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

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.270-280
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• 2023

The creation of marine protected areas is an important aspect of marine ecosystem sustainability. However, South Korea has not achieved its Aichi Biodiversity Target to designate 10% of its sea as marine protected by 2020. Local residents have strong opposition to the designation of protected areas in South Korea; there has been little trust in the government since the 1970s, when residents felt that their property rights were being ignored in favor of creating national parks. Here, we present a case where creation of a marine protected area was led by residents of TongYeong City. The success of a participation income project to remove marine debris in the city seems to be an important factor that led to the designation of the marine protected area. The case of TongYeong City is compared with that of nearby Geoje City, where an ecologically important stream has not been designated as a wetland protection area, although a similar participation income project enrolled the city's residents. The comparison provides a tentative assessment of the conditions needed to increase trust among residents. The results suggest that, if the projects are well-designed and well-managed, participation income projects to remove marine debris can be effective in building trust among stakeholders in potential marine protected areas.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.93-105
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• 2017

This study aims to establish the integrated system of national protected areas by identifying OECMs which are not officially recognized as protected areas, but effectively and enduringly deliver the conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem service to expand them up to the level recommended by the international community. In order to identify them, candidates for OECMs were listed and it was developed a three-step systematic screening tool based on preconditions, essential characteristics, and sustainable means for conservation outcome of them. As a result of using the tool that considers domestic conditions, seven areas which included Development Restriction Zones, Urban Natural Park Areas, Fishery Resources Protection Zones, Riparian Zones, Natural Recreation Forest Zones, Water Source Protection Areas, and Buffer Zones for Korea National Arboretum were selected as OECMs. And the system of national protected areas was built by integrating them with national protected areas(NPA). Compared with the NPA, the system has been expanded by them and has reached to 17.88%, exceeding the target of 17% for terrestrial and inland water protections. It was proven that they were very effective in enlarging these protections. However, it failed to contribute to the target for marine protections. The expansion of marine protected areas requires different approaches, such as discovering new types of marine protected areas or linking them to biologically important marine areas all over the world.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.57-65
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• 2018

The study is conducted to establish the National Protected Areas Integrated System(NPAIS) which includes National Protected Areas(NPAs) and other conservation measures in terms of effective ways for biodiversity conservation. Additionally, it is carried out to evaluate progress toward quantitative expansion goals in Aichi biodiversity Target 11. The NPAIS consists of NPAs and other effective area-based conservation measures(OECMs). There are two different types of OECMs. OECMs type I, including water-source protection Areas(WPA), riparian zones(RZ), fishery-resource protection zones (FPZ), and urban natural park zones(UNPZ), is a potential protected area which is recommended to be incorporated into the NPAs for effective management. OECMs type II means development restriction zones(DRZ), natural recreation forests(NRF), and buffer zones for Korea national arboretum(BKNA). As a result of evaluating the quantitative expansion goals of the NPAIS, terrestrial and inland water protected areas exceed 17% of the quantitative goal in Aichi biodiversity Target 11. The larger the area of individual OECMs and the lower the degree of overlap with NPAs, the higher the contribution of them to the terrestrial and inland water protected areas. DRZ contributes to enlarge more than 3% of quantitative expansion. And RZ and NRF contribute more than 1%. The marine protected areas are expanded by $1,425km^2$ through FPZ, but the expanded area is very small as comparing with the total marine area. It adds only 0.321% to the quantitative expansion. The rest of OECMs also has very poor quantitative expansion contributions in the marine area. Consequently, the NPAIS is effective for quantitative expansion of land areas, but not for marine areas.

• Journal of Environmental Policy
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.57-89
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• 2007

The Korean government has put mamy efforts into the protection of ecological values of coastal and marine ecosystems since the mid 1990s, recognizing ecological values and economic contributions of coastal and marine ecosystems. Rapid increase of coastal and marine protected areas in terms of number and size implies the innovative change of national policy regarding ecosystem protection. As of the end of 2006, the total number and size of the protected areas account for 425 and $10,666.8km^2$ respectively. Despite of this achievement, the current policy regime on the protected areas has not been quite successful dealing with in managerial issues. The ambiguity and the lacking objectivity of designation criteria have, been causes of pending issues such as conflict outbreaks, 'paper parks', duplicated designation, etc. This paper aims at improving current designation criteria based on AHP(Analytic Hierarchy Process). The suggestion of the study covers both the new designation criteria and the weighing factor on each criterion considering different ecological and socio-economic characteristics of 'wetland protected area' and 'marine protected area'.

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

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.586-594
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• 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
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.249-260
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• 2022

This mini review examines the habitat connectivity and effectiveness of Korean Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in the Yellow Sea Large Marine Ecosystem (YSLME) region. We first reemphasize that the Korean region of the YSLME is a single ecosystem (ecoregion) given the biophysical distribution patterns. The MPAs within the YSLME contribute about 50% to the total MPAs in Korea, accounting for about 10% of the territorial sea waters of Korea and 20% of the waters of YSLME on the Korean side. By area, national parks account for nearly 45% of the MPAs, followed by the wetland protected areas at 25%, with other types of MPA comprising the remaining 30%. Large MPA (> 100 km²) is the dominant type of MPA, accounting for 90% of the total area. We find that MPAs in the region are connected physically and perhaps also genetically. However, the level of protection was found to be low, and a no-take zone is rarely implemented. In addition, interrupted freshwater discharge caused by river-mouth dams poses a major hindrance to the physical connectivity of the MPAs. Restoration of the river-mouth dams and strengthened regulation on MPAs, with further expansion of MPAs in line with the current development of post-2020 global biodiversity frameworks, should be priorities for better management of marine resources. The newly revised law incorporating the concept of "Marine Ecosystem Axis Management" would reinforce the processes, and their effectiveness together with overall management of MPAs in Korea should be evaluated by designing appropriate measurement tools.

• The Journal of Fisheries Business Administration
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.41-61
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• 2011

Marine protected Areas(MPAs) are specially designated zones of the sea that are designed to secure operation of ecosystem function and to restore marine ecosystem to the original state by excluding all detrimental human activities. MPAs have been proposed in many countries as means of realizing sustainable fisheries and recently MPAs are newly receiving attention as precautionary measure for global warming and climate change. The purpose of this paper is to examine the possibility of MPAs as fisheries management tools through a wide range of literature analysis and to suggest necessity of fisheries purpose of MPAs in Korea. Establishment of marine protected area can accompany various economic benefits such as restoration of marine environment, preservation of habitats, promotion of marine tourism and so on. Especially, a lot of case studies suggested that MPAs may bring out benefits to the fishing industry as a result of enhanced stocks. Fisheries benefits of MPAs on targeted species include increased abundance, increased mean individual size and age, increased reproductive output, enhanced recruitment inside and outside refuge, maintenance of genetic diversity of stocks, and enhanced fishery yields in adjacent fishing grounds, so called spill-over. MPAs for ecosystem conservation and protection of coastal wetland have been applied appropriately and effectively, however, the Korean MPAs system is still detective due to absence of fisheries purpose MPAs. Finally, suggestions for Korean MPAs can be summarized as following four recommendations; to establish number of small-scale MPAs rather than few large MPAs, to designate island and its surrounding areas as reserve, to consider MPA design with stock enhancement program, and to undertake co-management with Eochon-Gye, the traditional coastal community in Korea.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Navigation and Port Research Conference
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• 2014.10a
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• pp.91-93
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• 2014

Philippine fisheries code of 1998 (Republic Act 8550), which is enacted to achieve food security by managing, conserving and protecting fishery resources, obliges local governments to designate no less than 15% of jurisdictional municipal water as fisheries resource protection zone. Accordingly, Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are the most extensively established as fisheries management and conservation tool and over 1,500 MPAs are reported in the Philippines. But there has been debate on the pros and cons of implementing MPAs because of the positive and negative impacts on local communities and fishermen. A dichotomous-choice contingent-valuation survey was conducted in the two municipalities of Guimaras, Philippines to investigate public opinion in debates over MPAs and to estimate willingness to pay (WTP) for MPAs to protect and conserve marine habitats for fishery resources. For the benefits and costs of MPAs, 43.6% of respondents thought the costs would be larger than the benefit, but 91% respondents voted in favor of increasing MPAs for fisheries resources as a protective measure. Finally, the estimated Turnbull lower-bound mean WTP (36.75ha) was php 493.6(US$ 11.3) per household to establish the additional MPA (36.75ha) in their municipality waters.