반달가슴곰 서식환경 개선을 위한 지리산 국립공원 파편화 분석

Abstract

The Ministry of Environment of Korea has been releasing Asiatic black bears since 2004 at Jirisan National Park. It exceeded the target number of Asiatic black bears in 2018. As of July 2020, in addi- tion to 67 traceable bears, many Asiatic black bears are dispersed outside Jirisan National Park. Jirisan National Park is a very dense place with more than 3 million visitors every year. In this study, the roads and trails through Jirisan National Park were considered to be the main dispersion factors of Asiatic black bears, and the fragmentation analysis was conducted. As of July 2017, the length of roads and trails in Jirisan National Park was 363.4km. Based on this, Jirisan National Park was fragmented into 163 patches. There is only one place that maintains a single area of more than 50 ㎢ that is suit- able for large mammals to inhabit, and 141 places are less than 5 ㎢ . There are 6 patches of 24 to 200 ㎢ area suitable for living of large mammals including Asiatic black bears, in Jirisan National Park. Compared to the announcement made by the Korea National Park Service in 2014, activities of Asiatic black bears were rare in areas below 5 ㎢ area and the frequency of activities was high in more than 20 ㎢ area. This shows that human activities in protected areas such as national parks can directly affect the activities of wild animals, including Asiatic black bears. Therefore, efforts should be made to im- prove the habitat of Asiatic black bears by reducing the pressure of visiting for Jirisan National Park. In addition, as a result of analyzing the fragmentation of the park's natural conservation zone, 107.7km, 45% of the trail of Jirisan National Park, was opened, which is more fragmentation than oth- er use zones. The park nature conservation zone accounts for about 32% of the total area of Jirisan National Park, but the average patch area is only 2.93 ㎢ and seven large shelters are located. Therefore the Asiatic black bears are negatively affected. This is the result of inconsistent national park use zone setting and actual park management. In overseas countries, research is active on the negative effects of human activity on ecosystems in protected areas. However, there is a lack of research of that in Korea. Thus, that research is required for protection area management in the future.