Moaning mountain

[한겨레]

Baekdudaegan range is facing an environmental crisis and has lost a large portion of its natural forests because of limestone mining that has continued since 1978, according to a recent report by a local environmental organization.

The environmental organization Green Korea (www.greenkorea.org) released on Monday its "2011 Issue Report on Baekdudaegan," which includes the results of on-site inspections it conducted from June 2010 through early April of this year.

"Even though the project to recover the ecology of the mountains started after an environmental effects assessment in 2003, it has proceeded with rough and ready methords that have contributed to the slopes collapsing in a heavy rain," the report said.

In the report, the organization urges the government to do more to prevent further damage to the mountains, but emphasizes that it must be "the right kind of restoration work" on the mountains, which "has been gouged out because of reckless development."

Baekdudaegan is a mountain range and watershed-crest-line that runs most of the length of the Korean Peninsula, from Mount Baekdu in the north to Mount Jiri in the south.

(Courtesy of Green Korea)

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