생태계위해외래종의 통합관리 방안 연구

Abstract

Due to increasing global trade and travel, the invasion of native ecosystems by alien species such as mammals, reptiles, amphibians, fishes, weeds, pathogens and etc. is now widely regarded as a top threat to biological diversity worldwide. In order to cope with the threats from invasive alien species, Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and Global Invasive Alien Species Programme (GISP) recommended the introduction of ecological risk assessment (or import risk analysis) and establishment of integrated management scheme in national legal frame for invasive alien species (IAS) management. Some endeavors for improvement of IAS managements are; 1) to elevate the political profile of the invasive alien species issue to establish new funding and policy support for invasive species management, 2) to invest strategically in new research partnerships to fill the enormous gaps in practical knowledge of invasive species management, 3) to enhance the capacity of field programs to manage invasive species and mitigate their impacts on priority landscapes, 4) cooperation with business and government in a public-private communications campaign that conveys the urgency of this issue and the promise of real progress through practical action, 5) to construct national and regional alien species database to exchange information and share knowledges of alien species. Current Korean laws dealing with the IAS issue are Nature Conservation Law and Wildlife Protection Law, which designate and manage IAS in Korea. However, the legislations can not prevent the introduction of alien species at its border control when it enters into Korea. On the other hand, the existing animal and plant quarantine laws only control the import of alien species for the purpose of agriculture, forest, fishery and public health, and there have not been any controls of alien species for the purpose of natural resources conservation and abating threats from IAS. Therefore, it is generally accepted that the current Korean legal frameworks of IAS management have critical loopholes exposed and are extremely vulnerable to the invasion of alien species. In an attempt to solve the problems, a new integrated management scheme for IAS is designed and presented in this report based upon a precautionary principle management including ecological risk assessment, an IAS database, national IAS committee, integrated quarantine and border control, the restructure and establishment of IAS relevant laws, and others as well as enhanced post-management of IAS. The key factors needed in the new integrated management scheme are identified as follows; 1) introduction of a precautionary principle into existing relevant management, 2) introduction of ecological risk assessment (or import risk analysis) of IAS, 3) construction of national IAS database providing important basic information and knowledge, 4) enhanced post-management such as superintendence of alien species whether its original import purpose is bleached and monitoring of new and uncategorized alien species having potential risk, 5) the restructure and establishment of IAS relevant laws, 6) establishment of national IAS committee composed of all the related ministers, 7) launch and support basic and applied R&D of IAS such as precise national IAS survey and R&D of fundamental and basic researches including biology, physiology, genetics and ecology of IAS, 8) public-awareness and education program of IAS, and 9) promotion of international and regional cooperation of IAS management and research. With the factors identified above, a new integrated management scheme developed in this study should be implemented as follows. When an IAS enters into Korea via border (or import) control, responsible officials should look up and search the national IAS database whether the species imported has a known risk or not. Based on a precautionary principle, an ecological risk assessment is carried out when an IAS of unknown risks enters into Korea. If the assessment result shows a negative risk, the species is permitted to be imported into Korea. If the result shows a positive risk, it is banned to import. This is done by either a new IAS law or restructured existing quarantine laws. All these information is directly stored back into the database.