• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.247-256
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• 2001

The purpose of the present study is to prepare the conservation category to establish the Natural Ecosystem Conservation Area(NECA) in Korea. The authors prepared the conservation category for the NECA based on the previous relevant papers and reports. This draft of conservation category was examined by way of the case study. From this, the possible factors are introduced to prepare the final conservation category that can be applied directly in Korean situation for the conservation of natural areas. The present conservation category was prepared based on the possible data, while some factors of which do not possess the adequate raw data at the moment was removed. According to the reference analyses from the previous conservation categories reported in order to prepare the conservation category in the NECA, a total of 27 factors was assessed; 21 for rarity and 15 fur utility and diversity, 13 far size, for both naturalness and human influence, 13 for typicalness 12 and 10 for fragility. From the literature reviews, the categories which quantitatively assessed was 13: 9 for rarity, 8 far human influence, and 5 for size. From the 27 conservation categories assessed, the factors such as rarity, taxonomic distinctiveness and threat was regarded as applicable to the Korean situation. Furthermore, the criteria such as use could be applied further when this is supported by the augmentative research and field studies.