 taxa; 118 families, 364 genera, 561 species, 5 subspecies, 53 varieties, 7 forms and 3 hybrids. 184 taxa were the first records from this region. The plants in Gyodongdo island are composed of the deciduous broad-leaved and conifer-mixed forests which are the common ones in the middle part of the Korean Peninsula. Five taxa of Korean endemic plants such as Clematis brachyura Maxim., Viola seoulensis Nakai, Populus ${\times}$ tomentiglandulosa T. B. Lee, Forsythia koreana (Rehder) Nakai and Hemerocallis hakuunensis Nakai were collected. Endangered wild plants designated by the law called 'Protection Law for Endangered wild fauna and flora' were one taxon. The red list plants according to IUCN valuation basis were examined for 13 taxa; endangered (EN) species of Prunus yedoensis Matsum., Vulnerable (VU) species of both Utricularia pilosa (Makino) Makino and Iris ruthenica var. nana Maxim., Near Threatened (NT) species of Senecio argunensis Turcz., Least Concern (LC) species of Platycladus orientalis (L.) Franco, Potentilla discolor Bunge, Limnophila sessiliflora (Vahl) Blume, Acorus calamus L., Phacelurus latifolius (Steud.) Ohwi, Pseudoraphis ukishiba Ohwi, Belamcanda chinensis (L.) DC., and Not Evaluate (NE) species of both Astragalus sikokianus Nakai and Potamogeton oxyphyllus Miq. The floristic regional indicator plants found in this area were a total of 47 taxa comprising three taxa of grade V, four taxa of grade IV, nine taxa of grade III, 10 taxa of grade II, and 21 taxa of grade I. The naturalized plants were identified as 62 taxa and the percentage of naturalized index (NI) was 9.9 % and the percentage of urbanization index (UI) was 19.3 %, respectively. Furthermore, hemicryptophytes (28 %), therophytes (26 %), hydrophytes (13 %) and geophyte (12 %) showed high proportional ratio in life form spectrum.

• Korean Journal of Plant Resources
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.558-570
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• 2009

The vascular plants in Jeju composed of 21 families 62 genera, 190 species, 7 varieties with 197 taxa in Pteridophyta, 3 families 5 genera, 7 species, 3 forma with 10 taxa in gymnosperm (Coniferophyta) and 143 families 703 genera, 1,622 species, 114 varieties and 47 forma with 1,783 taxa in Endospermae. The total number of taxa was 1,990 consisting 167 families, 770 genera, 1,818 species, 121 varieties and 50 forma. Three families, 4 genera 4 species and 1 variety in Pteridophyta and 1 family, 1 genus I species, 1 forma of Coniferophyta were endemic to Jeju. Five families, 8 genera and 8 species in the Monocotyledonae of Endospermae and 23 families, 32 genera, 21 species, 16 varieties and 7 forma and 44 taxa in Cholipetalae, and 9 families, 24 genera, 12 species, 13 varieties and 7 forma, total 32 taxa in Sympetalae were endemic to Jeju. Total 90 taxa with 41 families, 69 genera, 46 species, 29 varieties and 15 forma were drawn up as endemic plants in Jeju. As the numbers show on, Jeju has more biodiversity especially plant diversity than any other places in Korea. It was an important region in regard to geographical position. The rarity on plants from Jeju has been assessed based on the IUCN red list categories and criteria at both regional and global levels. There was one species in each extinct (EX) and extinct in the Wild (EW). The EX and EW species were Rhododendron saisiuense Nakai (Ericaceae) and Asplenium antiquum Makino (Aspleniaceae), respectively. Three taxa, Rhododendron dauricum L. (Ericaceae), Lycopodium sieboldii Miq., and Lycopodiella cernua (L.) Serm (Lycopodiaceae) were species that is extinct in the region (RE). Sixty-one taxa were critically endangered (CR), 13 were endangered (EN), and 83 were vulnerable (VU) at regional level. The taxa listed on a Red List corresponds 26.9% of total taxa in Jeju. At global level, there were 19 taxa in CR, 4 in EN, and 1 in VU (Vulnerable) as the category of threat. The rest taxa (133 taxa) were classified as Least Concern (LC). According to the results of the assessment, conservation measures must be taken for total of 157 species that were categorized in threaten including one of EX, one of EW and three extinct in the region immediately. Of 157 species, 61 were CR, 13 are EN and 83 were VU.

• Korean Journal of Plant Resources
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.193-216
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• 2015

This study was carried out to investigate the vascular plants of Mt. Bohyeon (Gyeongbuk). The vascular plants were collected 22 times and summarized as 589 taxa, including 105 families, 327 genera, 522 species, 11 subspecies, 48 varieties and 8 forms respectively. Among them, 13 Korean endemics, 10 red list of vascular plants, 2 endangered plants and 83 specially designated plants by the Ministry of Environment were included respectively. The naturalized plants were 37 taxa and the naturalized ratio was 6.41 of 589 taxa. Usage of 589 taxa were consists of 240 taxa (40.1%) of edible plants, 205 taxa (34.2%) of medicinal plants, 62 taxa (10.3%) of ornamental plants, 213 taxa (35.6%) of pasture plants, 15 taxa (2.5%) of timber plants, 8 taxa (1.3%) of fiberplants, and 3 taxa (0.5%) of industrial plants.