2.13
Natural Environmental Characteristics and Establishment of Conservation Plan of Halla Mountain
한라산 기초조사 및 보호관리계획수립 Yang-Soo Yun, Seung-Bok Lee, Jong-Yeop Kim, and Jin-Seong Kim
2000. 11·3 vols.(Main Report 268 pages, Summary Report 66 pages, Data Book 119 pages)·Korean Background and Purpose
Jeju Island is reputed for its uncontaminated and exotic natural environment with a variety of flora and fauna and breathtaking landscape. Mt. Halla is the everlasting symbol of Jeju Island as a spiritual pivot for Jeju people. Since the 1970s, the Mt. Halla National Park has been suffering from serious damage owing to the skyrocketing increase of visitors, and strong wind and repetitive freezing and melting, hindered vegetation and caused soil erosion. However, lack of financial investment and geographic characteristics of alpine region make it difficult to carry out systematic conservation with the existing renovation and management methods while satisfying the needs of growing visitors.
A new management plan for Mt. Halla in a bid to satisfy the needs of visitors and to preserve the natural assets should be established through careful examination of the current conservation and management practices including the 30-year long dispute over the installation of cable-cars.
This study is a part of the dual project named "Formulation of Mt. Halla Comprehensive Conservation Plan" and "Feasibility Study on Environment-friendly cableway Construction". The latter was carried out by the Australian company, Skyrail Australia separately. The purposes of this study are 1) basic investigation of the natural environmental conditions of Mt. Halla, and 2) establishment of a new management plan for the conservation of Mt. Halla on long-term perspective while satisfying the needs of increasing visitors.
Major Areas of Analysis
The basic natural environmental condition study includes the analysis of flora, fauna, geology, and landscape of Mt. Halla. Also included are in-depth survey of damaged areas and natural trail of the Mt. Halla. The study was carried out
in collaboration with the Environmental Research Institute of Jeju National University and the Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources.
The study revealed that the total damaged area in Mt. Halla amounts to approximately 225,870m2 and the natural trails have been severely damaged compared with the 1990 survey. The conservation plan composed of four parts of park management policy, resources management, visitors management and facilities management suggests present conditions, problems and improvement measures. Some of the issues identified in the study include increasing visitors to the Park, decreasing capacity of trekking trails accelerated erosion of trails, increased costs of rehabilitation, lack of financing sources, and lack of scientific studies on successful rehabilitation. The study concludes that to mitigate the problems, strong measures such as the close down of trekking trails and expansion of rehabilitation programs are necessary and thorough and continuous study on the ecosystem is also essential. It also concludes the environment-friendly construction of cable way that has been on dispute for more than 30 years can be an alternative means to conserve the Mt. Halla National Park.
