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Journal Archives > BGjournal > The Present Status and Major Issues of South Korean Botanic Gardens
The Present Status and Major Issues of South Korean Botanic GardensVolume 3 Number 2 - July 2006
Song Ki-Hun
The history of Korean botanic gardens began in 1922 when the Hongneung Arboretum, Seoul was developed in the Forestry Experiment Station in Cheongnyangni. However, botanic gardens have declined through a period of colonization, war and subsequent poverty that took place afterwards. It was only in the 1960s when botanic gardens opened one after another, such as Kwanak Arboretum, Gyeonggi Province; Chollipo Arboretum and Gowun Botanic Garden, Chungchungnam Province and Keechungsan Botanic Garden, Gyeongsanbuk Province. As the culture of enjoying botanic gardens gradually spread among the public and the national economy improved, many new botanic gardens and arboreta were constructed during the last few years. There are now 38 botanic gardens established or under construction, and several dozen are planned. On the other hand, some people were concerned that the numbers of botanic gardens were growing in quantity but without the support of a basic infrastructure. Recognizing this problem, the Korea Forest Service commissioned an expert group to make a survey of Korean botanic gardens, which is described below (Korea Forest Service, 2005). The group surveyed eighteen gardens and looked at staff skills, the number of taxa, plant collections policies, collections management, the source of collections, research, visitor numbers and education. First, it was discovered that the number of skilled botanic staff was very low compared to major botanic gardens in foreign countries. A shocking result was that ten public arboreta did not access to even one expert. Privately-owned arboreta had one to eight experts. Second, a survey of the number of taxa for 18 botanic gardens revealed that three had less than 1,000 taxa, eleven had between 1,000 and 2,000, and four over 3,000. Chollipo Arboretum had the highest number with 10,318 taxa. Third, a survey of collection policies for each botanic garden found that six public arboreta and two privately owned arboreta focus on local native species in line with the ecology of the area; one public and one private arboretum had collections of taxonomic groups such as the Magnoliaceae and Aquifoliaceae; one public and two private arboreta collected species for special purposes such as landscape trees and native plants; and six public and two private arboreta collected mainly for the purpose of the acquisition of genetic resources. Fourth, a survey of the management of collections in the gardens found that 12 of the 18 arboreta surveyed managed them properly while six of them were unsatisfactory. Five of them maintained regular records, six of them inadequately, and seven of them did not keep any records. The management of plant records is in its early stages in Korea and the assignment of accession numbers and the labels that are required for the collection, display, and propagation was only well-managed in one institution, eleven are in the planning stage and six did not have any plans. Label management also requires expertise, expense and effort; seven of them produced and maintained their own labels, ten managed only partially with purchased labels and one did not use them at all. Fifth, a survey of the source of plant material revealed that only five of them have registered for Index Seminum. For domestic exchange of plant species, eleven of them had exchanged with three or more Korean arboreta or botanic gardens while seven depended on purchasing material. Three of them obtained exotic species through exchanges with five or more foreign arboreta or botanic gardens while three collected only limited species through a few foreign arboreta or botanic gardens. Twelve of them purchased exotic plants from other arboreta or seed merchants. Sixth, research was found to be very poor except for some arboreta. Regardless of public or private arboreta, almost no research projects were carried out by the arboreta themselves or by others using the collections. Seventh, a survey of visitor numbers to botanic gardens showed that one has less than 10,000 visitors per year on average, four between 10,000 and 100,000, nine between 100,000 and 500,000, and two over 500,000. This shows a great discrepancy with the number of visitors to botanic gardens in developed countries. Eighth, education in arboreta was surveyed such as guidebooks, exhibitions and events. Eleven organizations provided guided tours but six did not and three of them trained guides and used them regularly, but thirteen did not. On the other hand, nine of them organized regular exhibitions and events each year while six did not. Only three of them had guidebooks, tours, guide training programmes, exhibitions. Three of them had no education activities. To address these problems, the expert group presented various suggestions to the Korea Forest Service for the future development of Korean botanic gardens, which are summarized below. First, arboreta and botanic gardens are required to clearly state their plan to acquire a minimum number of experts when registering their establishment with the government. There is a government Act that promotes the work of arboreta and there are grants available for arboreta (Republic of Korea, 2001). Second, for the management and exchange of plant genetic resources, efforts must be made to acquire plant species through reliable tree nurseries or botanic gardens. Even after the establishment of botanic gardens, they should actively seek to exchange plant genetic resources through regular exchanges with domestic and international botanic gardens by registering for Index Seminum. Moreover, for systematic information management of the acquired species, the history and origin of the material, place of seed collection, display, propagation and propagation methods must be built into a database to enable continuous tracking. Third, to stimulate research projects, the Korea Forest Research Institute and forest environmental research centres of each province must collaborate to promote joint research projects between the Korea National Arboretum and regional or privately owned arboreta. Fourth, to improve the public’s understanding of botanic gardens and promote the importance of plants, well-organized education programmes to train guides on botanic gardens are needed. This report briefly commented on the present status of Korean botanic gardens and their future tasks. The most important thing to remember, however, is that the development of domestic and international botanic gardens through mutual cooperation is significant for all human beings on earth. ReferencesKorea Forest Service, 2005 About the AuthorSong Ki-Hun is Secretary General if the Korean Association of Botanical Gardens and Arboreta. |
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