• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
• /
• v.21 no.1
• /
• pp.83-94
• /
• 2018

This study presents an integrated evaluation method to assess the level of achievement of quantitative expansion goals and qualitative improvement goals based on the Aichi Biodiversity Target 11 for quantitatively expanding and qualitatively improving national protected areas. The quantitative evaluation indicators for national protected areas are the percentage of terrestrial and inland water areas protected and the percentage of marine and coastal areas protected. The quantitative evaluation indicators for national protected areas are selected as 6 indicators: 1) ecologically important areas, 2) ecological representativeness, 3) management effectiveness, 4) connectivity, 5) social equity and 6) integration. Ecologically important areas are an indicator which evaluates how many areas of particular importance for biodiversity and ecosystem services are included in national protected areas. Ecological representativeness is to assess how well national protected areas represent the ecosystem. Management effectiveness is an indicator which evaluates how effectively national protected areas are conserved and managed, and connectivity is an indicator to assess how well national protected areas are connected. Social equity is evaluating how equitably national protected areas are managed and the integration is assessing how much national protected areas are integrated into the wilder landscape and seascape. This study is significant in that it provides a perspective of qualitative improvement as well as quantitative expansion of national protected areas for biodiversity conservation through accurately understanding Aichi Biodiversity Target 11.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
• /
• v.20 no.5
• /
• pp.685-695
• /
• 2011

Through the analyses of the distribution characteristics and management practices of the wildlife protection areas, this study intends to present basic data for improving the management of protected areas. 1) Based on the aggregate results of the protected areas, the average ratio of the metro-city and provincial areas to the designated protected areas was 1.49%; except for Chungcheongbuk-do (8.83%) and Gyeongsangnam-do (3.43%), most regions showed specified percentages of about 1%, whereby the analysis suggested that the designated protected areas were too small. 2) Considering the fact that most (86.16%) of the wildlife protection areas are in the regions that are of ecological nature level of grade 1, green nature level of grade 8 or better, and of legal conservation regions and districts, it was shown that these reserves are distributed in regions with excellent natural environmental conditions. 3) Designation of protected areas for the protection of wildlife and fish is deemed to be necessary. Although there are 588 wildlife & plant reserves, there are absolutely no designated areas for protecting plant and fish species. 4) Based on the results of an analysis of the current distribution by types, 92.47% of protected areas were concentrated in the mountains, 0.24% in the agricultural lands, and 7.29% distributed in the lakes/rivers/costal areas. 5) As major improvement projects, proposed were: advancement of management systems for protected areas, expanded designation of protected areas, overhaul of managed areas, designation of protected areas for the protection of wild plants and fish, need for management measures for private property and the surrounding areas, need to secure appropriate management personnel and collaboration, locally-adapted management, eco-information-based management, total management of protected areas, etc.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
• /
• v.23 no.2
• /
• pp.157-167
• /
• 2014

The purpose of this study is to seek the application of IUCN categories of overlapping protected areas which is legally designated in South Korea. Different government departments in South Korea have managed and designated as protected areas. However, the protected areas due to different management agencies can be confused with restricting behaviors and supporting residents. The IUCN presents the reasonal standardization classifying the protected areas which could be applied all over the world. Six categories issued by the IUCN could be applied to deal with the problems of the overlapping protected areas. We suggested the application of the IUCN categories compared with legal frame in South Korea. Most areas are overlapped in designation, but the areas are important for ecology and landscape. Moreover, each protected areas in South Korea have zone districts. Comprehensively considered all these things, we made rationale matrix correlated with the IUCN categories and the zone districts of the protected areas in South Korea. For the result of this study, this matrix could be helped to the application of the IUCN categories in domestic protected areas. Although the protected areas has been recognized as regulatory regions, it is expected to expand and sustain the areas based on the matrix.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
• /
• v.20 no.6
• /
• pp.779-786
• /
• 2011

This study aimed at comparing protected areas of Korea and Australia based on international conservation criteria by IUCN and analyzing what we need to improve for future management of protected areas of Korea. The registration status of protected areas of Korea listed on IUCN were 11 places in the Ia, 17 in II, 7 in IV, 7 in V; in total 42 places were recorded. However, the lists were missing many important areas. In Korea, we have only 4 protected area categories out of 6 indicating ecological diversity and management in its protected area system are insufficient. On the other hand, 9340 protected areas of Australia were listed on IUCN and evenly distributed in the total of six categories. Therefore, Korea should investigate measures for system establishment which ensures the diversity and indicative of our natural ecosystems and establish balanced system of protected areas including all IUCN categories I-VI through revaluation of natural, cultural, economic and social conditions and the needs.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
• /
• v.34 no.5
• /
• pp.436-445
• /
• 2020

The number of protected areas has been steadily increased in Korea to achieve Aichi Target 11, and there are studies on potential protected areas that required additional designation. However, there has been an insufficient assessment of the complementarity of protected areas to conserve biodiversity effectively. This study identified the potential habitat areas using the species distribution model for plant species from the 3rd National Ecosystem Survey and compared the plant species abundance in the existing protected area and the potential protected areas using the similarity indices, such as the Jaccard index, Sorenson index, and Bray-Curtis index. As a result, we found that the complementarity of the existing protected areas and most potential protected areas were low, leading to the preservation of similar plant species. Only the buffer zone for Korea National Arboretum had high complementarity and thus is important to conserve some species with the other protected areas. This study confirmed that it was necessary to select additional protected areas outside the existing or potential protected areas to protect plant species with a low inclusion ratio of potential habitats within the protected area. This study is significant because it identified the ecological representativeness of each protected area to examine if the individual protected area can conserve unique and various species and proposed a method of finding candidate areas for additional conservation spatially. The findings of this study can be a valuable reference for the qualitative improvement of protected areas through the complementarity assessments, including animals and the effectiveness assessment study of protected areas using the National Ecosystem Survey data in the future.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
• /
• v.23 no.1
• /
• pp.77-87
• /
• 2020

National parks and other protected areas often do not adequately protect national biodiversity because they were originally created for socio-economic and/or aesthetic values. The Korean government has committed to expanding the extent of protected areas to fulfill its commitments to the Aichi Biodiversity Convention. To do so, it is necessary to quantify the current levels of biodiversity representation within existing protected areas and to identify additional conservation needs for vulnerable species and ecological systems. In this study, we assess the proportion of species ranges found in South Korea's protected areas, for the species documented in the 3^rd National Ecosystem Survey. We modeled the range distribution of 3,645 species in the following taxonomic groups; plants (1,545 species), mammals (35), birds (132), herptiles (35), and insects (1,898) using the MaxEnt species distribution model and calculated how much of each species' range is within protected areas. On average, 17.4% of plant species' ranges are represented in protected areas, while for mammals and insects an average 12.0% is currently conserved. Conservation representation for herptiles averages 9.3%, while it is 8.6% for birds. Although large proportions of species that have restricted distributions should be represented in protected areas, 17 plant species, two insects (Parnassius bremeri and Lasioglossum occidens), and one bird species (Phylloscopus inornatus) with ranges smaller than 1,000 ㎢ have less than 10% of their ranges within protected areas. Establishing specific conservation goals such as the protection of endangered species or vulnerable taxonomic groups will increase the efficiency of the biodiversity conservation strategies. In addition, lowland coastal areas are critical for biodiversity conservation because the protected areas in South Korea are mainly composed of high mountainous areas.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
• /
• v.11 no.1
• /
• pp.1-14
• /
• 2002

This study was conducted to compare protected areas of South and North Korea based on international conservation criteria and recommend new fundamental directions for nature conservation policy. International conservation criteria used by this research were the 1994 IUCN protected area categories, composed of 6 management categories. Despite a variety of types and names of protected areas created by different domestic legislations, South Korea was revealed to have only two types of protected areas, Category IV and V, indicating the significant lack of ecological diversity and representativeness in its protected area system. Shockingly, there are no national parks meeting IUCN criteria in South Korea. On the other hand, North Korea has three IUCN Categories of II, III, IV and thus more balanced and ecologically representative protected area network than South Korea. Especially, North Korea maintains 9 national parks to be officially recognized by IUCN and UN. However, both South and North Korea should make sincere effort to have new and well-designed protected area system including all IUCN Categories I -Ⅵ and particularly a minimum area in the stricter protected area categories.

• Journal of People, Plants, and Environment
• /
• v.24 no.1
• /
• pp.95-105
• /
• 2021

Background and objective: A biosphere reserve is a complex concept that combines the preservation of biodiversity and the sustainable development with the region, outstanding ecosystems with worth conserving in worldwide. The purpose of this study is to suggest the way of zoning that can perform the functions of conservation, development, and logistics support of biosphere reserves. Methods: To meet the purpose of this study, the designation criteria, restrictions, and permissions of the protected area specified in the law for domestic protected areas were reviewed to classify the functions of a biosphere reserve. Results: Through this classification, 10 domestic protected areas with high ecological protection value, such as the natural beauty of the ecosystem, biodiversity, and habitats for wild animals and plants were derived as the core areas of the biosphere reserves. Also, a total of 21 protected zones that can function as a buffer to protect the core of the natural ecosystem from indiscriminate development such as resource protection, recovery, pollution prevention, and improvement were derived as appropriate sites for a buffer. In the review process, issues such as different behavioral restrictions and ranges of permission due to the application of different laws were identified, if two or more protected areas exist within one of the protected areas, there is a protected area that does not meet the criteria for designating use zone, or where behavior restrictions do not meet the zoning criteria of biosphere reserve, under the laws of domestic protected areas. Conclusion: Although this study was not able to carefully review most of the laws on domestic protected areas that are linked to other laws, it was able to categorize appropriate domestic protected areas that can act as the core and buffer zones of biosphere reserves.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
• /
• v.31 no.6
• /
• pp.586-594
• /
• 2017

This study was carried out to identify the potential protected areas recognized by experts to conform to the international definition of protected areas for effective implementation of CBD Aichi Target-11. A policy forum of 13 experts on the protected area was formed and conducted four forums, two surveys, and examination in the context of international perspective to identify four potential protected areas including the water source protection area, riparian buffer zone, fishery resources protected area, and urban natural park area. Excluding the existing protected areas, the total size of the potential protected areas was about $5,643.9km^2$ composed of the terrestrial areas of $3,117.9km^2$ and the marine areas of $2,526km^2$. As such, we can expect the expansion of coverage of national protected areas by up to 3.11% of the terrestrial land and up to 0.67% of the terrestrial marine area. This study is meaningful in that it provides the fundamental information to achieve the national target of protected areas in response to CBD Aichi Target-11. Further research on improving the protected areas qualitatively and quantitatively and identifying and linking with other effective regional OECM are required to enhance the national protected area system.

• Ocean and Polar Research
• /
• v.44 no.4
• /
• pp.339-353
• /
• 2022

The purpose of this research is to conduct an empirical analysis regarding Korea's 'Marine Protected Areas (MPA)' from an international comparative perspective. The authors would like to present the policy direction of marine protected areas based on the result of the research. The result of this study can be summarized in the following manner: First, the total designated size of marine protected areas in Korea is very small compared to the sizes of other OECD nations . Second, while some nations have expanded the extent of marine protected areas in accordance with international agreements and criteria, Korea has not done so. Accordingly, we propose the designated dimensions of marine protected areas should be constantly expanded to keep pace with international trends.