• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.113 no.1
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• pp.118-130
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• 2024

Rehabilitation of mining areas can reduce damage to ecosystems. However, the effects of rehabilitation on ecosystem services (ESs) and its contribution to local communities are not well known. Thus, the aims of this study were to clearly identify the ES beneficiaries affected by mining activities, to determine how the beneficiaries profit from surrounding areas in cooperation with local stakeholders, and to manage the rehabilitation areas for the ESs that the beneficiaries want. This study chose 18 ESs (4 provisioning, 7 regulating, 5 cultural, and 2 habitat services) based on The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity. A semi-structured questionnaire survey using an 11-point Likert scale was conducted among 87 community residents to investigate social awareness and identify key ESs. The survey results from two local communities showed high awareness and demands mainly on cultural (mental and physical health, aesthetic appreciation, and recreation) and regulating services (local climate and air quality, and moderation of extreme events). These services were related to the daily lives of residents in local communities, provided positive benefits, and potentially improved the residents' future livelihoods. However, the average questionnaire scores were limited to 6-7 points, indicating that the benefits to local communities were meager. The residents' awareness of provisioning service was negative, even if it provided goods and profit opportunities. This indicated a disconnection between local communities and provisioning services due to forest rehabilitation that did not consider local communities that traditionally relied on specific provisioning services before the onset of mining activities. Future forest rehabilitation in abandoned mine areas must consider the welfare of local communities for sustainable use of rehabilitated forests and enhancing ESs. In this study, only a qualitative evaluation based on frequency analyses was conducted. The quantification and valuation of key ESs are warranted in the future to promote ESs from forest rehabilitation in abandoned mine areas. The study results would be useful for developing site-specific ES promotion strategies for reforesting mine areas.

• Journal of the Daesoon Academy of Sciences
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• v.49
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• pp.93-125
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• 2024

The article takes a critical perspective that reunderstanding the canon of Daesoon Thought is necessary to expand its application to the needs of modern society given the rapid speed of societal changes. The key point is the emergence of a cultural ecologism within Daesoon Thought. What is called the cultural ecologism is focused upon the sustainable horizon of unifying culture and ecology in the organic structure of a total-life culture. A reciprocal unity of culture and ecology is characteristic of a coherent whole with an original unitary process in the circle of Nature. Cultural ecologism, therefore, aims at seeking after the sustainability of culture wherein the value of culture is integrated in the grand stream of the ecological spirit of Nature. In the Late Joseon Dynasty, Daesoon Thought paid attention to the Great Opening (開闢) to secure the people's livelihoods and it offered edification concerning anti-feudalism in a dimension of realistic awareness which guided people's lives. The process of the Great Opening functions as a process for the world of the Reordering Works of Heaven and Earth (天地公事) which culminate in the experience the Earthly Paradise (地上仙境) of the Later World (後天). In the cultural ecologism of Daesoon Thought, this course is equivalent to a process of Haewon (grievance-resolution) in the sense of dissolution and reconciliation. From the wide umbrella of cultural ecologism, consequently, it is possible to say that Daesoon Thought can arrive at the reality of the Earthly Paradise (地上仙境) through the Great Opening of the Later World, in which human beings can enjoy the infinite vitality of the universe from within their own finite vitality.