An Approach to Introduce Biodiversity Components for the EIA Systems in Korea

Abstract

In foreign countries, efforts are in progress to apply guidelines to minimize the loss of biodiversity within environmental assessment, yet those efforts have not been considered in Korea. If this continues, biodiversity in our nation will quickly diminish. Therefore, Korea needs to urgently prepare guidelines that minimize the loss of biodiversity. In this study 32 environmental impact assessment statements on express-highway construction projects were analyzed to evaluate potential problems with the current EIA system and to provide ideas on how to introduce a biodiversity/ecosystem item into the system. In the analyses of the 32 statements, few contents that deal with habitat/biodiversity were found and a lack of assessment of biodiversity issues was noticed in the EIA system in Korea. The system, therefore, should be improved to consider biodiversity issues in the survey, to predict impacts on biodiversity, and to establish corresponding mitigation measures.