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	<title>Korean Mountain Preservation League</title>
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	<link>http://kmpl.org/en</link>
	<description>An NGO committed to the preservation of Korea&#039;s highlands.</description>
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		<title>UNIMD Seminar 2010</title>
		<link>http://kmpl.org/en/2010/11/unimd-seminar-2010/</link>
		<comments>http://kmpl.org/en/2010/11/unimd-seminar-2010/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 30 Nov 2010 10:14:41 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Shawn Morrissey</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[KMPL Exclusive]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://kmpl.org/en/?p=813</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Since 2006, the KMPL has hosted seminars in honour of the United Nations International Mountain Day. The UNIMD was first designated on December 11, 2003 for the purpose of marking the importance of mountain ecosystems on global environments and human culture. The time is upon us once again. Our UNIMD seminars have included presentations from some of Korea&#8217;s foremost authorities on mountains in the fields of conservation, science, mountaineering, and culture. We have been honoured to have had government officials, representatives of embassies, and CEOs from major corporations, as well as mountaineers, artists, poets, scientists, professors and those with conservational and cultural interests in Korea&#8217;s and the world&#8217;s mountains as our distinguished guests. The seminar this year will take place on Saturday, December 11, 2010 at Kyung Hee University’s College of Sciences, east wing, 8th floor conference room. We invite everyone to arrive at the College of Sciences at 1:00pm for a walk through the college&#8217;s Museum of Natural History. The presentations will start at 2:00 and the seminar will wrap up around 5:30. Along with the presentations, which will include talks on biodiversity, effects of climate change of coniferous trees, and the culture of Korean mountain peoples, among others, there will be photo displays and an art performance. The presenters include: Kyle Tapper, KMPL campaign director Jake Preston, representative of Korea on the Rocks Andrew Douch, co-author of Baekdu Daegan Trail: Hiking Korea&#8217;s Mountain Spine James Hooper, explorer and mountaineer; one of the youngest Britons to climb Chomolungma (Everest) Yoon Kwang-hee, senior student to the dean of sciences, Kyung Hee University, biogeography and alpine ecogeology  David Mason, professor of tourism and expert on Korean mountain folk culture Shawn Morrissey, KMPL president There will also be a photo display by artist and photographer, Martyn Thompson, and a performance by visual art duo, Tiger &#38; Bear. This is an open venue, so]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>3</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>Biodiversity Convention zeros in on historic deal</title>
		<link>http://kmpl.org/en/2010/10/biodiversity-convention-historic-deal/</link>
		<comments>http://kmpl.org/en/2010/10/biodiversity-convention-historic-deal/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 27 Oct 2010 02:11:28 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Shawn Morrissey</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://kmpl.org/en/?p=796</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Reuters (October 27, 2010) &#8211; Ministers from around the world began on Wednesday a final push for a U.N. deal to protect nature, urged by the World Bank to value the benefits of forests, oceans and rivers on economies and human welfare. Senior officials from nearly 200 countries have gathered in Nagoya, Japan, to set new goals for 2020 to fight animal and plant extinctions after they missed a goal for a &#8220;significant reduction&#8221; in losses of biological diversity by 2010. The meeting hopes to push governments and businesses to commit to sweeping steps to protect ecosystems under threat, such as forests that clean the air, insects that pollinate crops and coral reefs that nurture valuable fisheries. World Bank head Robert Zoellick, speaking at the start of a three-day session of mostly environment ministers, said finance ministers and businesses also needed to take note of the value that nature provides for food, medicines, tourism and industry. &#8220;Productivity of the land and seas is diminishing, and with them the ecosystem services that are crucial for people to get out of poverty,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Endangered species are fading away forever before our very eyes.&#8221; Envoys have been negotiating since last week for agreement on the new 2020 target and a 20-point strategic plan that aims to protect fish stocks, fight the loss and degradation of natural habitats and conserve larger land and marine areas. But countries have been split on the level of ambition and have bickered over who will pay for the efforts. Current funding for fighting biodiversity loss is about $3 billion a year but some developing nations say this should be increased 100-fold. FUNDING Japan, chair of the talks, offered $2 billion to developing countries over three years from 2010, but it was unclear if Europe would match the]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://kmpl.org/en/2010/10/biodiversity-convention-historic-deal/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
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		<item>
		<title>One-Fifth of Vertebrates Are Threatened</title>
		<link>http://kmpl.org/en/2010/10/one-fifth-of-vertebrates-threatened/</link>
		<comments>http://kmpl.org/en/2010/10/one-fifth-of-vertebrates-threatened/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 26 Oct 2010 02:24:16 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Shawn Morrissey</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://kmpl.org/en/?p=799</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Science Daily (October 26, 2010) &#8211; A new assessment conducted by 174 scientists from around the world underscores a growing concern about the health of the world&#8217;s biodiversity, quantifying the rate of decline among vertebrate species on a global scale for the first time. The team&#8217;s results support the idea that our planet is currently experiencing its sixth mass extinction &#8212; nearly one fifth of all known vertebrate species are currently classified as Threatened on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List, and an average of 52 species of mammals, birds, and amphibians move one category closer to extinction each year. The team, which includes California Academy of Sciences mammalogist Dr. Galen Rathbun, notes that over the past four decades, species extinction rates have exceeded normal background rates by two to three orders of magnitude. However, the team reports that species losses and declines would have been 20% worse in the absence of conservation efforts to protect threatened species. Thus, while current conservation efforts remain insufficient to offset the main drivers of biodiversity loss &#8212; including habitat loss, over-exploitation, and invasive alien species &#8212; targeted conservation efforts have had a measurable positive impact on the planet&#8217;s vertebrate species. The research is reported in the October 26 issue of Science Express, the website for the journal Science (publication in the print version of Science will follow at a later date). The study used data for 25,000 species from The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™ to investigate the status of the world&#8217;s vertebrates (mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles and fishes) and how this status has changed over time. Their results indicate that approximately 20% of the worlds vertebrates are currently classified as Threatened (assigned the IUCN Red List status of Critically Endangered, Endangered, or Vulnerable), including 25% of]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://kmpl.org/en/2010/10/one-fifth-of-vertebrates-threatened/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>3</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>Biodiversity Goals Fall Short</title>
		<link>http://kmpl.org/en/2010/10/biodiversity-goals-fall-short/</link>
		<comments>http://kmpl.org/en/2010/10/biodiversity-goals-fall-short/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 17 Oct 2010 08:34:50 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Shawn Morrissey</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://kmpl.org/en/?p=788</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Science Daily (October 17, 2010) — While not an outright failure, a 2010 goal set by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) for staunching the loss of the world&#8217;s species fell far short of expectations for The International Year of Biodiversity. What does this mean for the 20 proposed 2020 goals being considered by the 10th conference of parties at the Convention on Biological Diversity in Nagoya, Japan, on Oct. 18-29, 2010? In the article &#8220;Ecosystem Services for 2020,&#8221; published Oct. 15, 2010 in the journal Science, some of the world&#8217;s foremost biodiversity experts assembled by the Paris-based international program of biodiversity science DIVERSITAS offer a strategic approach to the 2020 goals &#8212; one that incorporates trade-offs, timing and complexity. Feasible goals &#8220;While there is still time, it is critical to design the 2020 targets and their indicators in ways that give them a reasonable chance of success,&#8221; argues ecoservices expert Charles Perrings of Arizona State University. The DIVERSITAS team, led by Perrings, includes ASU scientist Ann Kinzig and 16 other leading biodiversity experts from the United States, Argentina, Sweden, Chile, Japan, England, France and Germany. The team lauds the convention for increased efforts to address the most serious aspects of global change, climate and biodiversity, through pursuit of 20 &#8220;SMART&#8221; (specific, measurable, ambitious, realistic and time-bound) targets to be achieved by 2020. However, the group also argues that it is not enough for the targets to be SMART. &#8220;The 2010 CBD goal was unrealistic,&#8221; says Perrings, a professor in ASU&#8217;s School of Life Sciences and co-director of the ecoSERVICES group in ASU&#8217;s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. &#8220;And while the 20 proposed goals for 2020 are more specific about where to go to reduce the rate of loss of biodiversity, there are critical oversights that need to be]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>Rethinking Wonhyo-bong</title>
		<link>http://kmpl.org/en/2010/10/rethinking-wonhyo-bong/</link>
		<comments>http://kmpl.org/en/2010/10/rethinking-wonhyo-bong/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 02 Oct 2010 06:26:07 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Shawn Morrissey</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Cleanups]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[KMPL Exclusive]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Thought Pieces]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://kmpl.org/en/?p=782</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[When the KMPL discovered a small buried trash pile on the lower slopes of Wonhyo-bong in Bukhansan National Park, there was no way for us to know the scope or gravity of the situation. What we thought was just a few buried items, the remains of some thoughtless hiker&#8217;s lunch, turned out to be nearly 100 litres of tin, glass and plastic. On that day of discovery, we found ourselves unprepared to handle what we&#8217;ve come to call a trash cache and had to return to the spot a couple weeks later to finish the job. Wishful thinking. In subsequent cleanups, several more buried trash piles have been found in the same area of Wonhyo-bong. This led us to believe that it is not the site of some random abandoned picnic, but an old local dumping ground. To date, we&#8217;ve discovered four seperate sites that make up the Wonhyo-bong Trash Cache. Since their discoveries, over 1200 litres of trash and recyclables have been located and properly disposed of from the area. At the trash cache, we&#8217;ve unearthed some of the oddest things we&#8217;ve ever come across in the five years we&#8217;ve been doing what we do, including, among other things, a portable element heater, a snare, and a cast iron Singer sewing machine. When we informed the Bukhansan National Park office of the area, they insisted that the trash must predate the park&#8217;s founding as they have been thorough in monitoring litter and maintaining the cleanliness of the park. Unfortunately, this isn&#8217;t the case. Bukhansan National Park was designated Korea&#8217;s fifteenth national park in April 1983. In the trash cache, we&#8217;ve found large piles of materials that can be dated (through packaging labels) to as late as 1990.  Furthermore, in 2007 the park officially removed all trash bins from the park grounds, not necessarily the actions of an authority that&#8217;s &#8221; been thorough in monitoring litter and maintaining the cleanliness of the]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://kmpl.org/en/2010/10/rethinking-wonhyo-bong/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>KMPL Kids Program Fundraiser</title>
		<link>http://kmpl.org/en/2010/07/kmpl-kids-program-fundraiser/</link>
		<comments>http://kmpl.org/en/2010/07/kmpl-kids-program-fundraiser/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 06 Jul 2010 10:18:58 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Shawn Morrissey</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[KMPL Exclusive]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://kmpl.org/en/?p=673</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[KMPL (July 6, 2010) -  The KMPL has been working hard to organize a project to work with underprivileged children over the last year. Thanks to wonderful partnerships with Camp Gardens and Suwon Orphanage, our long anticipated KMPL Kids Program is finally underway. On July 17, we&#8217;ll be hosting a fundraiser to help finance this important program. The primary focus of the KMPL Kids Program is to provide underprivileged children in Korea with opportunities to learn about nature and wilderness. Via the program, participating kids will learn about nature and wilderness by visiting natural places. The program will organize hiking trips, camping trips, visits to green spaces, natural history museums, conservation sanctuaries, and so on. There will be plenty of fun activities that will engage the children while they gain an understanding of species, biodiversity, conservation, and how they are a part of nature. The fundraiser will be held on Saturday, July 17 at Intos Bar in LaFesta, Ilsan. A 10,000 won entry will cover donations and a chance to win the raffle, a hiking gift pack worth 100,000 won. Open donations above 10,000 won are welcomed and appreciated. There will be a dart tournament, a foosball tournament, a trivia contest, and prizes (in the form of beer) for the winner of each. There will also be an auction of a mountain landscape photo by local photo artist, Martyn Thompson. If you wish to participate in the dart or foosball tournaments, please // by the 15th of July to register. If you have any questions about the Kids Program, the fundraiser, or directions to the venue, please feel free to e-mail us. We hope you can join us on July 17th for some fun and to help provide the initial financial support we need to get our KMPL Kids Program off the ground. What: KMPL Kids Program Fundraiser When: Saturday, July 17, 2010 (8:00pm to midnight) Where:]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://kmpl.org/en/2010/07/kmpl-kids-program-fundraiser/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>Cleanup, June 2010</title>
		<link>http://kmpl.org/en/2010/06/cleanup-june-2010/</link>
		<comments>http://kmpl.org/en/2010/06/cleanup-june-2010/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 26 Jun 2010 03:54:49 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Shawn Morrissey</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Cleanups]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[KMPL Exclusive]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://kmpl.org/en/?p=620</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Our volunteer cleanup day for June 2010 took place  in Bukhansan National Park. Initially scheduled for the 19th, the cleanup was postponed to the 26th due to heavy rain on the 18th and 19th. Again the volunteer team with council members returned to the Wonhyobong circuit&#8217;s southern trail where large trash caches were discovered in April.  This continuing cleanup of Wonhyobong has been appropriately named the Wonhyobong Project.  This month a team of seven members and volunteers participated in the cleanup and yielded 500 litres of trash and recyclables, bringing the KMPL’s total removal for the Wonhyobong Project to 1,270 litres in three trips. However, with each new cleanup spent at Wonhyobong, another trash cache is discovered in the vicinity of the others, leading us to believe that this is not a mere trash cache, but a former dump site. Packaging dates on trash items found indicate that several trash caches were buried after Bukhansan&#8217;s national park designation in 1983. Along for this month’s clean up were two expat amateur filmmakers who filmed the whole clean up and conducted interviews. The KMPL was pleased to help them with their project and honoured that they chose to work with us. We wish them the best of luck.  Also on the trail this month was the KMPL petition table set up for hikers to sign the petition for our Bring Back the Bins campaign. The KMPL would like to thank the people who volunteered to monitor the table and talk to the local hikers about the campaign. It has become apparent that this cleanup site may be too large for only the KMPL&#8217;s monthly trash removal project, and the time working on this site takes time away from other areas of the park.  Therefore, for the July 24th cleanup, the KMPL will request the help of the Bukhansan park office, which previously expressed its willingness]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://kmpl.org/en/2010/06/cleanup-june-2010/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
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		<item>
		<title>Himalayan climate impacts &#8216;cannot be generalised&#8217;</title>
		<link>http://kmpl.org/en/2010/06/himalayan-climate-impacts-cannot-be-generalised/</link>
		<comments>http://kmpl.org/en/2010/06/himalayan-climate-impacts-cannot-be-generalised/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 11 Jun 2010 02:39:06 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Shawn Morrissey</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://kmpl.org/en/?p=604</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[BBC News, Mark Kinver, Science and environment reporter (June 11, 2010) - Melting glaciers in the Himalayas will have varying impacts on the region&#8217;s five major river basins, a study says. Changes to the flow of meltwater as a result of global warming is likely to have a &#8220;severe&#8221; impact on food security in some areas, say scientists. Yet people living elsewhere are likely to see food productivity increase, they added in a paper published in Science. Overall, the food security of 4.5% of 1.4bn people in the region is threatened, the researchers conclude. More than 1.4bn people depend on water from the Indus, Ganges, Brahmaputra, Yangtze and Yellow rivers. &#8220;We show that meltwater is extremely important in the Indus basin and important for the Brahmanputra basin, but only plays a modest role for the Ganges, Yangtze and Yellow rivers,&#8221; the team from the Netherlands wrote. &#8220;The Brahmaputra and Indus basins are most susceptible to reductions of flow, threatening the food security of an estimated 60m people.&#8221; The researchers described mountains as the &#8220;water towers of the world&#8221;. &#8220;Snow and glacial melt are important hydrological processes&#8230; and changes in temperature and precipitation are expected to seriously affect the melt characteristics,&#8221; they explained. Summer rains The team used data to assess a number of factors to reach their conclusions, including: the current importance of meltwater in overall river basin hydrology; observed cyrospheric changes; and the effects of climate change on the water supply from the upstream basins and on food security. &#8220;The Yellow River, in particular, shows a consistent increase in early spring discharge, &#8221; they said. &#8220;This is highly beneficial because most reservoirs are empty at the beginning of the growing season. &#8220;An accelerated melt peak may thus alleviate a shortage of irrigation water in the drought-prone early stages of the]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://kmpl.org/en/2010/06/himalayan-climate-impacts-cannot-be-generalised/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>Trekking poles do work, study finds</title>
		<link>http://kmpl.org/en/2010/06/trekking-poles-do-work-study-finds/</link>
		<comments>http://kmpl.org/en/2010/06/trekking-poles-do-work-study-finds/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 02 Jun 2010 21:26:32 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Shawn Morrissey</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://kmpl.org/en/?p=594</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Science Daily (June 3, 2010) — A study by academics at Northumbria University has shown for the first time that trekking-poles help hikers maintain muscle function while significantly reducing soreness in the days following a hike. In the study, 37 physically active men and women were split into two groups of equal fitness and asked to hike up and down Snowdon, the highest mountain in England and Wales. One group was issued with and trained in the use of trekking poles while the other group made the climb unaided. Each group ate the same evening meal on the night before; they ate the same breakfast, carried similar weight in day packs and took the same scheduled rests during both the ascent and descent. The participants&#8217; heart rates and their personal perceived exertion ratings were recorded during the hike. Then, at the end of the hike, and at 24-, 48- and 72-hour intervals afterwards, muscle damage and function were assessed through a variety of tests. The results showed that there was significantly less muscle soreness in the group using trekking poles. This group demonstrated a reduced loss of strength and a faster recovery immediately after the trek compared to the control group. Self-rated soreness peaked at 24-hours in both groups but was significantly lower in the trekking-pole group, both at this point and at the 48-hour point. In addition, levels of the enzyme creatine kinase (which indicates muscle damage) were much higher at the 24-hour point in the non-pole group, while the trekking-pole group&#8217;s levels were close to the pre-trekking levels. This shows that the muscle damage they were experiencing was negligible. Pole manufacturers have suggested that trekking poles can reduce forces on lower-limb joints by as much as 25 %. However, the existing research has been restricted to the laboratory]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://kmpl.org/en/2010/06/trekking-poles-do-work-study-finds/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>Cleanup, May 2010</title>
		<link>http://kmpl.org/en/2010/05/cleanup-may-2010/</link>
		<comments>http://kmpl.org/en/2010/05/cleanup-may-2010/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 22 May 2010 14:11:46 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Shawn Morrissey</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Cleanups]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[KMPL Exclusive]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://kmpl.org/en/?p=571</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Our volunteer cleanup day for May 2010 took place on Saturday the 22nd in Bukhansan National Park. The team returned to the trail circuit starting at the south Wonhyobong trailhead to finish cleaning up the trash cache found there in April, and made an unfortunate discovery. A total of 590 litres of trash and recyclables was located, removed, and properly disposed of. On a disheartening note, despite getting nearly 600 litres out of the ground, it was discovered that the trash cache is much larger than previously thought. Furthermore, another seemingly large trash cache was discovered just down slope from the current one. It could be that the area was once a popular picnic site, during a time when the minimal impact code wasn&#8217;t well known to Koreans, who may have simply buried their trash over time, or that the area was actually a local dump site. We are reevaluating our approach to the clearing of the trash caches and hope they aren&#8217;t as large as it appears they may be. In light of the new discovery of the size of the trash cache, we&#8217;re undertaking the Wonhyobong Project that will aim at documenting and cleaning up the slope. We will be asking for further volunteer support in the weeks to come.]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://kmpl.org/en/2010/05/cleanup-may-2010/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
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