Conserving terrestrial linkages that connect natural landscapes of the Korean Peninsula

Abstract

Human-induced land degradation fragments natural ecosystems, hinders ecological processes, and threatens biodiversity. Maintaining or restoring ecological flows across landscapes through landscape linkages may provide a solution. Here, we identify a peninsula-wide ecological connectivity network for the Korean Peninsula using two linkage mapping models. We found three major north-south axes of connectivity traversing the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), which emerged as an important east-west linkage. Only 7% of the highest-ranked connections are currently secured by protected areas. We found 120 linkages in North and South Korea that are intersected by road networks consisting of motorways and trunk roads under both models. These locations should be the focus of immediate attention for conservation planners, as well as 274 and 1130 additional road-impacted linkages under one model or the other. The results can be used for policy support, and potentially as a basis for the two countries to engage in discussions about ecosystem health and climate change adaptation. The approach presented here can also be efficiently used to assess and map natural landscape linkages.