• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.280-295
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• 2016

Influences on the environment from the consumption of livestock have increased drastically during the last 50 years in Korea. Reduction of bovine meat consumption is one of the alternatives as sustainable food supply. The consumption of bovine meat and the ecological footprint (the sum of the cropland, grazing land, and carbon footprint) from the consumption of bovine meat have increased over 13 and 12 times over the last 50 years. Especially, the consumption of imported bovine meat and the ecological footprint from the consumption of imported bovine meat have increased significantly about 346 and 369 times over the last 40 years. If the consumption of bovine meat decreased by half in Korea in 2023, the ecological footprint from the consumption of bovine meat would be reduced by 40~65% depending on the scenarios. The supportable population number for the consumptions of environmental resources (food (crops, livestock, and fish), energy, forest, and built-up land) and the crops were 0.57~1.56 million and 3.42~6.83 million, respectively, depending on the scenarios and the nationality of the supported people.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.364-378
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• 2014

Ecological Footprint (EF) in Korea has increased steeply over the past 50 years and, thus, the overshoot. It has been known that the main causes of the overshoot are population growth and the increase of the consumption intensity per person. In this study, the EF trend in Korea is analyzed for the past 50 years and it is found the major cause of the rapid increase of EF in Korea is the increase of the consumption intensity per person. Among the sectors of the consumption, Carbon Footprint (CF) from the energy consumption and Grazing Land Footprint and Fishing Grounds Footprint from the protein consumption are the major players for the increase. It is also found that if current trend of the EF per person would be maintained until 2060, EF in Korea would be expected to increase also continuously, despite of the decrease of the population from 2031. Therefore, the direction of the environmental management should be considered for inducing the change of the individual consumption patterns and the behavioral changes.