[The Hwankyung Ilbo] The Ministry of Environment has established the 2nd Alien Species Management Plan.

The number of Alien Species, which was 894 in 2009, is increasing by more than 20% per year from 1,109 in 2011 to 2,160 in 2018.

This Management Plan is a five-year (2019 ~ 2023) national strategy to protect Korea's unique ecosystem and biological resources against the threat of these alien species, based on the Act on the Conservation and Use of Biological Diversity.

The Management Plan includes several measures to improve the alien species management policy.

The Ministry of Environment plans to establish cooperative systems with related ministries, including the Korea Customs Service, in order to share information on the import details of alien species and strengthen crackdowns on illegal imports during customs clearance.

Alien species already introduced in Korea are subject to different monitoring cycles by setting the priority of monitoring according to the urgency of management, and a mid- and long-term (two to three years) monitoring for a single species, if necessary, considering the ecological characteristics of the species under investigation.

In order to minimize the spread of ecological disturbance species, release exceptions are allowed only for the purposes of academic research.

In addition, the scope of policy exchanges with neighboring countries (such as China and Japan) is expanded to effectively respond to invasive alien species.

조수빈 리포터  press@hkbs.co.kr

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