• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.18-32
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• 2001

Korean society has frequently seen the conflicts between environmentally oriented ideology and development ideology which generally take shape as regional problems. An interesting example is the case of Paldang water resource protection area in Yangpyung-kun, Kyunggi Province. At the area, the rural residents are trying to take regional development by utilizing as much as natural resource in the region, and the central government is trying to make clean water sustained for the public interest of the whole people living within the supplying area of the water resource. Accordingly, the conflict is inevitable. It is the role of environmental movement group that makes us pay attention to this region. Under the present situation regarding environmental protection as a core keyword, the environmental protection groups tend to stand on the side of the central government. That is, those groups let the government consolidate its dominance discourse, which help the resistance discourse of the residents weakened. This basic structure of relationship sometimes touches off the situations of antagonistic confrontation. It is the group for organic fanning movement on the region that is playing a significant mediating role between the two. It has eased severe confrontation, and has persuaded the residents, expecially the farmers, to accept so-called win-win strategies which are related with various kind of organic fanning. The agriculture can be regarded as a win-win action because it is a way of fanning adapted to the protected natural environment. It is taking firm hold in this region as an alternative which can satisfy the ideology of 'sustainable development' or 'sustainability'. It could give us a kind of paradoxical confusion that the strategies of regional development of pro-environment are being carried out in the region where the residents are fighting against the government's strict control of natural environment. The example of this region, however, could show a significant direction for solving the continuous problem of conflict between environmental protection and regional development.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.329-348
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• 2003

This paper has examined the origin of organic fanning, its development stages, its certification program, and its distributional characteristics in South Korea. Organic agriculture in South Korea originated in the late 1970s as several organic farmers' associations started to be formed. However, the certification of organic farm products, based upon the Codex guideline on organic produce as well as the FAO/WHO find standards, was not institutionalized with the year 2001. A majority of organic products are currently certified as farm products grown with low chemical input. Vegetables grown without any chemical input occupy the largest proportion of the certified produce, while fruits take the smallest. The average size of farms practicing organic agriculture is 0.88 hectare, smaller than the scale of conventional farms being 1.39 hectare. These organic farms are concentrated in Gyeonggi, Chungcheongbuk, and Jeju Province, where organic farmers' associations were first founded. The roles of those associations not only in developing and extending organic farming techniques but also in promoting organic agriculture to consumers were most critical in the regional development of organic farming. It would be desirable for local governments to promote organic farming in tandem with a whole environmental movement.