• 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.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'.

• Proceedings of KOSOMES biannual meeting
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• 2017.11a
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• pp.221-221
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• 2017

• 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.

• Proceedings of the National Institute of Ecology of the Republic of Korea
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.165-171
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• 2022

The Chinese crested tern (Thalasseus bersteini) is one of the most globally endangered species, listed as "Critically Endangered (CE)" on the IUCN Red List, with only approximately 30-49 individuals surviving in the wild. Chinese crested terns were discovered to breed in South Korea for the first time in 2016 while conducting a census on uninhabited islands. The Ministry of Environment has declared the breeding habitat of the Chinese crested terns as "Specified Island" to protect this CE species. However, brown rats (Rattus norvegicus) inhabiting the breeding grounds of the Chinese crested terns and Black-tailed gulls may potentially pose a threat to the breeding of these avian species. Therefore, we conducted a study on the feeding behavior of brown rats involving stable isotope analysis to determine their food sources. Fecal analysis showed that brown rats mainly fed on plants, whereas they scarcely fed on animals, such as insects. In addition, the stable isotope analysis showed that the δ¹³C values of brown rats, insects, and Indian goosegrasses were approximately -16 to -11‰, whereas the δ¹³C value of Chinese crested terns that obtained their food from the marine ecosystem was approximately -22 to -18‰. Hence, we conclude that the source of carbon for brown rats on this island is the terrestrial ecosystem. We ruled out the possibility of any direct prey-predator interaction between the brown rat and the Chinese crested tern or Black-tailed gull.

• 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.

• Journal of Environmental Policy
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.1-29
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• 2004

As a result of very limited access due to the military confrontation between South and North Koreas for the last five decades, ecosystems in the transboundary coastal area in the western part of Korean Peninsula have been protected from intensive developments in both Koreas. In the core of the recent two military collisions lies the fishery resources represented as blue crabs as well as the politico-military aspect. Increasing development pressures from both sides as reflected in the South Korea supporting the construction of an industrial complex in Kaesung, North Korea, is the main factor which threatens the sustainable resource base in this region. This research is aimed to develop a cooperative management system for the well-preserved transboundary coastal area between South Korea and North Korea. The Pressure-State-Response (PSR) framework of OECD was used to assess environmental conditions, socioeconomic pressures on the environment of the region, and policy responses of both Koreas to those pressures. Protection of ecosystems, peace settlement, and prosperity of the region and the entire peninsula were proposed as the management goals of the cooperative management system. The designation of the area as a Co-managed Marine Protected Area System (COMPAS) through close cooperation among South Korea, North Korea, and international entities was suggested as a way to achieve those goals. Revision of legal and institutional mechanisms, strengthening knowledge base for optimal COMPAS management, integration of the marine protected area and DMZ (demilitarized zone) ecosystem, enhancing stakeholder participation, building international partnership, and securing financial resources were presented as six management strategies.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.235-247
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• 2022

A marine protected area (MPA) is a spatially designated section of the ocean where the biodiversity is high. Munseom MPA has a unique underwater landscape including soft coral, subtropical fish, and benthos, attracting many scuba divers. This paper intends to evaluate the willingness-to-pay (WTP) for the scuba diving management policy in the Munseom MPA. As a stated preference valuation method, a choice experiment was applied to assess divers' preferences with economic values for the policy. The attributes used in the study included zoning (temporal closure), conservation education, daily permit, soft coral area, and diving fee. We collected 333 questionnaires through online and field surveys and used 296 after excluding incomplete responses for the final data analysis. Study results show that a six-month closure, a decrease in soft coral habitat, and the diving fee were statistically significant. A positive coefficient with regard to the six-month closure variable indicates that divers preferred the policy, and the marginal willingness to pay (MWTP) was estimated to be KRW 8,637 per person per dive. The aggregate WTP of KRW 233 million was obtained by multiplying the MWTP by the number of visiting divers per year. When comparing the levels of recreation specialization, more skilled divers preferred the management option. The results of this study will help predict the priority of management measures and the levels of acceptability among divers when diving management is implemented in Korea in the future. This study suggests that marine environmental policies need to consider divers as one of the important stakeholders for marine conservation.

• 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.