As an entity that encompasses the ecological integrity of the Korean landscape, the Baekdu Daegan and all her sub-ranges serve as the fundamental bio-regions of the peninsula, providing the land with water, effects on climate, habitat, and ultimately nourishment. In recent years, in light of the severe damage sustained by these great ecosystems due to Korea’s nearly unstoppable rapid development, measures have been researched and implemented to provide greater restoration, management, and protection.
These management issues took seed on December 29, 1967 when the National Parks Act was enacted and Jirisan was designated as Korea’s first national park. For the next twenty years, nineteen more regions were designated as national parks, ending with the designations of Wolchulsan and Byeonsan-bando on June 11, 1988. In total, Korea’s twenty national parks constitute 6,580 square kilometres of land and sea. Fifteen of the twenty parks are categorized as mountain parks, meaning they were designated solely for the purpose of enclosing a mountain ecosystem, clearly indicating just how dominate highlands are upon the landscape. The remaining parks consist of two seashore parks, two marine parks, and one historical park. All of the parks, except Gyeongju and Hallasan, fall under the jurisdiction of the Korea National Parks Service.
The Korea National Parks Service (KNPS) was established in July, 1987 under the control of the Ministry of Construction. The KNPS was commissioned as the sole authority over the national parks, as previous authority was given to local governments, resulting in fragmented policies, non-cooperation, and inappropriate management. By 1991, the KNPS was transferred to the Ministry of Interior, and finally to the Ministry of Environment in 1998.
The primary goal of the KNPS involves management of the parks to suit ecological necessities and recreational demands. Like most national parks services around the world, however, the KNPS is direly understaffed with less than 1000 permanent employees, leaving approximately 6.5 square kilometres per employee to manage, research, and protect.
A major part of the KNPS management program involves the reintroduction of endangered species into the wild. Paramount among them is the Asiatic black bear (Ursus thibetanus). The International Union for Conservation of Nature & Natural Resources (IUCN), the chief authority on the conservation status of species, lists Asiatic black bears as globally vulnerable; however, in South Korea they are critically endangered. The black bears, also called moon bears, are traditionally the target of medicine hunters, as the bears’ bladder bile is considered a prize remedy. Due to this continued archaic practice, along with habitat loss and human encroachment, the bears’ populations have steadily declined. Currently less than twenty are in the Korean wild, all in Jirisan, and many of them were introduced from either Russia or North Korea. The KNPS has therefore implemented a black bear restoration project that aims to enhance the biodiversity and ecological stability of the mountains, particularly Jirisan, by reintroducing the bears into the wilderness, monitoring their progress, and maintaining protection of both the species and their habitat. Along with the restoration program, the KNPS has set up the Species Restoration Centre, as well as a shelter for orphaned or injured bears where they are nursed back into the wild, and an education facility where the public, particularly children, can learn about the bears, their biology and their importance in the ecosystem.
The KNPS also carries out its Temporary Closure Program designed for the purposes of restoring ailing ecosystems, habitats, and preserving regions rich in biodiversity. First implemented in 1991 and currently in its sixth incarnation, the program oversees the closure of regions for periods up to ten years. The end of the current program will come in 2015. Some closed areas don’t include the trails that run through them, but rather the buffer zones on either side of a trail. It is important to note the closed areas that may affect your trek along the Baekdu Daegan, even though most of them do not actually run the course of the Great Ridge itself. If you decide to take a side trip down a valley or up a peak, or are compelled to explore an intriguing region, it is important to know whether the area is closed or not.
Below is a list of Temporary Closure Program areas national parks through which the Baekdu Daegan runs.
Jirisan National Park
- The royal azalea community at Seseok-pyeongjeon (excluding trail) is closed to protect the alpine flora
- The restoration area at Jangteo-mok (excluding trail) is closed to protect the alpine flora
- Jeseokbong peak (excluding trail) is closed to protect the community of Korean fir trees
- Wangdeung-jae swamp is closed to protect the alpine wetland
- Chilseon-gok (valley) northwest of Cheonwangbong is closed to preserve the ecosystem
- The summit of Nogodan is closed to protect alpine flora
- The trail between Jaeng-giso and Banyabong is closed to protect flora
- The area from Yo-ryongdae to Makcha in Baemsa-geol (excluding trail) is closed to preserve the ecosystem
- The area around Yeonha-cheon (excluding trail) is closed to protect a community of yew trees
Sobaeksan National Park
- Area around Birobong is closed to protect a community of yew trees
Odaesan National Park
- Jin-gogae to Dongdaesan is closed to restore flora
Seoraksan National Park
- Daechung-bong (excluding trail) is closed to protect alpine flora and their habitat
- The region from Hwangjang Waterfall to Dae-seung-ryeong in Heukseondong Valley is closed to protect fauna habitat
Take note of these closures if you plan on going off-trail for a little exploration.
The KNPS is not the only functional body that manages Korea’s wildernesses, and in fact the KNPS does not have jurisdiction over the Baekdu Daegan. That power lies in the hands of the Korea Forest Service.
The KFS, originally called the Forest Bureau and under the control of the Ministry of Agriculture & Forestry, was established in 1967. The KFS’s initial major projects included their successful Forest Rehabilitation Programs which aimed to restore Korea’s forests, some 80% of which having been devastated in the Korean War, with further degradation coming from deforestation.
Eventually, and perhaps much to the chagrin of the KNPS, the KFS was given jurisdiction over the Baekdu Daegan. This jurisdiction runs in conjunction with the Act on the Protection of the Baekdu Daegan Mountain System, legislated in 2004 by the federal government. The Act has designated 263, 427 hectares of the Baekdu Daegan as protected land. This is not an immense figure, unfortunately, as it represents only 4% of South Korea’s total forest area and 2.6% of its total landmass. Furthermore, despite this designation, much of the Baekdu Daegan remains threatened by overuse, mining, ill-respecting mountaineers, and even government programs like the controversial Grand Canal which, if green lit, will blast tunnels through southern portions of the Great Ridge.
Much of the biodiversity of the Baekdu Daegan has declined as most of its top level predators, like wolves, leopards, and tigers are now extinct in South Korea. It is the aim of the Act and the KFS to restore the biodiversity by as much as possible. Unfortunately, wolves will likely never roam here again as their need for vast swaths of land can no longer be met due to the urban sprawl predominate in South Korea. Amur leopards, the rarest feline on Earth, number less than 40 in the entirety of Earth’s wildernesses. And tigers, the classic symbol of the integrity and spirit of the Korean nation, could no longer have the ecological means to survive here in sustainable numbers. Nonetheless, the vision of the KFS to harmonize nature, humanity, and culture via the protection of the Baekdu Daegan carries forth.
Currently, the KFS is carrying out its Ten Year Plan for the Protection of the Baekdu Daegan. The main points of this management plan, which will end in 2015, emphasize enhancing the ecological health and biodiversity of the Great Ridge. Furthermore, environmental restoration of degraded land is considered paramount in strengthening the connection between the ecology, culture, and history of the Baekdu Daegan. As mountain recreation becomes more and more popular in South Korea, and as more Koreans are beginning to recall their natural and cultural roots in the Ridge, the KFS says it will boost infrastructure and education to foster eco-friendly mountaineering practices. The KFS also aims to restore historically significant aspects of the Baekdu Daegan through eco-friendly conservation and restoration. As many people make a living in the regions surrounding the Baekdu Daegan and many of these residents are opposed to the protection plan, the government intends to initiate welfare projects that will stimulate income via green economics, therefore encouraging voluntary initiatives in the locals to protect the Baekdu Daegan. Hopefully these welfare projects will make a healthy ecosystem more valuable to the locals than one that is exploited. Whether this plan will be successful remains to be seen; however, with Korea’s access to modern technology and economy, going green, educating the public, and seeing the Ten Year Plan through to fruition is certainly an obtainable goal.
Although the outline of the KFS Ten Year Plan is vague in parts, the principles that it aims to utilize in the management of the Baekdu Daegan seem strongly characterized by three points: sustainability, continuity & integration, and regionalism. Through sustainable development the KFS aims to maintain the integrity of the Baekdu Daegan while advocating and ensuring the ecological health and natural functions of the montane forest environments. The ideas of continuity and integration, according to the KFS, aim to meet practical conservation measures via the use of diverse resources and the implementation of integrated plans. Just what these resources and plans are exactly has not been made entirely clear. Regionalism, as a management principle of the KFS, aims to ensure the livelihoods of those who live within the buffer zones of the Great Ridge, keeping in mind the characteristics of these human-inhabited areas and emphasizing ecological and conservational use of the Baekdu Daegan. Ultimately, the goal of the KFS’s protection plan is to conserve the Baekdu Daegan and the cultural spirit that flows out from within it; a three-tiered plan that the KFS says considers ecology, culture, and economy.
Part of the KFS’s protection plan involves the shutting down of various portions of the Great Ridge. Like the regions defined by the Temporary Closure Program, these areas are off limits to hikers, but are more directly related to your trek as they encompass large areas of the Baekdu Daegan itself. Like those in the Temporary Closure Program, these regions are closed for periods of time deemed suitable for the local ecosystems to restore themselves, often up to more than twenty years. Once a region comes to the end of its closure period, it will be reopened, and an adjacent region will then be closed. This method of closures often indicates that you will have to move off of the Baekdu Daegan in order to proceed with your trek. The main problem with this is the lack of clarity on where a closed region begins. The borders of a closed region are often not clearly defined, and where the KFS appears to strictly enforce a closure in one region, is lenient in another. The lack of consistency is more than a little frustrating, and the often undefined borders of closed regions may see you unintentionally entering forbidden territory and breaking the law. It is important then to take careful note of these closed sections of the Great Ridge as they are mentioned throughout the guide, and be certain to make use of the alternative routes.
Management of the Baekdu Daegan Mountain System is of great importance. The foundations of everything that the Baekdu Daegan encompasses – culture, recreation, life – are products of ecological processes fundamental to the well-being of each. The culture of Korea, like all cultures, was born out of its landscape, the landscape out of the environment, and the environment out of a vast web of natural relationships ebbing and flowing to create the necessities of life. The mountains are there not for our sake, but for the sake of the whole. As we use these mountains for our recreational desires, we must not only be responsible mountaineers, but caring custodians. As we tread upon them, mountains give us joy, but they’ll continue to provide us with the elements of survival long after we’ve packed up and headed home.
The management of mountains cannot be left only to the powers that be, but ultimately and more so to us, the mountaineers that take to those hills with passion in our blood and adventure in our bones. Be responsible and make the management of the mountains your duty as you trek along their sinuous lines and remarkable beauty.