자연자원총량제의 실효성 강화를 위한 제도적 대안 = Institutional Alternatives for Effective Total Natural Resource Conservation

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Ⅰ. Overview of the Research
1. Background and purpose of the research
□ Background of the research
ㅇ The newly launched Moon Jae-in administration in 2017 confirmed ‘setting the total amount of natural resources for conservation and making restoration or replacement obligatory to offset the losses’ as one of the 5-year policy tasks, which is the result of the continuously impacted natural environment by development.
ㅇ The draft amendment of the Natural Environment Conservation Act in 2019 which was intended to support the administration’s policy task failed to be approved.
ㅇ Biodiversity offsets experienced in other countries or regions suggest that diverse alternative institutional frameworks should be analyzed and prepared for policy decision making in consideration of legislation, planning, and implementation.
□ Purpose of the research
ㅇ The purpose of this research is to suggest alternative institutional frameworks for the effective total natural resources conservation in Korea by analyzing and characterizing relevant domestic and foreign regulations.
2. Research questions and methods
□ Research questions
ㅇ What are the mechanisms of biodiversity offset regulations in foreign countries or regions, and how are they related to their legislative and policy environment□
ㅇ What are the domestic institutions related to biodiversity offsets and how could the new institutions be effective under the current institutional setup□
ㅇ What are the alternative institutional frameworks for the effective total natural resources conservation, based on the answers to the two research questions, and how could they be characterized□
□ Research methods
ㅇ Chapter 2 provides implications for an institutional design and implementation from the analysis of the major issues in the foreign biodiversity offset policies.
ㅇ Chapter 3 and 4 provide implications for an institutional design and implementation from the analysis of the relevant domestic legal or institutional arrangements, such as the draft amendment which failed in 2019, environmental impact assessment, ecosystem conservation fund, integrated management of land and environmental planning, ecological networks, and total environmental use.
ㅇ Chapter 5 suggests alternative institutional frameworks for the effective total natural resources conservation and compares their features by synthesizing the implications from the results of Chapter 2-4.
ㅇ Chapter 6 suggests future tasks of legislation, planning, policy, and research required to realize the alternative institutional frameworks.
Ⅱ. Analysis of the Biodiversity Offsets
1. Overview of the institutional characteristics
□ Governance
ㅇ The US and Germany, experiencing the institutions over 30~40 years, have developed different state-level regulations under the federal-level Act.
ㅇ Germany and the UK have designed and implemented biodiversity offsets by incorporating them into local planning.
ㅇ Experienced countries legally enforce the implementation of biodiversity offset, which is a critical condition for the success of the policy.
□ Typology of the stakeholder relationships
ㅇ The main stakeholders are generally composed of project developers, service providers (compensation bank operators), and decision-makers (administrative authorities), although each country or region has diverse compositions of and relationships between stakeholders.
ㅇ Institutional characteristics can be classified by the extent to which market is involved; for example, markets are quite well balanced with the control of public administration in the US and Australia, while public administration is strong in Germany.
2. Implications of the overseas biodiversity offsets
□ Institutional design dealing with the most pressing issues
ㅇ The policy can be best promoted by designing useful institutions dealing with the most pressing issues in a country or a region.
ㅇ Considering the balanced national development, which is one of the most pressing issues in Korea, an institutional design promoting locally-determined goal setting for environmental conservation and its achievement is required.
□ Strengthening regulations
ㅇ Legal enforcement is critical to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the institutions under the conflict between development and conservation.
□ Mitigation hierarchy
ㅇ While anticipated ecosystem loss should be first avoided or minimized, offsets need to be used as a last resort for the unavoidable residual loss and the damage to an irreplaceable or vulnerable ecosystem should be prohibited.
ㅇ It is better not to allow in-lieu fee payment to offset losses; in cases where it is allowed, the amount paid should include all costs associated with site selection, planning, management, monitoring, and so on.
□ Location for the offsets
ㅇ Appropriate offset sites should be mapped out in a local or watershed planning process taking into consideration ecological connectivity and sociocultural relation.
□ Efficient and effective matrix
ㅇ The assessment matrix should be concise for the efficiency of implementation, while including necessary information to effectively achieve the goals.
ㅇ An effective assessment framework would consider both quantitative and qualitative aspects.
□ Monitoring system
ㅇ Relevant indices and monitoring plans should be developed by analyzing logical connections between implementation and impact performances.
ㅇ Experienced NGOs or local residents would play an important role as monitoring experts in the long term as well as inspectors.
Ⅲ. Analysis of the Domestic Relevant Institutions
1. Analysis of relevant institutions, policies, and plans
□ Draft amendment in 2019
ㅇ The draft amendment of the Natural Environment Conservation Act, which includes the regulation of environmental offsets for the impacts caused by development projects, was submitted to the National Assembly in 2019.
ㅇ The draft amendment focused on the development projects under the environmental impact assessment regulation, which results in the problems of institutional redundancy as well as limited coverage.
ㅇ The institutional effectiveness can be improved by approaching not development project units but upper-level land planning.
□ Ecosystem conservation fund
ㅇ The ecosystem conservation fund is not the best approach to achieving conservation goals as it is applied to individual development projects and in-lieu fees are highly underestimated to offset environmental losses.
ㅇ Although the total natural resources conservation is similar to the ecosystem conservation fund in its goal, it should be applied at the different governance level to prevent the redundancy in environmental management and maximize its usefulness.
2. Integration of land and environmental planning
□ Integration of plans
ㅇ The recent efforts to integrate land and environmental planning promoted discussion of specific collaboration between relevant sectors, which may be partially realized by the total natural resources conservation.
ㅇ As the upper-level land planning including urban planning is not subject to the environmental impact assessment regulation, setting the total amount of natural resources conservation at the planning stage is required where areas for potential development and conservation are mapped out.
□ Ecological network
ㅇ Since the conservation of the environment including ecological networks has been only conceptually dealt with in the land planning, the assessment and methodology of ecological networks need to be specified for practical application.
3. Environmental policies based on the total maximum amount concept
□ Air and water policies
ㅇ The cause and effect of pollutant emission and concentration are obvious and come out in a fairly short term for the air and water sectors, and they are also easily measurable to produce available data.
ㅇ The policies are being implemented by a total maximum load approach in each region, and both the regulations and incentives are used to achieve emission targets.
□ Ecosystem-related policies
ㅇ The ‘no net loss’ of wetlands or green, unlike the maximum load control of the air and water policies, manages conservation targets of the various components of the natural environment.
ㅇ Ecosystem-based ‘no net loss’ policies should evaluate functions and values of the components of the natural environment by considering the target entities, assessment frameworks, and implementation.
Ⅳ. Institutional Alternatives
1. Considerations for the alternatives
□ Legal and planning aspects
ㅇ The EIA-based draft amendment proposed in 2019 exposed problems, such as the absence of realistic goals, the spatial and temporal issues caused by the individual development project approach, and the relevant planning level.
ㅇ In consideration of the problems in the 2019 draft amendment, the institution needs to be implemented in a way that corresponds to the upper-tier plans which take into account the state of each region or watershed unit so that the total maximum load for conservation can be set and managed properly based on the linkage to the land use and environmental planning.
□ Implementation aspects
ㅇ Conservation goals should be set by deliberately assessing the environmental and socioeconomic conditions in each region.
ㅇ Development within the conservation goal areas should preferably be prohibited; in case of unavoidable development and the consequent environmental loss, an offset such as a substitutive restoration area needs to be prepared.
ㅇ The institution should be carefully designed to prevent it from being used as an excuse for development.
2. Institutional alternatives
□ Legal framework
ㅇ This research proposed institutional frameworks which are applied in the urban and provincial planning and also related to upper and lower-tier land and environmental plans (see Figure 1).
ㅇ The proposed frameworks can be elaborated by amending the National Land Planning and Utilization Act or the guideline for urban planning and it can also be applied through the environmental conservation plan in case the linkage between land use plans and environmental plans is strengthened.
□ The concept of the alternatives
ㅇ Alternative A: flexible goal setting by socioeconomic condition
- In consideration of the region’s natural environment and socioeconomic conditions, the total conservation goal and strategic offset sites are set at the planning stage. Any loss to the areas for conservation at the implementation stage would be offset by credit transactions with the restored strategic offset sites (see Figures 2 and 3).
- It is applied at both the planning and individual project levels.
ㅇ Alternative B: conservation at the planning step
- The total conservation goal is set based on the current conservation areas before the planning stage. In case of any additional allocation of development area at the planning stage, potential conservation areas equivalent to those for development is mapped out so that the total area for conservation is maintained at the planning stage (see Figures 4 and 5).
- It is applied only at the planning level.
3. Assessment and quantification approaches
□ Area-based approach
ㅇ The loss and gain at the planning and implementation steps are assessed by green areas.
ㅇ While it is a simple approach that may be easily applied in the early stage of the institution, restoration does not guarantee the substitution of the structure, function, and value of the impacted site; this approach is suitable for alternative A which employs biobanks for offset.
□ Function and service-based approach
ㅇ The gain will have the same functions or services as the loss.
ㅇ While the results of this approach is relatively uncertain since the same functions and services as those of the impacted site should be restored at a substitutive site, it is suitable for a case where locally important functions and services are damaged.
□ Carrying capacity-based approach
ㅇ Both direct and indirect impacts of development are considered in assessing the loss and gain.
ㅇ Although the carrying capacity assessment methodology needs to be standardized and awareness raising is needed for the future, the merits of this approach lie in that the concept of damage to the natural environment is not limited to the area of development-induced loss but to the resultant carrying capacity.
4. Allocation of conservation areas using ecological networks
□ Assessment and planning of ecological networks
ㅇ An approach of ecological networks needs to be elaborated since the information about maintaining and conserving the ecological connectivity among the main mountain ranges and streams has not been much accumulated.
ㅇ Potential conservation areas can be mapped out based on not only the current development conditions but also the future values.
5. Comparison of the alternatives
□ The characteristics of the two institutional alternatives proposed in this study are compared to those of the 2019 draft amendment in < Table 1 >.
Ⅴ. Conclusion and Future Tasks
1. Conclusion
□ Institutional design considering pressing issues
ㅇ For total natural resources conservation, problems of property right, ecological connectivity, conflicts with other plans or policies as well as the interests of stakeholders that arise in the site selection process for offsetting and conservation should be considered.
ㅇ Although the total natural resources conservation is a policy task, considerable research and pilot studies on the institutional frameworks should be conducted to avoid wasting budget and stakeholder conflict.
ㅇ The 2019 EIA-based draft amendment may conflict with other institutions or plans, lead to stakeholder resistance, and include uncertainty with regards to offsetting by individual development projects.
ㅇ As the balanced regional development is a national pressing issue in Korea, an effective conservation policy would take local environmental and socioeconomic conditions into account instead of enforcing unconditional conservation.
□ Institutional alternatives
ㅇ This study proposed institutional frameworks to be implemented at the urban and provincial planning level in connection with other official plans.
ㅇ While the alternative A is an approach setting flexible conservation goals by socioeconomic condition and applied at the planning and individual project levels, the alternative B achieves conservation goals at the planning step and is only applied at the planning level.
ㅇ The proposed alternative institutional frameworks require collaboration among local authorities, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, and the Ministry of Environment.
2. Future tasks
□ Short-term tasks
ㅇ The institutional frameworks proposed in this study would be improved and elaborated by pilot studies of selected regions to ultimately develop a flexible institutional framework which can be applied in diverse environmental and socioeconomic conditions.
ㅇ A pilot study guideline which specifies the proposed frameworks, such as the institutional mechanism, loss and gain assessment, and location, should be developed.
ㅇ Stakeholder dialogues which include ministries, project developers, conservation groups, local residents, and local authorities as participants should be promoted to discuss institutional design and implementation.
□ Future tasks for the institutional setup
ㅇ Future tasks are suggested by incorporating the results of this study and the long-term research roadmap proposed by Lee et al. (2020) (see Table 2).