Abstract
This study reviews the current conditions of the completed 'Ecosystem Conservation Fund Return Project' sites to suggest management methods for their conservation and sustainability. For the scope of the study, five microsites of completed return projects in Seoul were selected and their project planning documents were reviewed to help with site surveying and analysis. To increase the accuracy of the site surveying and analysis, and to evaluate the management problems from different perspectives, the site managers were interviewed in-depth. The experts were surveyed as well to develop a realistic and practical improvement method. The survey results helped to categorize the post-management problems, and separate improvement methods were suggested for each category. First, the post-management guidelines are proposed for the ecosystem-based environment/ecosystem environment, user management, and monitoring. These guidelines will increase the expertise and practicality of the management principles. Second, the regulations for the participation of expert management enterprises and the development of separate monitoring or maintenance management team are suggested. These regulations will improve the participation of experts and consistency of management systems. Third, the post monitoring or maintenance management during the year after the project completion should be set as a separate project to secure budget. Furthermore, policies and/or institutions should be established to set a portion of ecosystem conservation return fund or a grant for post monitoring and maintenance management. Forth, as a way of adaptive management, at least more than three years of post-management should be evaluated under detailed categories and vigorous standard to improve the institutional operation for 'Ecosystem Conservation Fund Return Projects'.
