• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.81-91
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• 2021

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea did not have direct legislation on natural environmental conservation until the early 1970s when the regime was still in the early stage. The Law on Land was enacted in 1977 to provide the legal basis for protecting the natural environment, including land protection, protection zones, and forest formation and protection. The enactment of the Law on Environmental Protection in 1986 made progress on environmental conservation in the DPRK. The constitutional amendment in 1992 stipulated "the preservation and creation of the natural environment as the responsibility of the state." Based on the Framework Law on Environmental Protection, subordinate statutes in various fields were enacted after the1990s. While the committee designated and managed the protected zones in the early days, the Framework Law on Environmental Protection established the ground for the designation of legally protected areas, and the Law on Protection of Scenic Spots and Natural Monuments enacted in 1995, and the Law on Environmental Protection enacted in 2009 provided the details. Furthermore, the types of nature reserves include biosphere reserves, primeval forest reserves, animal reserves, plant reserves, and scenic reserves. The 2nd National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan established in 2007 based on the Convention on Biological Diversity(CBD) stated 326 protected zones in the DPRK. However, the 2018 United Nations list of Protected Areas shows only 31 registered zones, indicating the need to establish basic information on protected areas in DPRK. This study can provide basic information for a better understanding of the nature conservation system in the DPRK. Considering that environmental protection activities such as protection of endangered species and recovery of environmental pollution are subject to exceptions under the current sanctions against North Korea (UN Security Council, the United States), it will be possible to contribute to identifying possible inter-Korean cooperation projects in the field of the natural environment.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.483-490
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• 2020

This study aims to construct an ecological community and lay the foundation for sustainable development in the Korean Peninsula by promoting cooperation between the South and North Korea in the non-political and no-military natural environment sector under the rapidly changing inter-Korean relations. It analyzed South Korea's aid and international cooperation projects in natural environmental sectors in North Korea and examined North Korea's national plan and the cooperation projects that North Korea proposed to the international community to identify potential cooperation projects. It selected 15 potential cooperation projects and 6 crucial factors to be considered in prioritizing the projects through case studies and the first expert survey (five persons). The six crucial factors were i) urgency, ⅱ) linkage between North and South Korea (ecological community in the Korean Peninsula), ⅲ) contribution to sustainable development (prosperity), i) North Korea's acceptability, ⅴ) cooperation conditions and budget, and ⅵ) project sustainability. The second expert survey (14 persons) focused on prioritizing the 15 potential inter-Korean cooperation projects in line with six crucial factors. The 15 potential inter-Korean cooperation projects in the natural environment were comprehensively reviewed and scored based on the six crucial factors. The resulting priority projects were identified as follow: i) Mt. Seorak - Mt. Keumgang International Peace Park, ⅱ) support and cooperation for agro-forestry, ⅲ) joint conservation projects for internationally important migratory birds (such as Black-faced Spoonbills and Cranes), iv) inter-Korean ecotourism linkage and promotion, and ⅴ) establishment of integrated information system on leading ecosystems and biodiversity in the Korean Peninsula. The priority cooperation projects presented in this study are based on the perception of experts engaged in inter-Korean natural environmental cooperation in consideration of existing cooperation cases and conditions. For the actual implementation of these potential projects, a systematic approach, including the formation of consensus between North and South Koreas and the creation of a cooperative network with suitable partners suitable for each project's characteristics, would be needed.

• Korean Journal of Plant Taxonomy
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.278-297
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• 2015

With the development of the internet and international agreements such as the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), Korean researchers frequently encounter scientific names of foreign species, and these are named on a case-by-case basis in Korean without any standard naming method. Therefore, standard Korean names for entire orders and families in the world are required for better communications in Korea. However, there have been no comprehensive discussions of the standardization of Korean names for the orders and families found in the world. In this study, we 1) compare the Korean names of orders and families in the references, 2) discuss naming methods in Korean for foreign taxa, and 3) then suggest standard Korean names for the orders and families in the APG III, which is an up-to-date angiosperm classification system. This study will be a starting point for the national standardization of Korean names for orders and families found throughout the world.

• 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.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.261-270
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• 2016

The concept of Eco-welfare emerged in the process of discovering the relationship between a healthy ecosystem and human wellbeing. The objective of this study is to offer basic data for eco-welfare policy realization by conceptualizing the 'National Park Eco-welfare' since national parks are appropriate places for eco-welfare to be optimally implemented. A pre-workshop and two rounds of Delphi surveys were conducted to determine the concept of the 'National Park Eco-welfare ' and the main elements to be included in ecosystem service. Through this study, the concept of 'National Park Eco-welfare' was defined as efforts to conserve the biodiversity and sustainability of the ecosystem and create harmony between 'National Park Ecosystem Welfare' and 'National Park Human Welfare'. To establish the direction of the National Park Eco-welfare policy, we identified the main elements of ecosystem services which are appropriate for the National Park. These are comprised of 3 elements (food, fresh water and genetic resources) from supply service, all elements from regulating service and supporting/habitat service and 4 elements (aesthetic information, recreation-based ecotourism, healing, and knowledge systems with educational values) from culture service. In this study, the concept of National Park Eco-welfare was established, and its policy objectives and scope were suggested. However, further studies are necessary to develop action plans areand thereby realize the policy.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.349-356
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• 2015

Thanks to recent advances in next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology, diverse livestock species have been dissected at the genome-wide sequence level. As for cattle, there are currently four Korean indigenous breeds registered with the Domestic Animal Diversity Information System of the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations: Hanwoo, Chikso, Heugu, and Jeju Heugu. These native genetic resources were recently whole-genome resequenced using various NGS technologies, providing enormous single nucleotide polymorphism information across the genomes. The NGS application further provided biological such that Korean native cattle are genetically distant from some cattle breeds of European origins. In addition, the NGS technology was successfully applied to detect structural variations, particularly copy number variations that were usually difficult to identify at the genome-wide level with reasonable accuracy. Despite the success, those recent studies also showed an inherent limitation in sequencing only a representative individual of each breed. To elucidate the biological implications of the sequenced data, further confirmatory studies should be followed by sequencing or validating the population of each breed. Because NGS sequencing prices have consistently dropped, various population genomic theories can now be applied to the sequencing data obtained from the population of each breed of interest. There are still few such population studies available for the Korean native cattle breeds, but this situation will soon be improved with the recent initiative for NGS sequencing of diverse native livestock resources, including the Korean native cattle breeds.

• Journal of the Korean Data and Information Science Society
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.1161-1170
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• 2014

In global competition like today, intellectual property of novel areas such as traditional knowledge, traditional creation, hereditary resource, etc. are perceived as important resources. Therefore making solid competitive power in overall knowledge resources like cultural contents, brand, design etc. in nation is a pressing question. Accordingly in this study, to prepare for intellectual property rights dispute and advantage-sharing problem that would be variously derived from the Nagoya Protocol which will come into force after 2014, this research selected 200 knowledge of middle region in Korea from 2,047 literal and 931 oral knowledge using preconditioning process. The order of priority of top 50 of them was ranked by a quantitative research method, the Delphi survey. Among them, 30 was literal traditional knowledge and 20 was oral traditional knowledge. Result of this research could be used later as basic material for qualitative researches like the focus group interviewing. Furthermore in this paper is meaningful; the selected traditional knowledge can contribute remarkably to traditional biologic knowledge resource in nation which can be acknowledged in international society, announcing validity (hold precedence for patent) later on.