1. KNPS Korea National Parks Service South Korea
Korean MEE experience – introduction of management effectiveness evaluation to protected areas in Korea
Panel member – Heuk-Jin Chung
Adviser, Management Effectiveness Evaluation Team
October 2008

2. Korea National Parks Service – Overview
We are a national government affiliated agency
Organizational Structure
- Headquarter and 26 national park offices
- a national park research institute
- an aviation corps
Staffing Structure
- Number of permanent employees: 911
- Number of contract employees: 638
Budget
- Internal revenue plus Government subsidy
- Total budget: $130 million

3. Current status 20 National Parks Mountainous park: 16 Marine park: 2
Seashore park: Historical park: 1
Size (unit:㎢)
Total
Land
Sea
6,580
(100%)
3,899
(59%)
2,681
(41%)
Land ownership (unit:㎢)
Total
State-owned
Public-owned
Private-owned
3,899
1,935(49.6%)
439(11.3%)
1,593(39.1%)
Park Visitation (unit : thousand)
Year
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
Visitors
23,042
25,000
25,841
26,878
24,948

4. Motivation for introduction of MEE to Korea
In 2004 COP7 of CBD adopted PoW PA. The news energized KNPS management to take an initiative in response to the international call. The initiatives taken by KNPS are as follows:
Organize an large scale meeting of experts from various agencies of government ,academia, civic groups interested in the management of protected areas in Korea.
Establish a small unit within KNPS whose mission is to follow up on PoW PA in Korea
The Experts meeting adopted 7 items recommendation for follow-up on PoW PA including:
Create a Korea protected area forum consisting of agencies, academia and civic group representatives in which members meet periodically for discussion over PA management issues for coordination of conflict of interests among themselves.
Hold an international workshop for better management of protected areas in Korea with many experts participation around world including IUCN and UNEP for national attention to the PoW PA .
Introduce IUCN PA category system to Korea
introduce management effectiveness evaluation system to protected areas in Korea
Launch as soon as possible a Korean MEE project

5. KNPS response to the 7 items recommendation
Established Korea Protected Area Forum in October 2005 and managed to hold the forum meeting on a quarterly basis
Held the international conference in Cheju island in Korea in October 2006 with participation of 200 experts including more than 30 experts from abroad
Organized and held an workshop and steering committee meeting in Seoul in July 2007 to initiate an MEE project in Korea with external experts participation from IUCN and Australia .
Concluded a MOU in December 2007 between ministry of environment, KNPS and IUCN to jointly execute the Korean MEE project.

6. honoring international convention & raising national prestige
GOAL OF THE PROJECT
Implement CBD POW PA
(adopted at the 7th conference of parties to CBD )
honoring international convention &
raising national prestige
Build adaptive management system in korean protected areas
Improve management thru capacity building
better management & manager capacity building
Reporting to the public & government on management effectiveness of PA
Providing information on the current state of PA management
Information provision on management & publicity

7. Scope of the project 20 national parks
10 ecological conservation and scenic area
12 wetland conservation area
1 wildlife protecting area
spatial scope
Dec.2007 ~ May 2009 (18 months)
- Dec ~ Feb : warming up period
~ : evaluation model development and execution of model
- year 2009 : writing reports and publication
Time horizon
US$320,000
budget

8. CONTENTS OF THE PROJECT
develop an evaluation framework at site level
comparison among sites in Korea & international comparison
Developing an evaluation model for Korea PA
Study case studies in advanced countries on MEE of protected areas
Training protected area managers
Manager capacity building
Hold workshop for MEE exercise (managers, stakeholders, etc participated)
Joint field survey by internal and external experts
Implementation of MEE
Participate in WCC and present MEE performance
Writing indivisual MEE reports site by site and an final integrated report (comparison analysis and recommendation included)
Sharing MEE results & publicity

9. ORGANIZATIONAL CHART

10. PRINCIPAL OUTCOMES & DEADLINE 1
output
deadline
Develop a
MEE
model
2.1. statistical data collection on PAs
May. 2009
2.2. a draft Korea MEE model at site level
April. 2008
2.3. review reports on [2.2]
May,2008
2.4. a complete Korea MEE model
June.2008
2.5. analytical framework of MEE results
March.2009
2.6. a MEE model at system level
November.2008
Education
& training
3.1. collection of MEE case studies
April.2008
3.2. a report on capacity building workshop
May.2008
Implement
MEE
4.1. a report on MEE workshop results
August.2008
4.2. a draft report on results of MEE exercise
Sept.2008
4.3. a review report on [4.2] by experts
Oct.2008

11. PRINCIPAL OUTCOMES & DEADLINE 2
output
deadline
Field survey
5.1. a field survey report
Feb. 2009
Sharing MEE
results &
publicity
6.1. participation in WCC & presentation
Oct. 2008
6.2. media publicity on MEE performance
May.2009
reports
7.1. MEE reports by sites
Feb. 2009
7.2. a review report on [7.1] by review team
Mar. 2009
7.3. a final integrated MEE report
May. 2009
7.4. a report on strengthening management capacity for PA
May. 2009

12. Lessons we’ve learnt
Agencies need:
To determine which sites, and their natural and cultural heritage assets, are at an acceptable standard and which are not; However it remains to be seen because it may be difficult to set up acceptable standard suitable to each site and thus it leads us to the choice of adaptive management approach.
To assess how well each site conserve its natural and cultural heritage; it also leads us to management effectiveness comparison between sites and in this regard Korea MEE exercise is expecting global study of site comparison from IUCN.
To account for the time and other resources staffs spend on their core role of conservation, and relate these costs to their accomplishments. It is key point of Korea MEE exercise and we expect it will be achieved by policy recommendations for adaptive management of each site which the Korea MEE exercise report will generate
To evaluate protected areas not only at the site level but also at the system level
To build staff capacity to carry out MEE on their own through diverse workshop and training
To strong leadership at a range of levels throughout the organisation
To engage closely and often with the field staff in developing and running the program
To feed data back to leaders, managers, field staff and specialists as soon as possible to demonstrate how it helps management