생태통로에 대한 법적 고찰

Abstract

Anthropogenic interventions or activities, such as land developments, roads, dams, weirs, estuary barrage, etc., cause the fragmentation of habitats for wild animals and plants. This habitat fragmentation has substantial impacts on animal and plant species, and consequently, results in species losses. These losses, in turn, lead to a reduction in species diversity and disrupt an ecological imbalance, which is why a study on methods to minimize such habit fragmentation related to various development activities is required. One of those methods is the installation of ecological corridor on whose definition the Natural Environment Conservation Act contains a provision. The enforcement regulations of the same act sets out where ecological corridors shall be installed under what criteria. But these criteria have not been complied with; actually, Korea is the world’s fourth largest in terms of the number of ecological corridors. In spite of that, ecological corridors have been just nominally prepared by mobilizing lots of financial resources. This caused animals to turn their face away from them. In this study, problems related to the malfunctions of ecological corridors and their improvements were reviewed. The problems include problems related to selection of target species, water supply for wild species, follow-up management, and lack of penal regulations against the non-conformance with such criteria. To solve these problems, there is a need to prepare a procedure for selecting target species in which related experts, not commercial providers, participate in, and establish standards on follow-up management. On top of that, a means to enforce conformance with criteria to install ecological corridors, such as the introduction of penal regulations, is required.