International Trends and Policy Recommendations Related to Non-Indigenous Species

외래종관리에 관한 국제동향 및 정책방향

Opening of trade relationships through an increasing number of international free trade agreements and the now defunct General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade has resulted in an increase the number of the species being exchanged in the world. In the last 20 years, international environmental laws have multiplied and a number of treaties address harmful non-indigenous species (NIS) directly with specific provisions, while other treaties deal with related environmental issues and indirectly affect international regulation of NIS; however, such treaties are weak due to lack of enforceability. From the stand point of national law, many countries including the USA, Australia and New Zealand enforce national laws and regulations to protect biological resources. Typical strategies include : 1) strengthening quarantines to prevent unintentional and illegal introduction of harmful NIS, and 2) developing technologies for managing harmful NIS. However, the recent international trend for managing NIS has shifted. In 2002, the Bonn Guidelines on Access to Genetic Resources and Fair and Equitable Sharing of the Benefit Arising out of their Utilization was adopted at the 6th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biodiversity. One major issue highlighted in the document is that "there is no more free of charge to get a biological resource from other countries". The Bonn guidelines will affect international and national NIS regulatory systems because the NIS is a potentially disrupts ecosystems as well as native species. A number of impacts are expected including the revamping of national biodiversity policy regimes in many countries in the world. In particular, the ROK, which is not very biologically diverse, has to evolve national laws to protect valuable ecosystems from NIS. In the meanwhile, national rights of using beneficial indigenous and non-indigenous species as biological resources should be considered through the investigation and national registration of NIS around the world for the promotion of the biotech industry.