Hello honorable ambassadors and all the Eco-Generation members. This is the ambassador of Republic of Korea. This is my second ambassador report, and what I'd like to cover up is the overall plan for my project. When applying for the ambassador, I have planned the six month project for the environment and I'd like to discuss about it.

 

       I was always interested in environment of my local region. Recently, I found out that Suri Provincial Park, located next to my home has been destroyed severely because of the construction of tunnel. Tunnel construction poses numerous problems. For instance, digging through the mountain causes the depletion of underground water, which leads to the damage of ecosystem that can also affect the integrity of the whole system. Also, increase of car usage contributes to air pollution and noise pollution. For these reasons, many people, including I participated in campaign, claiming that tunnel construction must be halted. I have learned that the harm eventually returns to humanity. Thus, I thought that parks deserve a better protection. This is why I was motivated to select the topic and the country.

       The project that I am planning to conduct is about National Parks. What I'm going to do is to investigate the preservation status and strategies of Korean and foreign National Parks. I would like to research other nations' National Park as well, so that we can compare together and seek for the better way of preserving parks. I would also like to call for help of many other ambassadors and members of Eco-Generation to join my project and create a meaningful conclusion.

 

 

       From now on, I'd like to introduce the overall information of National Park for background knowledge.

       To start with, according to 'Natural Park Law', a natural park can be categorized as three National Park, Provincial park, and Country Park.

        The definition of National parks of Korea is 'the areas that represent the natural ecosystem and cultural scenes of the Republic of Korea'. They're designated and managed by the government of the Republic of Korea in order to protect the areas and ensure sustainable use.

       The Korea National Park Service was established in July, 1987 to efficiently manage National parks. They are responsible for the National park and wild organisms' protection and preservation. Also, they are concerned with installation, maintenance, management of park facilities. In addition, they are striving on restoration of ecosystem. In fact, they are progressing projects on restoring Asiatic Black Bear, mountain goat, fox, plants, and damaged land.

       There are total 21 National parks. They can be categorized as Mountain National Park (16), Marine & Coastal National Parks(4), and Historical National Park(1). The picture below shows the distribution of Korea National Park.

       To be designated as a National park, the requisite includes natural condition, natural view, cultural landscape, topographical conservation, location and so on.

       While National Park is designated by the Minister of Environment, Provincial Park is decided by mayors and governors. There are some slight differences, however, the common things are that they are managed by country and that they are precisely preserved.

       Above all, I will mainly focus on Mountainous National/Provincial Parks. From next journal, I will actually post about my visit to National Park and its preservation condition.

For further information, visit Korea National Park website. http://english.knps.or.kr/

Best Regards.